How to handle - dinged another car’s door in parking lot

[snoopy5386]

We are traveling home after a visit to see family for the holidays and we stopped at a rest stop. My 8 yo DD accidentally opened her car door into the car next to ours causing a little ding. Not a dent, but some paint marks which should easily come off (based on my own experiences with someone dinging me) and caused a small scratch in their clear coat, maybe fingernail sized. It did not scratch down to the bare metal. The car was occupied at the time and so we exchanged names and phone numbers and my husband gave them our insurance info but neglected to get theirs. It was of course, a white newish looking Infiniti with no other visible marks and not some old beater car.

We live in different states several hours away from one another.

What happens now?

Of course hoping they decide not to pursue it and we never hear from them again but if they do contact us what should we do?

The decision to go through insurance or pay for it on our own will depend on the cost to fix it I suppose. Thinking over 1K and we’ll run it through insurance and risk our rates going up. Does that sound reasonable? Is it reasonable to ask them to get quotes from 3 different body shops? Anything else we should be concerned about or not thinking of?

 

[lovesmurfs]

Driving back to college for Thanksgiving, DD rear-ended someone on the interstate. She couldn't find the insurance info, and gave the guy her phone number (he was another parent driving his son back to a different school) -- she was crying pretty heavily and they felt badly for her.

The guy took a couple of weeks to contact her -- she gave him DH's cell. We asked him to get an estimate and told him we'd pay outside of insurance (he offered). Came to $546.00 -- with our deductible being $500, we went ahead and sent him the money through Chase Zelle, AFTER receiving an email from him that the payment would totally cover our responsibility (i.e. no medical or other problems).

I think we were pretty fortunate with the way he dealt with it. Normally we would've just gone through insurance.

 

[DisneyHardin]

I wouldn't do anything other than wait and see if they contact you.

One night while DH and I were eating in a restaurant, the hostess came around asking who drove the navy blue Ford in the parking lot - it was us. Someone had dinged our door with theirs and were very worried about it (hence why they asked the hostess to find whose car it was). DH went out and looked at it - it was a tiny little spot, so he just assured the lady it was fine and that it definitely wasn't the first little ding the car had. She was so appreciative and we were so appreciative that she made sure she found the owner of the car to tell what had happened.

 

[maxiesmom]

I have to say, I don't think it is reasonable to expect them to go get 3 different quotes. That is a lot of time and effort spent on something that wasn't their fault.

 

[Southernmiss]

I backed into my neighbors college age daughter's older jeep in November. Left them a note and my number and talked to my neighbor about it-offering to pay. There was a smudge and I knocked a letter off.

Have heard nothing. Would still pay for it if they called. We've been neighbors for 15 years and have both been good neighbors to each other.

 

[Klayfish]

Don't overthink it. If they call your insurance, that's what you have it for. If they offer to let you pay out of pocket, you can make that decision. If they never bother, great.

 

[mjkacmom]

It’s up to them if they let you write a check or go through insurance. I’ve been through this a lot recently with dd22 (fortnately both parties allowed her to pay OOP, one actually get a second quote because she felt it was high). Dd’s car was also scratched when she wasn’t there, it was a driving instructor, so went through their insurance, $1100 (she had just finished paying it off and her car didn’t have a scratch on it beforehand).

 

[_19disnA]

I would wait for the other person to contact you for follow-up. If you avoid getting the insurance company involved will probably be the best in the long run since rates tend to go up once you report issues. I have also had work done at small body shops in the past who do NOT put the VIN# into some national database which can save you THOUSANDS of dollars in increased insurance costs. Insurance companies check those databases to see the car's history and if it was some minor parking lot scratches, that is the best way to go. 3 quotes to repair scratches seems unnecessary. Even minor paint repairs will likely exceed the cost of your deductible.

 

[MrsCobraBubbles]

I think asking for 3 different quotes is excessive, considering that they were not the ones at fault. If I were to try to get quotes from 3 different shops I'd have to take at least one day off of work to do so, there's no way I'm giving up one of my precious personal days to do that. Hope it works out for you, but don't be surprised if they come back with just one quote.

 

[Christine]

I think asking for 3 different quotes is excessive, considering that they were not the ones at fault. If I were to try to get quotes from 3 different shops I'd have to take at least one day off of work to do so, there's no way I'm giving up one of my precious personal days to do that. Hope it works out for you, but don't be surprised if they come back with just one quote.

I agree. I'd just take my car to one of those door-ding specialists and be done with it.

 

[Skellingtonj]

I have to say, I don't think it is reasonable to expect them to go get 3 different quotes. That is a lot of time and effort spent on something that wasn't their fault.

Completely agree.

 

[Denise W]

Driving back to college for Thanksgiving, DD rear-ended someone on the interstate. She couldn't find the insurance info, and gave the guy her phone number (he was another parent driving his son back to a different school) -- she was crying pretty heavily and they felt badly for her.

The guy took a couple of weeks to contact her -- she gave him DH's cell. We asked him to get an estimate and told him we'd pay outside of insurance (he offered). Came to $546.00 -- with our deductible being $500, we went ahead and sent him the money through Chase Zelle, AFTER receiving an email from him that the payment would totally cover our responsibility (i.e. no medical or other problems).

I think we were pretty fortunate with the way he dealt with it. Normally we would've just gone through insurance.

Your collision deductible does not apply to damage to someone else's property. Your carrier would had paid 100% of their claim.
Denise

 

[lovesmurfs]

Your collision deductible does not apply to damage to someone else's property. Your carrier would had paid 100% of their claim.
Denise

DD has another accident on her record -- at 19, we didn't want to poke the insurance bear, either.

ETA: Actually, 2 on her record, both at fault.

 

[tvguy]

Your collision deductible does not apply to damage to someone else's property. Your carrier would had paid 100% of their claim.
Denise

I guess it depends on your coverage. I have a $1,000 deductible across the board. And to be honest, I'd really thing hard before filing a claim if it is within a few hundred dollars of your deductible. Some carriers are sensitive to small, but frequent claims.

 

[ronandannette]

We are traveling home after a visit to see family for the holidays and we stopped at a rest stop. My 8 yo DD accidentally opened her car door into the car next to ours causing a little ding. Not a dent, but some paint marks which should easily come off (based on my own experiences with someone dinging me) and caused a small scratch in their clear coat, maybe fingernail sized. It did not scratch down to the bare metal. The car was occupied at the time and so we exchanged names and phone numbers and my husband gave them our insurance info but neglected to get theirs. It was of course, a white newish looking Infiniti with no other visible marks and not some old beater car.

We live in different states several hours away from one another.

What happens now?

Of course hoping they decide not to pursue it and we never hear from them again but if they do contact us what should we do?

The decision to go through insurance or pay for it on our own will depend on the cost to fix it I suppose. Thinking over 1K and we’ll run it through insurance and risk our rates going up. Does that sound reasonable? Is it reasonable to ask them to get quotes from 3 different body shops? Anything else we should be concerned about or not thinking of?

You handled it great. DH's car was recently hit while it was parked; we're so grateful the other driver (a young teen) had the good character to leave a note. Her parents originally wanted to pay us directly but we reported to our insurance company to get their advice. They're taking it from there, including dealing with the other driver and it's a good thing because what looked like a fairly minor dent to our rear fender has appraised at over $5,000 and we're entitled to a rental vehicle while it's in the shop. I have a feeling we'd have had a difficult time collecting that amount. FTR, the other driver is still able to pay OOP to avoid having their rates go up - they will just have to reimburse their own insurance carrier, who will be responsible for paying ours.

It’s up to them if they let you write a check or go through insurance. I’ve been through this a lot recently with dd22 (fortnately both parties allowed her to pay OOP, one actually get a second quote because she felt it was high). Dd’s car was also scratched when she wasn’t there, it was a driving instructor, so went through their insurance, $1100 (she had just finished paying it off and her car didn’t have a scratch on it beforehand).

Yes, it's up to them but you are probably still able to pay OOP to avoid making a claim. You will just have to pay the insurance carrier anything they disburse if the other party prefers to go through insurance.

 

[Klayfish]

I guess it depends on your coverage. I have a $1,000 deductible across the board. And to be honest, I'd really thing hard before filing a claim if it is within a few hundred dollars of your deductible. Some carriers are sensitive to small, but frequent claims.

You may want to check on that. Liability coverage almost never has a deductible for personal lines. Some, and I mean just a few, commercial lines policies do. However, I can't recall the last time I saw it on a personal lines.

 

[anniemae]

I would not worry too much. Sounds like just a little scratch. Honestly, if it wasn't a pristine Infinity, most would probably wave you off (HAD to be an Infinity and not a beat up Toyota LOL!) I would not ask to get multiple quotes, that is asking too much. It's a pain to go get one quote and they will have to either take time off work, arrange rides and be inconvenienced enough. From the sounds of it, I can't imagine it would cost a lot of money.

 

[ronandannette]

I would not worry too much. Sounds like just a little scratch. Honestly, if it wasn't a pristine Infinity, most would probably wave you off (HAD to be an Infinity and not a beat up Toyota LOL!) I would not ask to get multiple quotes, that is asking too much. It's a pain to go get one quote and they will have to either take time off work, arrange rides and be inconvenienced enough. From the sounds of it, I can't imagine it would cost a lot of money.

You might be (unpleasantly) surprised. We thought a crumpled rear fender wouldn't be a big deal but the insurance appraiser has valued it at over $5,000 which meant we also had to make a police report because bodyshops can't legally work on anything over $2,000 without a "sticker".

 

[aprilgail]

The decision to go through insurance or pay for it on our own will depend on the cost to fix it I suppose. Thinking over 1K and we’ll run it through insurance and risk our rates going up. Does that sound reasonable? Is it reasonable to ask them to get quotes from 3 different body shops? Anything else we should be concerned about or not thinking of?

if someone told me to get three different quotes I would tell them where to shove those quotes- that is way excessive- I have my autobody shop that my car goes to when needed and I am not going to make special trips to other places to get more quotes.

You might be (unpleasantly) surprised. We thought a crumpled rear fender wouldn't be a big deal but the insurance appraiser has valued it at over $5,000 which meant we also had to make a police report because bodyshops can't legally work on anything over $2,000 without a "sticker".

I had a 17 year old kid back into my 2 week old parked car with his daddys big 40,000+ truck- it was a small parking lot and he wasn't going fast-his trailer hitch went into my bumper but it didn't look terrible- the kid was like "I will pay it" but I told him I needed to call the cops for a report anyway, when the cop was looking at it I asked what he thought about the kid paying it and not going through insurance. The cop said "that looks like a few thousand in damage so I don't know if I would want to trust him to pay it but then again his dads truck is well over 40,000 truck so he may be able to"- I decided to go through insurance since it was 100% his fault and it ended up costing close to $10,000! The back up camera, sensors etc along with the back bumper, exhaust and more had to be replaced.

 

[wgeo]

Hubby backed into the neighbors car early one morning. He's not an early riser, so I was anxious all morning until he woke up and came out for his paper. Went over and talked to him and he was great. He went and got 2 quotes and then told me I could pick which one, which I thought was crazy. Told him to go to the shop he was comfortable with and cut him a check, the dent looked tiny but it was still around 1500.

I agree with others that asking them to get 3 quotes isn't reasonable.