A mistake not to be repeated

Last October my car was hit by a car backing out of its parking spot in our condominium/apartment community. The lady did not look back. And she seemed to be in a hurry, with a load of kids in the back seats, maybe going to drop them off at their schools. And she asked me to call her with the estimate and she would pay in cash.

If that happens to you - don't accept cash. Something is fishy.

So I asked for her insurance information and she did not get mine.

Here was the mistake I did - I called my own insurance carrier and they paid for all of the damages (minus $500 deductible that I paid out of my pocket) while contacting the lady's insurance carrier. So I ended up waiting weeks to get my $500 deductible back (and the cost of a rental car).

I should leave my insurance carrier out of this picture. I should call the opposing party's carrier, so I would not have to pay anything out of my pocket and then wait to get the money back.

And guess what? I got hit again last night, same area, different driver. Same method - he backed up and hit me.

And I learnt my mistake. I called his insurance carrier. Not mine.

Wished I learnt this in driver ed class - or did I but forgot the information? Oh well. A lesson be learnt.