Minor crash: am I doomed?

wolfers

I was parking my car at home and misjudged it and hit the wall. A mechanic friend was with me at the time and had a look at the damage. He said it was just cosmetic. The number plate is cracked, there are a few scratches, and the bumper is now a few millimetres out of alignment on one side.

If I tell my insurance company about this, will it effectively costs me hundreds in increased premiums? I was thinking about just getting it repaired myself rather than making a claim as my excess is £250 and I don't think it will cost more than that to repair?

What is the timescale for notifying my insurer?

VictorM_2

If you tell them your premium will go up.

The time-scale will be written in the policy wording, normally "as soon as possible".

property.advert

Don't tell them anything, nothing to do with them.

Depending on how bad it is, either live with it or fix it privately if you need to conserve your NCB and keep premiums down.

mikey72

You'll get posters stating you must tell them.
I would leave it well alone, unless it was a brand new car.

(Although I'd buy a new number plate, cracked ones really annoy me, ebay are good for about £5 each)

As to telling the insurer, I ran over something in the road yesterday, and ripped off the exhaust.
Am I going to tell them, or have I bought a new front pipe for £60, that I'm about to put on now?
Back in a couple of hours.

VictorM_2

You should tell them however they may never find out (though if they do you're in trouble).

Many people here who give advice either work for insurance companies or have done in the past and are therefore will not give anyone advice on how to act in a fraudulent or dishonest manner.

Alison_B

It is really annoying though when something happens that is sometimes unavoidable, you don't make a claim for it but if you tell the insurance about it, your policy goes up because of it.

c0rneL

Parked the car in my garage, opened the door and bang the poorly improvised mechanism which keep the garage door opened, garage door closed bumping in my boot. Damage of about £300. Is this any of car insurance business? do they need to be notified? I caused the damage while my engine was running so is this classed as road collision?
I would assume responsibility for the accident and I will sort it myself unless i want to involve the insurance; I would involve the insurance only if the damage will be to severe and to costly to repair it myself.

If insurance "discover" the "undeclared" repaired damage can this be considered fraud? I do not think so

scottishgirl87

I scraped nearly the whole side of my car along a wall in December 2011. I phoned my insurance company (Aviva) right away for advice, my excess is £550 so I asked them if I sorted it out myself privately did I have to inform them? They said unless I was making a claim via them then I didn't have to notify them whatsoever.

Got it fixed myself for £300ish and just never went back to the insurance company about it.

Parking_Trouble

Did you damage the wall?

If not and it was only damage to your own property then I know what I would do.

chanz4

If its your wall don't bother telling them, only if you damage third party property should you bother as is the wall going to claim from you? nope. I scratched my car on a wall the other day, guess what ordered the paint and will do it myself, no damage to the wall

ROY47

Say nothing to the insurance company and repair yourself

much cheaper !

A friend of mine recently bumped their car into another
damage to friends was quite a bit to rear wing ,
damage to other car was a few minor scrapes on front bumper

didn't go through insurance ,friend sorted it all out themselves
total cost £289.99

other party well chuffed with repair + friends car repaired

IF they told insurance .......... probably would have shaft.. both parties for 5 yrs with loading for a claim which would have cost them ........

£1500 + for friends car

Other party would have been written off as insurance would have changed the whole front bumper assembly probably costing £2000 +

and don't tell me or them about future whiplash claims etc. or IF insurance found out because both parties signed a letter to say NO claim will be made and if insurance ever ask NO accident ever happened

As I said both parties were quite happy with the agreement