When do I call my insurance company in a fender bender?

Yes, report it to your insurance company, and file a police report. (In Idaho, USA, a police report is required if damage happens on public roads, and exceeds $750 damage, if I recall correctly.) Do it soon!

Now. Don’t wait. Your insurance company will be your advocate and make sure you are made whole.

And if her company knows, then you are not saving her any hassle. Make it easy on yourself, that’s what you pay for.

In California, the insurance company will file the DMV report for accidents over $200.

After a fender bender always file a police report and all your insurance company ASAP. The sooner the better. You want the police and your insurance agent to hear your side of the story first.

When I had a fender bender a few years ago, I drove straight to the nearest police station to file a report and called my insurance company within an hour. Soon after that I faxed the police report to my insurance company. I didn’t pay a dime and neither did my insurance company.

First off, are you Ok?
It kills you about your vehicle. It can be fixed.
You, physically, are alright?
Just as a save-time measure, write down what occurred.
Everything.
Explain placement, MPH of hit. Car movement from hit, times. Actions. Witnesses? Weather, road conditions, busyness of traffic, time, timing of sequence of light, etc. When did you see her? Weather conditions. (You’d be amazed at the things some blame the sunlight for causing.)
Everything you can think of.
Your Insurance can legally get her cell activity for the time sequence and business.
Insurance is based upon facts.
A police report helps your case- go with what your insurance states needed at this point.

ALWAYS notify your own insurance company, and PROMPTLY.

Total agreement with what all the people above said.
I had a similar situation except I was the one who skidded into the rear of another car during a driving rainstorm.
I got out and immediately and got with the other driver. We got into my car and started trading insurance and DL information with the other driver. The police showed up about 10 minutes into it. Stopped, asked if we needed any assistance. I said no, that we were exchanging insurance info. He asked if I wanted him to file a report. I said no, we had it handled and the other driver agreed (didn’t see any reason to give more ammo to the other guys insurance). He said ok, I have another accident I need to get to and was gone.
Called my insurance and told them to be looking for it. Never heard any more about it.

Thanks to all this advice, I just called my insurance agency. He said that as long as the others know of this claim, I can fully do it through them, and I can contact my people any time if they don’t follow through.

Thanks for all the good comments.

In the future, I would recommend calling the police and filing a report on the spot. Yeah, it may not be convenient, but it wasn’t your fault and, well, CYA.

Just because a police report is filed doesn’t mean there is automatically an insurance claim filed on either side. I was once rear-ended in much the same way, and the man was adamant that he would pay out of pocket, rather than insurance. Made me no difference. I took my truck to the shop, he paid to have it fixed, and no insurance was involved.

The moral to my story is that I always had the police report to fall back on. I had, in fact, called my insurance agent and he said as long as the truck was fixed, they didn’t care who paid either.

Usually when it happens, police too. Take pictures with your phone and don’t talk to the other driver anymore than you have to

Your insurer will probably have guidelines on their website as to when, how and what to report. I’d check there first. They will also provide forms to guide you as to the nature of your report and the information required. (They’ll want a diagram, I expect, showing the location and arrangement of the vehicles involved, the location including nearby cross streets, etc.)

In general, however, the advice above is correct: Report to your insurer on their forms as soon as safe and convenient, also considering your mental and physical state. (It wouldn’t make sense to contact your insurance company – even if you were otherwise “safe” – if you were still very upset or bleeding in an emergency room, for example.)

In addition, as others have also mentioned, a police report may be required as well, depending on your jurisdiction and the rules that apply there. In most cases in the USA, the threshold dollar limit for “police report required” is not very high (and the estimates of damage that can be caused by even a slight collision are generally so high), so it’s nearly always a requirement, especially if there will be a claim. (If someone tapped your bumper and the damage was minimal, and there were clearly no injuries – and you trust the other driver to not inflate the incident into something that was your fault, and add fake injuries, etc. – then you might both walk away from it and take no action. I’ve done that.)

If any injuries can be claimed, then a police report is probably always going to be required. (And if you don’t trust the other driver to not inflate this claim and make it “all your fault”, then you should also file with the police. Otherwise you would also be charged – or could be charged – with “hit and run”, which is in all cases that I know of carries more severe penalty than “an accident”.)

If you live in a “no fault” state, then it will probably be your insurer who pays your claim, so the sooner you file with them, the better.