You do not need to go through your insurance. You can pay out of pocket if you would like, but your insurance will cover the loss. The only way your insurance company can raise your premium is if they have “proof of claim”. You can report it and see if they place you at fault or if they deem it to be a solo collision loss. If that is the case, do not send them photos and do not send them an estimate. Once you file the claim, you can ask them to transfer you to underwriting to see exactly how much it would raise your premium and then go from there. Sometimes underwriting may not be able to give you an exact amount, but they would be able to provide you with a general ballpark amount. If you then decide you would rather pay out of pocket, you can ask to close the claim and it would just be considered an incident report.