What not to say to an insurance adjuster?

People get into accidents, and it is a part of life in many ways. If you are involved in a car crash and decide to file an automobile insurance claim to help pay for medical bills, property damages, or vehicle damages, your insurance provider will send a car insurance adjuster out or have them contact you to get more information and do an investigation. The insurance adjuster will ask a lot of questions, and the answers will be used to determine whether or not your car insurance claim is accepted. The answers that you make will also help determine how much money the car insurance provider will offer you to help pay for damages.

This means that the information you provide your auto insurance adjuster will impact many things. To better protect yourself while the insurance provider investigates, you should know what not to say to the auto adjuster from your insurance company. Keep reading to get information on what not to tell an auto insurance adjuster.

What Not To Say To An Insurance Adjuster?

One of the things that the insurance adjuster from your car insurance provider is hired to do is to find fraud and root it out. Insurance fraud, not including health insurance fraud, costs insurance companies over $40 billion each year. Insurance companies have to raise prices to compensate for this $40 billion in losses, which can result in higher premiums. Some professionals say that people’s car insurance premiums are between $500 and $700 more each year due to insurance fraud.

Some car insurance adjusters specialize in specific types of investigations. Some deal with injuries, others with property damage, and others can be utilized for speaking to attorneys and negotiating. Adjusters all work for the insurance company, however. It is their job to try to settle a claim for as little money as possible to keep their employer happy.

If a car insurance adjuster tries to get a recorded statement from you, you should avoid doing so. While all cases are different, recorded statements can be used to provide information to help a company deny your car insurance claim. Many people do not say precisely what they would like to say when they are put on the spot.

One of the statements that you should avoid when speaking to an auto insurance adjuster is that a vehicle came out of nowhere. Using this term may lead an auto insurance adjuster to ponder whether or not you are paying attention to the road as you should have while driving. This can lead to follow up questions to determine whether or not you may have been falling asleep at the wheel or otherwise affected.

Also, avoiding terms similar to “He must have been speeding” that can bring additional questions from the car insurance adjusters to determine whether or not you should have pulled past the stop sign or made a turn as previously described. If you are paying attention to the speed of the other vehicle, you may have been able to determine that pulling out was not a good option. The auto insurance adjuster will note any statements that imply that you were not paying attention. Statements like this can be utilized in the negotiation process, even if they were not intended to draw attention.

Other statements that fall along these lines include things like, “Next I knew, they hit me.” This is a statement that some auto insurance adjusters can utilize. If you saw the vehicle and before you reacted, they hit you, you are partially putting yourself at blame in the accident. If the adjuster can deny liability, they can potentially deny your claim based on the statements that you make.

It is also possible to admit that you did not do the necessary steps you should have, and many people do not realize that this is the case when they are “admitting” it. If, for example, you admit having “pulled out just because the light turned green.” you are implying that you did not look both ways before moving forward. Car insurance company adjusters can utilize this information to make a point that you had the chance to avoid a collision but did not because you did not take the necessary steps before moving into the intersection.

Most of all, be credible and honest in the answers you give to your auto insurance adjuster. If you are not coming home from a friend’s house, for example, do not say that you were. These types of answers often come with follow-up questions, and if the insurance adjuster catches you in a lie, your insurance claim could be denied. If you are unsure of how to communicate with an adjuster, you can contact a professional to help you craft a statement and navigate the process. You want to speak truthfully about what happened in the accident, while also avoiding terms that can hurt your case. Being aware of this information will help you increase the likelihood that your claim is accepted, so take advantage and use it as needed.