Pay off an accident instead of "free crash"? (ICBC)
Hi all! What is the best, least risky financial decision. I have a hard time understanding how this works with ICBC nowadays so I have no idea what is the right approach:
About 16 months ago, my wife got into a small fender bender in a parking lot. It was her mistake, a bit of a whoops but the only accident she's had in 20 years. There was minor damage to the other car, and none to ours.
At the time, the other driver wasn't sure if they even wanted to deal with the repairs because the damage wasn't crazy. They filed a claim and waited to decide if they wanted to deal with it.
A few weeks ago we received a notice from ICBC that they did indeed end up getting the car repaired. All the notice said was that we will find out how it affected our premium in the next insurance renewal. Which seemed very strange to us -- like we didn't even have a choice to deal with it on our own.
Anyways, my wife called ICBC and apparently it's about $1400 in repair costs. But, she also has accident forgiveness available due to 10+ years of safe driving.
We're wondering if it's worth paying the accident off and saving the accident forgiveness for future potential accidents. Is there a financial model where that makes sense? If using the accident forgiveness now, would a future accident cause premiums to increase to the point that would significantly surpass the $1400 we would pay now?
In short -- is it worth $1400 to hold onto that accident forgiveness for future, potential issues?
TIA!
About 16 months ago, my wife got into a small fender bender in a parking lot. It was her mistake, a bit of a whoops but the only accident she's had in 20 years. There was minor damage to the other car, and none to ours.
At the time, the other driver wasn't sure if they even wanted to deal with the repairs because the damage wasn't crazy. They filed a claim and waited to decide if they wanted to deal with it.
A few weeks ago we received a notice from ICBC that they did indeed end up getting the car repaired. All the notice said was that we will find out how it affected our premium in the next insurance renewal. Which seemed very strange to us -- like we didn't even have a choice to deal with it on our own.
Anyways, my wife called ICBC and apparently it's about $1400 in repair costs. But, she also has accident forgiveness available due to 10+ years of safe driving.
We're wondering if it's worth paying the accident off and saving the accident forgiveness for future potential accidents. Is there a financial model where that makes sense? If using the accident forgiveness now, would a future accident cause premiums to increase to the point that would significantly surpass the $1400 we would pay now?
In short -- is it worth $1400 to hold onto that accident forgiveness for future, potential issues?
TIA!
