We often encounter people involved in a car accident say “insurance to insurance na lang! ” Do you know what does this statement means? or is it a statement that means, bahala na kami sa car namin and bahala na din kayo sa inyo?! When we are involved in a minor car collision accident, here are the right things to do: 1. Know if someone is hurt. (humanity) 2. Know who is at fault, we are in the 21st century, no need to be ashamed to admit mistakes. If you are at fault, apologize and “commit” that your insurance will asses for the damages. 3. Take photo of both vehicles. 4. Exchange details specially the drivers license, certificate of registration, latest registration receipt and insurance (tpl or comprehensive will do) 5. Exchange contact numbers. In this day and age, we all have android and iOS phones that can take clear photos. take the photos of the actual accident, after which both parties may park their cars properly on shoulder to save other people from the inconvenience (Traffic). (courtesy) then talk it over after. No need to get mad at each other, its an accident anyway, neither you or him wanted it to happen. This situation is based if both have comprehensive insurance.

Where is the insurance to insurance thing? If you are at fault, your insurance will pay for the property damages of the third party via LOA or letter of authority (as default) at your insurance company’s preferred service center. (that is why a branded insurance company comes in handy because the accredited service centers are of course branded as well.) This is after the submission of the required documents listed below.

1. Notarized Affidavit (stating the incident time,place and date) 2. ORCR of both parties 3. Drivers license of both parties 4. Photos. 5. Some insurance require estimate, some insurance require actual inspection. 6. Certificate of No Claim- this document should be provided by the third party. He/She may secure this upon submission of the affidavit to their own insurance company. This is a very important document for the Insurance that will cover the expenses. This assures them that the third party will not have the chance to double claim. (insurance to insurance) What if the third party refuses to have his vehicle repaired to the suggested repair center? Ask him/her where will his preferred service center is and check with your insurance. If the preferred shop is not accredited, it will now resort to a monetary claim wherein conflict usually arises because the estimates and the actual figure will not always match. But again, insurance companies are and always should be transparent with the computation for faster understanding of both parties.

There you go, the Insurance to Insurance thing just happened when the other party submitted a certificate of no claim to your insurance.  Both insurance now knows that the latter will be the shouldering the expenses.

What if the other party does not have a comprehensive insurance? Same incident different situation. Do all the steps 1-5 and since the other party does not have  comprehensive insurance, he can still secure certificate of no claim from his Third Party Liability Insurance or TPL, the compulsory one for your vehicle to be annually registered.  As a heads up, some cheap TPL companies charge 50 to 100 pesos for a certificate of no claim, but the branded ones don’t.

If you have any questions or if you had a bad experience with insurance, please feel free to comment below and i’ll be glad to answer them.