Your car is more than your mode of transportation; your car is an investment of sorts to you. It is important to you to maintain it, keep it clean and trouble free and to avoid driving it in situations where you could get it damaged.
You even go so far as to park acres away from the stores while in public parking lots to keep others from banging your car with shopping carts and car doors.
Imagine how happy you would be to come back out to your car and find that not only did someone park as close as possible to you, they also opened their door and put a ding in your door.
It makes you wonder why they specifically parked next to you when there were other spaces so much closer. It makes you wonder if you should wait for them to come out of the store and confront them with their carelessness.
It makes you wonder if your car insurance will cover this incident or if you should take their license number and information and make them turn it into their car insurance. You do not want your insurance rates to increase and lose your cheap car insurance premium.
Often times these parking lot door dings occur where there is no one around and the one who does the dinging does not always leave their information for you to pursue.
You have a few options, other than waiting in the parking lot and stalking the one who dinged your car.
If you feel the ding is not significant, other than upsetting to you, you may decide to pay for repairs out of your own pocket, particularly if the damage is less than your deductible.
You also might want to take photos of the door, the position of the cars and the license plate. Cell phones come equipped with cameras and they are a perfect instrument to document accidents and violations. You need to document whatever you can to provide your insurance company with information to pursue the other driver if necessary. You should do this regardless of whether you turn it into your car insurance company or not.
If you do turn it in, your cheap car insurance company may be able to go after the driver of the other vehicle. Chances are though that without a police report, the burden of the repair bill will fall on you.
If you live in a no-fault state, there is a good possibility that your cheap car insurance will cover the ding and no harm, no foul. Since often time insurance claims are based on who is at fault in an accident or incident, the states that allow for no-fault car insurance allow repairs to be made without assigning blame or guilt on one party or the other.
Comprehensive insurance will also cover this but they only cover one ding at a time. You need to file a claim for every ding. Unlike a hailstorm where all the dings and dents happened in one instance, car door dings are individual and each ding is an incident.
Again, look at your insurance deductible to make a decision whether or not to file a claim. There is also the possibility that your insurance rates will increase due to a claim, albeit, not a large increase in insurance rates.
Car dings happen, no matter how carefully you park or what precautions you take, you may encounter a door ding. You may find it more economical to live with the ding rather than to make a claim.
