My car was rear ended and the other party is at fault. What is my next step?

[edible_chicken]

I have the police report and had to take my wife to the ER.

I have received conflicting information. I was told to tell my insurance and they will take care of it by contacting the other person's insurance.

Then I was also told to not tell my insurance and file the claim directly with the other person's insurance.

What is the proper step? I have never dealt with filing an insurance claim in my 31 years of life. thanks!

 

[MeepBeep]

Proper step is to tell your insurance company and let them deal with it, that is why you pay them after all...

BUT, many people try to circumvent their insurance company because of fear of their rates going up...

IMO not worth not telling your insurance company, as the other one even if it is clearly their fault will many times they argue to no end never accepting responsibility, all the while you will get nothing... I once spent 18 months fighting and insurance company myself, it was clearly their liability but they refused to budge, won't give me a dime kept saying it wasn't their fault... In the end with about $10K in outstanding debt I had to sue the person and thus drag their insurance company into court, they of course were easily found guilty and then paid then but if I would have filed it with my insurance I would have never had to deal with the hassle... Never again will I bother, just not worth my time or effort...

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

I recently went through a similar situation (rear-ended by someone) - in my case I did report the incident to my insurance company, I also went ahead and had them initiate the repairs and then they (my insurance company) went after the other party's company and recouped the costs. However, in a similar situation two years prior to that (hit from the side by a car pulling out into the street I was on) I reported the incident to my insurer (same company as above) and then made contact with the other party's insurer from the information we had exchanged at the scene. In that situation the other party's insurer opted to handle all things related to my claim directly themselves. I realize this does NOTHING to clear up your confusion - and I apologize for that - but my reason for sharing was to say that really both answers can be "right".
I would suggest contacting your insurer - you can get things on record without having to actually initiate a claim - this way you can consult with them and decide the best way to proceed from there.

 

[edible_chicken]

Thanks. I usually refer to Clark Howard's website for stuff like this and there isn't any advice on there. I think it sounds best to tell my insurance adn they can call his insurance. Thanks!