Do you have to tell car insurance company if repair is paid for by other party?

mikey72

If you go thorough your insurer, you will have to make a claim from your insurance, probably get referred to a credit hire/claim management company, and they will pursue the third party for damages. Until they pay if will be a claim off your insurer, and you will have to pay the excess.
You will get a credit hire car while yours is repaired.
It's far better to get the third party details if you can, and go direct, let the third party sort it out, usually they will as it's a lot cheaper for them, and tell your insurer for information only.

katies_mum

Thanks

mikey72 can you tell me what a credit hire car is? do you mean get straight intouch with their insurance.

mikey72

A credit hire car is one you agree to hire for a set price per day. The hire company claim the costs back from the third party.
You agree to a credit agreement that means you are liable for the charges if the third party won't/don't pay. Usually it is hundreds of pounds a day, still supposedly a "fair" amount agreed by the insurance industry, but more frequently being seen as a good source of revenue for these companies.
It's not helped by the fact your own insurer gets a commission from these companies, so they are very keen to sell them your details, and encourage you to use them for third party claims like this.
If you go direct to the third party insurer they will provide a free car, and usually sort the claim out fairly quickly. Your own insurer won't be as keen for this, as they lose the commission they would have been paid otherwise.
Have a look in the insurance section on here.

katies_mum

Thank you for explaining it so clearly.

Lirin

I've luckily only been involved in a couple of minor incidents= only one was my fault. Reversed out of a parking spot, swung the wheel a little sharply, and scraped the car next to me. Insurance didn't want to know. She didn't bother asking me the policy number, just asked if it was minor/ easily repairable. Only a bumper- no problem. I was told that unless it was expensive/write off damage, or anything that compromised the structural integrity of the body, they weren't interested.
I did check this out lately over my windscreen, with my current insurer, and had the same response- if I want to repair it myself, I don't have to involve them. But as Quentin says, informing them at least is always a good idea- different companies have different policies....

taker920

I had a stone chip a few months back, bought a touch up kit from Halfords and repaired it. When I informed my insurers on renewal my premium went up £80 **

But now at least I can sleep at night knowing I haven't committed fraud by not declaring it

** This story may not be 100% true