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How to avoid having your car insurance claim rejected

Laine Gordon avatar
Laine Gordon
- 3 min read
How to avoid having your car insurance claim rejected

When accidents occur it can be a stressful time, making it easy to forget pieces of information that could be the difference between your car insurance claim being rejected or approved.

If you have been involved in an accident there are some easy steps that you can follow to make sure you get all of the right information so that your claim is processed smoothly and reduces the chance of it being denied.

Cover all your bases

As soon as you’re involved in a car smash and after you have checked that everyone involved is not seriously injured you can start with the following checklist.

  • Call the police. You will need an incident report number to reference the accident for your insurance company. They can also help direct traffic and assist with the details and procedure requirements. Also ask the police for their name and contact details so you can contact them if you require additional information.
  • Speak to the drivers of all cars involved and swap licence, registration and contact details. Also write down the make and model of all cars and any other details, such as the time of the accident and where it occurred.
  • Determine whether the person that caused the accident has car insurance and swap the details of your insurance providers.
  • Speak to any witnesses and ask them for their contact information in case they need to give evidence later down the track. Or if required, ask them to stay until the police arrive so that they can give a statement.
  • Draw a diagram of the incident, showing the direction vehicles involved were travelling, where impact occurred and the position of street lights, signs, witnesses or anything else that is relevant.
  • Take photos of the scene, cars and any injuries.

How to make the claim
Once you have the police report and all the details of the accident, contact your car insurance provider if you need to make a claim and notify them of everything. Include details of the other drivers and cars or property involved, time and location.

If the other party was at fault they will need to make the initial claim, then you can contact their insurance company if needed to notify them of your details and your version of the event.

The insurer will then process the claim and notify you of the outcome. Depending on the situation, your insurance company may ask you to send over the photos, diagrams and other information, but at least you have all your bases covered and are ready if they do.

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Disclaimer

This article is over two years old, last updated on November 26, 2010. While RateCity makes best efforts to update every important article regularly, the information in this piece may not be as relevant as it once was. Alternatively, please consider checking recent car insurance articles.

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