re: Auto insurance claims when other person is at fault

Man that worked out well in what could have been bad. If the driver wasn't licensed under the policy, Geico could have rejected responsibility. Then you would have the individual having to pay directly or you using your uninsured motorist coverage.

For a bit of knowledge that I didn't have 6 months ago. I was rear ended. About 1k of damage. I was completely stopped and the other driver 100% without a doubt at fault. Police report indicated as much. I had his insurance info and called his insurance to make a claim. They would not accept liability until their insured spoke with them and accepted liability. The police report didn't mean squat to them since the police "weren't there and didn't actually witness". They were a small insurance company and I was told by my insurance this was very uncommon, but it wasn't actually wrong. They could play this game if they wanted. So his insurance company dragged this on for two months saying they couldn't get in touch for him to accept liability and if they didn't hear from him by xx date, they'd reject the claim. They said since he wasn't responding, he wasn't holding up his side of their contract and they could reject coverage. Quick voice-mail in the guys inbox (which I had left several just trying to get him to call me back) stating that the next contact would be from my attorney because I was filing a lawsuit and voila, he suddenly accepts liability 20 minutes later. I was busy at work at the time and let that go on too long, but it showed me just how shitty insurance can be if they want to be.

I contemplated using my insurance, but I would have lost out on my no claims discount. I would have made a claim on my uninsured motorist coverage and had that reimbursed when the other insurance settled. So it would have cost me over the next several years.