You probably know that your auto insurance premium – the amount you pay each month or year for the coverage – will go up if you cause a car accident. Will your insurance go up if someone hits your car, though? As upsetting as it is, it might. Your insurance premiums can increase if someone else hits you and you are found to be not-at-fault.
What Can Increase Your Car Insurance Premiums?
An auto insurance company will offer you a premium rate based on how safe of a driver they think you are. The worse of a driver you appear to be, the greater of a hazard you are on the road, the more likely you are to get in a crash, and the more an insurance company will charge you for their coverage. This premise is what can increase your premiums for reporting a not-at-fault claim. If your insurance provider believes that the accident could have been prevented had you been more careful, then it might increase your premiums, even if it acknowledges that you were not the one who caused it.
For example, a driver cuts you off and suddenly slams on the brakes. You try to stop but rear-end their vehicle. Both insurance companies agree the other driver is entirely liable for the accident due to their reckless driving. However, your own insurance provider still raises your premiums because it believes you might have been able to avoid the crash entirely had you driven a little more defensively.
Your premiums can also increase if you have a long or busy history of making car accident claims. For example, someone who has filed five or six claims in the last few years would likely see a premium increase for their next not-at-fault claim just because keeping them on the policy has become expensive and problematic. It can create an unfair situation for a driver who keeps finding themselves at the wrong end of another person’s reckless driving, though.
Hit-and-Run Accidents Also Increase Your Insurance
Getting into a car accident with a hit-and-run driver is especially frustrating because your insurance premiums are almost guaranteed to increase even though the other driver caused the crash. You can file a not-at-fault claim with your insurance provider and use your uninsured motorist (UM) insurance policy to seek coverage. But your insurer will probably respond by hiking your premiums, at least for the next year.
Insurance companies don’t like spending money, not even on their own customers. If your claim costs them money in coverage payouts, even if you aren’t at fault, then you can bet that they will find a way to try to make some of that money back, i.e., increase your premiums.
For legal help with a car accident claim in Kentucky when you were not at fault for what happened, contact Kentucky Injury Law Center in Bowling Green. Our attorneys have a deliberate focus on car accident claims handled for injured claimants and plaintiffs. We can work to prove that the other driver was 100% liable for the crash, which could convince your insurer not to raise your premiums. Call (270) 423-0023 to learn more.