To Claim or not to Claim? That is the question

Gribgrob

Hi All,

I am in a fix and wonder which is the best way forward...anybody out there with a similar experience?

I have fully-comp on my MPV. 2 yrs NCD. Just reversed into a skip on my private driveway. Repair cost is £1280. My Excess to pay insurance co is £600. Do I make a claim but then get more than the £680 I have 'saved' loaded onto my insurance for the MPV + 2 other cars in the household over the next 5 years?..... I would have to tell them of the incident for the next 5 years (not accident) as not on the public highway.

Any views.. experience of loaded premiums welcome.:o

fsrandom

Hey, I work in Car Insurance (Sales) and see how premiums are effected by crashed quite often.

To claim for £1250 is barely going to be worth it being honest with you, you'll lose your 2 years no claims bonus and have a fault claim on file that'll effect your insurance for up to 5 years, it'll probably break about even in the long run

If you are in a position where you can pay for the repairs yourself do it, if your not then claim.

Hope this helped.

lisyloo

Suggest you go onto a comarison site.
Do a quote with zero claimss, the edit it for 1 claims (or whatever relevant numbers are) and see the difference.
Do not give real email and phone number unless you are lonely :-)

I have noticed recently that many seem to be asking for claims in the last 5 years and not the last 3. Could be my memeory but I thought it was 3 for claims and 5 for convictions.
Also remember this will need to be declared on any other motoring policies e.g. motorbike, wife's car etc. You might not have those now, but you may in the next 3/5 years.

Gut feeling is that it's not worth claiming, but you can do some maths by getting quotes to get a better feel for it.

I have pothole damage of £700 and I'm not claiming, but I'm on hubbies car and 2 motorbike policies.

stevemarsh1976

How much do you pay for you insurance at the moment ?

Advising on loaded premiums at a future date is always very tricky as rates change and obviously you have a massive amount of companies to choose from for next year all of whome will load differently.

The one thing to look at is you will lose ALL of you ncd which equates to on average 40% plus you will be subject to a load as well. Try some comparison sites for quotes with and without the accident see the difference in premiums.

My initial thoughts is you would lose out long term by claiming but this has to be your decision.

Also the garage you got a quote from did they quote for an insurance claim or a private job as garages inflate repair costs if they think its going to be claimed for on insurance ?

Helen_J_3

fsrandom wrote: »

Hey, I work in Car Insurance (Sales) and see how premiums are effected by crashed quite often.

To claim for £1250 is barely going to be worth it being honest with you, you'll lose your 2 years no claims bonus and have a fault claim on file that'll effect your insurance for up to 5 years, it'll probably break about even in the long run

If you are in a position where you can pay for the repairs yourself do it, if your not then claim.

Hope this helped.

Hi Fsrandom

Just a quick question, I'm soon going to send a year's no claims discount certificate off to my new insurer as a claim is being settled in my favour. The new insurance company has already said some of the premium will be refunded for the difference between 1 years no claims and 0 years no claims.

However, I'm aware even no fault claims makes a difference to premiums. I had to declare the open claim (which was most certainly not my fault!) when buying the new policy but now it is being withdrawn as a claim will I also get some premium back because I've never made any claims now this has been withdrawn as a claim?

Hope this makes sense!

stevemarsh1976

Helen_J wrote: »

Hi Fsrandom

Just a quick question, I'm soon going to send a year's no claims discount certificate off to my new insurer as a claim is being settled in my favour. The new insurance company has already said some of the premium will be refunded for the difference between 1 years no claims and 0 years no claims.

However, I'm aware even no fault claims makes a difference to premiums. I had to declare the open claim (which was most certainly not my fault!) when buying the new policy but now it is being withdrawn as a claim will I also get some premium back because I've never made any claims now this has been withdrawn as a claim?

Hope this makes sense!

In short yes your fault claim will now go as a no fault claim so any loading should be removed for that aspect. you may still be subject to some form of load for having any claim but thats down to the insurers underwriting proceedures.

As for the ncd this should be back dated to the start of the policy and the full discount should be given back to you.

Helen_J_3

stevemarsh1976 wrote: »

In short yes your fault claim will now go as a no fault claim so any loading should be removed for that aspect. you may still be subject to some form of load for having any claim but thats down to the insurers underwriting proceedures.

As for the ncd this should be back dated to the start of the policy and the full discount should be given back to you.

Hi Steve,

The claim was never declared as a fault claim on my behalf, always non-fault, no injury, accident. My question is now I have no outstanding or any past claims on my insurance policy. So not only will I receive a refund of the difference between 0 and 1 years no claims, but also a refund of whatever extra they add on for having made a claim on any previous policy (fault or non fault)?

stevemarsh1976

Helen_J wrote: »

Hi Steve,

The claim was never declared as a fault claim on my behalf, always non-fault, no injury, accident. My question is now I have no outstanding or any past claims on my insurance policy. So not only will I receive a refund of the difference between 0 and 1 years no claims, but also a refund of whatever extra they add on for having made a claim on any previous policy (fault or non fault)?

Maybe I am slightly confused then.

the claim in question have you had it settled in your favour now ?
or
Have you paid the claim back to the insurers ?

Gribgrob

Thanks to all. My premiums are £266 - £320 for 3 cars. I shall pay out myself - ouch!

bev309

Helen_J wrote: »

Hi Steve,

The claim was never declared as a fault claim on my behalf, always non-fault, no injury, accident. My question is now I have no outstanding or any past claims on my insurance policy. So not only will I receive a refund of the difference between 0 and 1 years no claims, but also a refund of whatever extra they add on for having made a claim on any previous policy (fault or non fault)?

You will get a refund for your NCB re-instatement, but probably nothing more. They should be able to change it from 'fault' to 'non-fault', which more often than not won't change the premium. Even though a claim was not made by yourself, you were involved in an incident, the details will remain on your file & you will have to declare it for the next 3-5yrs depending on insurer.
HTH

mrstewieo

Just an extra bit of info, you will still need to tell your insurer about your accident, it's a policy condition!

Even if you aren't going to claim, you need to report it for information only!