losing no claims bonus..

misswilsonuk

Hi all
I just bumped my car this morning:(. It' a 4 year old VW golf and I've knocked (cracked) the small black bumper on the front corner off and scraped the front paintwork quite a lot. I also scraped and dented down the underside plastic rim which sits under the left doors.

I am insured with Tesco car insurance comprehensively. I have 8 years no claims bonus...

My question is, should I claim on the insurance? or pay for it myself as I'd imagine it will be very expensive to fix.

Do you lose your entire no claims bonus when a claim is made? even though I've never made a claim before with any companies I've been insured with? I don't really have the money to pay for the repair just now and I actually have the car up for sale on autotrader which has just cost me £50!

Any help/advice at all would be appreciated, thanks x

Quentin

You "go down" from the max of 5 years NCD.

So if you claim you don't get any NCD added for this year and lose 2 years of your existing NCD. So at renewal you will still have 3 years.

When deciding whether or not to claim, factor in you will have to pay your excess.

You can get an idea of the effect the claim will have on your premium by doing dummy virtual quotes on line, with and without the claim (adjust the NCD as well) and see how much difference it makes. From your description this won't be a cheap repair, but get a quote from a back street garage (tell them it's for you, and you won't be using your insurance - that alters the price!) and see what is the most economic route.

Strider590

It's always tricky when no third party is involved

If you make a claim, it'll cost you your excess, then over the next few years your premium will go up by an amount until you've paid the majority of the repair cost.

How much metal work damage?

It sounds to me like £300 - £600 of damage, that's gonna be £900 - £1800 for an insurance repair.

Might even be able to find the same car in the same colour at a scrappers and get it fixed up for next to nothing if you have a friend with the right tools.

misswilsonuk

Thanks very much for your replies.

I have just run two new dummy quotes..

My current policy was £250 per year

I added a claim of £1000 to both dummy quotes

with 3 years no claims (deducting 2 years as first repply stated) it comes in at cheapest £390 per year

with 0 years no claims it comes in at £790 per year!

Should I phone Tesco to ask whether I would lose my entire no claims bonus if I claim?

I'm in a bit of a flap about this and can't really concentrate at work!

neilmcl

If you have 8 years NCD, why on earth are you not getting it protected?

Quentin

misswilsonuk wrote: »

Should I phone Tesco to ask whether I would lose my entire no claims bonus if I claim?

Why? You already been told you won't!

If you don't believe the advice posted here, it will be cheaper to check your policy than ring your insurer!

If you speak to your insurer, they will record this incident down on your history, which could well put up your premium at renewal even if you decide not to make a claim. Then tell you what you already read here!