I wanted to resurrect this thread as I have a similar situation and some additional ?s that weren't answered here.
Situation...A hail storm rolled through my neighborhood in the middle of the night a couple days ago. I could have a rant about that, but I'll try to refrain. The damage to my car is minimal, such that you have to know it has hail damage and look for it to actually notice it. Maybe 10-20 small dings on the hood and the top.
Details...newish car, a 2014, still making loan payments. Facepunch if you must, but that's not really the advice I'm looking for exactly at this moment. I plan on keeping this car for a long time regardless of the damage. I don't really care about fixing it.
?s...Most importantly: Maybe this is a stupid question, but does cashing a check for hail damage raise your insurance rate? If it matters, my insurance is very high because I suck at driving (another reason to bike more) and I'm a 20-something guy and driving a newish car. It did decrease recently by ~40/month after an old accident (maybe 2?) came off my record. I have Geico.
I live in Texas. Someone mentioned heat pops them out, is that a thing? If that's the case, they would be gone after only this summer after several days of 100+ heat.
If I drive it until the wheels fall off, I guess I shouldn't care about resale value being impacted by hail damage? I probably wouldn't fix the damage even after insurance money unless I got much worse hail damage in the future or bad cosmetic damage for another reason.
Any ideas of how much $ I could expect to get from Geico?
tldr: How do I make the most profit off my situation of a newish car with very minor hail damage WITHOUT being in danger of losing $ in the future due to higher insurance, decreased resale value, etc.
Thanks!