Insurance for your car's

More than 220 million motor vehicles clog America's roads today, making it likely that someday you will have an accident and file an auto insurance claim. The good news is that in most auto accident claims, personal injury isn't the problem. Every insurance claim requires some kind of proof of damage or injury before a carrier will pay. On auto claims, Eager says, there are five elements of proof that will come into play: what you tell the insurance companies, what the other party tells them, a police report, witnesses and physical damage at the scene.

"There are a lot of jurisdictions where the police officers may try to avoid taking an accident report, assuming that the damage is under $500," a typical insurance deductible, warns retired insurance adjuster J.D. Howard, who co-founded the Insurance Consumer Advocate Network, based in Branson West, Mo. "Insist on a report. If [officers] won't file a traffic accident report, insist on an incident report. You want an independent, disinterested record of what happened. You'd be amazed at how often the other driver's story will change." Finding of fault is very important. Besides the rental car and diminished value issues, the negligent party's carrier might owe you for any time off work, Howard says. In addition, your company cannot raise your rates if you are not at fault.

Also, the majority of states have adopted "comparative negligence," Eager says. This is a concept based on the idea that no one party is necessarily completely at fault, but that fault is just a matter of degree. Your settlement can be reduced based on the degree of fault. Having an understanding of how UK car insurance companies work is vital when searching for the cheapest car insurance quotes.