You may wonder whether or not you should put in a claim to your insurance company if the amount of damage to the vehicles is minimal. After all, you don’t want your auto insurance to go up the next time you purchase car insurance. You’ve probably heard that most insurance companies will start charging you more if you actually have to make a claim.

That’s absolutely true. After all, insurance companies don’t make their money by paying out claims. They make their money by collecting premiums from people who don’t make claims. Therefore, your premium payments will generally stay lower if you don’t make claims against your insurance.

Generally speaking, there are a couple of instances when it’s a good idea not to make an insurance claim or otherwise involve your insurance company:

• There is no significant damage to your car and no other parties involved in the accident plan on reporting the accident. In this case, your insurance company might not even find out about the accident, which will end up saving you money. Of course, if the police were involved and filed a report, your insurance company will find out about the accident, as it will be a matter of record.
• When the damages caused are less (or only slightly more) than your deductible. If the damages cost less than the deductible, there’s no point in bringing the insurance company into it. They won’t pay any of it anyway. Even if the damages are slightly higher than the deductible, it often makes sense to go ahead and pay for it yourself, rather than allow your premiums to go up.

Of course, if your car has sustained major damage, or if there was any damage or injury to another party, you’re going to need to make an insurance claim. That’s why you get car insurance quotes and buy car insurance in the first place. But when damages are minimal, you’re much better off handling the expense yourself if you can.

Of course, the amount your insurance will go up because of an accident varies widely, depending on which insurance company you use. Some of the factors which insurance companies consider when deciding what to do with your insurance rates after an accident include your age, your gender, previous driving record, previous accidents, whether or not you were at fault in the accident, and the extent of damage the insurance company needed to pay for.