So the newly-minted Mrs. Robb dinged a parked car.

[Robb]

No one hurt, fortunately, and we went into the coffee shop and found the owner, who took it pretty well. Didn't hurt for me to tell her we just got married. Conversation went well enough I even offered up my father's famous story of my mother, two weeks before their marriage, hitting one of his cars with the other one. ;)

Anyhoo.

Mrs. Robb's been in a couple fender-benders in the past two years, and we're thinking about just paying for the repair out-of-pocket, bypassing the insurance company and the likely premium hike. Anyone have any experience doing that? Any pitfalls?

[rug]

1. Mrs. Robb, dinged . . .

[Robb]

3. No bats involved. So far. nt

[Rosemary2205]

2. It's only a problem if

if the ding-ee decides to surprise you with a lawsuit. It happens - unfortunately.

[CreekDog]

4. It was moving too fast

The earth moves at 66,000 mph or something like that.

[REP]

5. Unless the damage is very minor, go through the insurance company

A few months ago I was the dingee - a teenager backed into my parked car hard. Didn't look like that much, but she did over a thousand dollars worth of damage to my car which was immaculate before Ms Bumpercar slammed in to it). Heard a million sob stories about why I shouldn't file an insurance claim - it was the kid's 5th accident this year was one reason - but it just made sense for all concerned for her insurance to pay for the repair and my rental while it was in the shop.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

6. What a dingbat...

You two aren't by any chance first cousin, are you?

My wife was dinged by a sixteen year old in August (our new car was less than 24 hours old), and the dad paid up out of pocket -- a sixteen year old with a claim would have cost his far (FAR) more in insurance premiums. The guy was very nice about it -- and his check was good.