The anatomy of an auto insurance claim has layers of complexity that aren’t always apparent to the policyholder. There’s a lot that occurs behind the scenes. Unfortunately, successfully receiving payment on an insurance claim can be a laborious process to clear coverage and finalize liability. Providing evidence of your claim can help speed that process up radically.
The Average Timeframe of an Insurance Claim
On average, how long of a timeframe can you expect between your initial accident and the final payout on your claim? There’s no easy, straightforward answer. Speedy resolution of an insurance claim is based on a number of factors. Those factors include:
- Clearing coverage
- Finalizing the liability decision
- Resolving any coverage investigation
While your insurance company will always push for fast resolution, with completion dates as aggressive as 1-14 days out from the date of your accident, that isn’t always a reality. Claims with a high level of complexity can stretch on for weeks. For a case that involves subrogation, that timeframe can often be 6 months or greater to recoup the funds payout for the damages, including your deductible.
What is Subrogation?
Subrogation is one of the ways that insurance companies offset the costs of fulfilling claims. Subrogation is the insurance company’s ability to seek compensation from the person at fault for the accident. Subrogation is most often used when:
- The at-fault party’s insurance is taking too long
- The at-fault party is uninsured or under-insured
- The policy holder must file a claim with their own company
The overall goal is to make sure that the insured gets the full amount that they are owed, including any ancillary charge incurred while waiting for the claim to be completed. Subrogation helps to reimburse the paid out amount to the not at fault party, including the insured customers deductible. It also protects you from a sea of paperwork and other logistical hurdles. Unfortunately, subrogation can take a while to resolve. Some things that can hold the subrogation process up are:
- Coverage issues on policy
- Disagreement with the liability decision
- Disputing the estimate amount
- Disagreeing with the rental payout
- Disputing labor and parts
How a Lengthy Claim Affects Your Insurance
The reality is that insurance claims take time to resolve. If you have to get back on the road quickly, you might have to file a claim with your own insurance rather than at-fault party’s carrier. When this happens, you have to pay your carrier’s deductible first, which commonly range from $250 to $1000 or more depending on your policy. Add in any additional costs such as renting a car, or loss of wage from missing work, and that’s a pretty steep cost, especially for an accident that wasn’t your fault to begin with. Your insurance company might raise your premium payments for filing the claim in the first place. Subrogation can recoup those losses, but in the meantime what can you do as a consumer to help with the process?
Speed Up the Process With Evidence
Nothing speeds up the insurance claim process like cold, hard evidence. Providing video or photographic evidence in support of your claim can help prove beyond a shadow of a doubt who was really at fault.
Accidents are unexpected though. If you are behind the wheel when an accident occurs, it’s highly unlikely that you’ll be filming as it happens unless you have a dash cam installed. At best, you can capture footage and evidence after the fact. That’s where Scene Finder comes into play.
With the Scene Finder app, good Samaritans can take videos or photos, also known as “evidence-based content,” and anonymously upload them to our database. From there, our platform helps match evidence to insurance companies, helping speed up your claim as well as any subrogation process. By contributing to our website, you may even be eligible for a cash prize if your uploaded content is correctly matched to a claim and purchased. To get started, look for our app now available on Google Play and the Apple App Store.
