Car accident-claim advice needed

[MisaGoat]

We were hit by another car yesterday. We had police report filled out and notified our insurance. The insurance company said we have two options:

1) File through our insurance and pay our deductible ($500). Then our insurance would try to be reimbursed from his insurance company and we might get our deductible back.

2) File directly through the other driver's insurance.

What would you advise? I don't want to be responsible for the deductible when the other car hit us but I worry that filing through his insurance will be more of a headache.  I've never filed an insurance claim before. We were hit once before but the other driver didn't want to go through his insurance so he just paid us cash after we got an estimate.

[pbjmama]

I would go through his insurance for sure. If they start giving you a hard time then you go to your insurance company. I've never had a problem when the other person is at fault. Does the police report state he is at fault?

[penguintattoo]

Do you know what type of insurance they have? I would definitely go through theirs!

[Kinza]

Definitely go through their insurance!  At least, if you live in a state like mine.  I live in a "No fault" state, so if someone hit me in a smallish accident, and I filed through my insurance company, I would have a claim on my record and my insurance premiums would go up, either immediately, or after one more accident.  My dad recently went through this, and he didn't have any trouble filing a claim through the other driver's insurance company.  He had a hypothetical conversation with his agent at his insurance company, who told him not to file on his own insurance.  Going through the other insurance company kept my dad's record accident-free.  If you don't live in a no-fault area, I don't know what advice to give.

[akcowgirl]

 I would go through his insurance for sure. If they start giving you a hard time then you go to your insurance company. I've never had a problem when the other person is at fault.

 Yeah That!!

That is the advise that a friend of mine who is an insurance agent gave me when my hubby was hit. We had no problems getting what we needed from them.

[MisaGoat]

If I go through the other driver's insurance it won't affect my rates?

I don't know what insurance he has. I can pick up the incident report next week and that will have all the information to file a claim.

I am in NJ so a 'no fault' state.

[Kinza]

Originally Posted by MisaGoat 

If I go through the other driver's insurance it won't affect my rates?

I don't know what insurance he has. I can pick up the incident report next week and that will have all the information to file a claim.

I am in NJ so a 'no fault' state.

If I go through the "at fault" driver's insurance in my "no fault" state, it has nothing to do with my insurance, so my rates would not be affected.  I will say that I have heard NJ insurance has some peculiarities, so I can't say for sure about where you are.  However, I would be inclined to think that in this situation, the best option would be to go through the other party's insurance company.  It seems like you would be at less risk for your insurance sky-rocketing afterward.  If it becomes necessary, you can always go through your insurance later, but waiting until you are sure that's what you need to do sounds reasonable.  You can't "unclaim" a claim, after all!

[MJ13]

File through his insurance.

I was given the same choice and "encouraged" to file through mine so it would be quicker and they would get reimbursed. The other insurance company then started fighting it (and because the claim wasn't that big I guess my insurance just covered it and didn't really put up a fight?)  So then the accident showed up as my fault and I had to jump through all kinds of hoops and file tons of reports/paper work to prove that it wasn't my fault because they tried to raise our rates. It was a nightmare. So given the choice... File through the other insurance