Insurance company would likely tell you anything you want to hear when they are poaching for your signature on one of their policies. Once this is done, they try to minimize the loss they incur through claims. This means they are not eager to honor claims. When you are making a claim on your auto insurance policy, you need to beware of these trick questions targeted at reducing your claim or if possible totally voiding it.
You do not have to give your insurance company every information they ask for when you are making a claim. Note that they are looking for loop holes which they can capitalize on to reduce your claim. Too much information on your part would never be to your benefit so know only give necessary information. Here are a few questions that could be very harmful to your claim:
1, Can we have the names and addresses of people who witnessed the accident?
This on its on looks very harmless and many people would quickly and if I may add happily give out this information. What most insurance company investigators want is not to prove your claim but to disprove it. Given them the names and addresses of your witnesses gives them an opportunity to get to your witnesses and plant doubts in their mind. How do they do this? They ask questions and pretending to want to make sure of some points they make the witness begin to question even what they saw. It takes a very experienced person to not be taken in by these technique and since you can not be sure of how much manipulation your witness can handle, it might just be best for you to stall as much as you can on the witness issue because if they can get your witnesses to be unsure, you are looking at either a lost claim or a greatly reduced one. Just promise to look into it and get back to them as soon as you can.
2, How could you have avoided this accident?
Aha! Do not try to look good by picturing what you could have done differently. Any acceptance of a fault by you would result – depending on the extent of fault – in a reduced settlement or even a annulled claim. You should note that by asking this question, your insurer seems to be already assuming that you did something wrong. Do not be caught napping. Tell them there was nothing you could have done. Simple! Do not try to explain any more than you need. You were crashed into and there was nothing you could have done to prevent it apart from not having gone out. Any little admittance of fault results in a cut in your settlement.
3, Do you have any injuries from a previous incident?
You should be able to imagine where this is leading. Even if you do have any previous injuries, telling them so would make them call the fresh ones old injuries or a result of the old injuries. Anything to reduce their responsibility to you. Do not discuss any previous injuries with your insurance company at the point of claim. If in fact you do have previous injuries, do not tell them about it. Just tell them you would meet with your doctor and get back to them on it. A statement from your doctor would be more acceptable than something you said that can be twisted to suit the insurance company.
Looking at the questions above, you can now be on the watch out for other trick questions which do not serve you at all but can be used against you.
If you are not yet making a claim or you are in the process of getting an auto insurance cover, this is the time to find an insurer that would not try to rip you off. Get free online car insurance quote from quotes comparison sites. A free online car insurance quote can help you more than you know as you look for adequate and affordable auto insurance policy from a trusted insurance company.
