1. If she could pay the deductible up front, then no issue. I'd cut her the slack and then some, I'd simply report the damage, she could give me the $300 for the deductible, and life goes on. But she can't even give me that, and I'm not going to pay phone tag with someone for the next few months for the money, especially when I'd have nothing to hold against her should she decide to tell me to shove off. Exactly how would I tell the insurance company later on that I lied when I told them I didn't know who did it, and now I want them to go after the person?
2. We gave her a few options, including us getting an estimate first. She wanted us to let her "cousin" or something do it, claimed that getting it all fixed up wouldn't be more than $700 tops, and she'd pay him off instead of us. That's great, except I'd like to be able to sell this car later, and having work like that done on it without the insurance company or a reputable body shop being involved might create issues if someone who looks at the car notices there's something off with the door.
3. I live in British Columbia, ICBC is our insurance company, it's a semi-government/semi-private company, they do licensing, insurance, claims, plates, all that jazz. Basically the DMV with insurance. It works out nice because they're everybody's company, so they don't make a big show about having to go to court to recoup their costs and all that. They give you a certain percentage off your insurance rate if you go a year without a ticket/accident that you're at fault. My wife is currently on her 10th year with no such accidents, gets like 40% off her rates easy, which applies to me as well. If one of us gets into an accident where we're at fault, that discount drops a few levels (it's split up into like 10 levels of discounts, and then the static rate, then a few levels of penalties/extra costs), depending on the accident and how bad it was it can drop multiple. Something like this would drop it one level, we'd go from 40% to 30% on our next payment, and it'd take a year to build back to 40%. Not horrible, and for what we pay it'd cost us like $150-$200 over the year, much better than paying a grand for a repair.
4. Her biggest concern is that she won't be able to get her license straight off, she'll have to wait an additional 6 months to prove she's a safe driver, which I 100% agree with. If she managed to hit a parked car, in a parking lot, with no other moving vehicles around, and she was driving without the proper guidance, I'd hate to think how she'll be on the roads once she finally gets her license. The way I see it if it goes through insurance, she gets some more practice time, it puts a little bit of the fear of God into her, and maybe she drives a little bit safer now that she knows what kind of penalties there are for making mistakes.
2. We gave her a few options, including us getting an estimate first. She wanted us to let her "cousin" or something do it, claimed that getting it all fixed up wouldn't be more than $700 tops, and she'd pay him off instead of us. That's great, except I'd like to be able to sell this car later, and having work like that done on it without the insurance company or a reputable body shop being involved might create issues if someone who looks at the car notices there's something off with the door.
3. I live in British Columbia, ICBC is our insurance company, it's a semi-government/semi-private company, they do licensing, insurance, claims, plates, all that jazz. Basically the DMV with insurance. It works out nice because they're everybody's company, so they don't make a big show about having to go to court to recoup their costs and all that. They give you a certain percentage off your insurance rate if you go a year without a ticket/accident that you're at fault. My wife is currently on her 10th year with no such accidents, gets like 40% off her rates easy, which applies to me as well. If one of us gets into an accident where we're at fault, that discount drops a few levels (it's split up into like 10 levels of discounts, and then the static rate, then a few levels of penalties/extra costs), depending on the accident and how bad it was it can drop multiple. Something like this would drop it one level, we'd go from 40% to 30% on our next payment, and it'd take a year to build back to 40%. Not horrible, and for what we pay it'd cost us like $150-$200 over the year, much better than paying a grand for a repair.
4. Her biggest concern is that she won't be able to get her license straight off, she'll have to wait an additional 6 months to prove she's a safe driver, which I 100% agree with. If she managed to hit a parked car, in a parking lot, with no other moving vehicles around, and she was driving without the proper guidance, I'd hate to think how she'll be on the roads once she finally gets her license. The way I see it if it goes through insurance, she gets some more practice time, it puts a little bit of the fear of God into her, and maybe she drives a little bit safer now that she knows what kind of penalties there are for making mistakes.