Please need advise for my son - he's just a new driver and got into an accident

nova_dee

Hi everyone, please I need any advise.....please please please

My son just passed the driving test 2 weeks ago, we bought a second hand car as well and got a car insurance costing us £2,600 per year.
His car was a 2002 skoda bought at £1,400.00

Today, on a turning, a car suddenly made a very quick wide turn and to avoid him and a collision, he swerved to the left ending him hitting the pavement/gutter. The result, left wheel was misaligned, car needed to be towed to bring to our house.

So, what should we do? Have the car repaired and shoulder the expense, so that it wouldn't show as points in his driving license? I don't know anything about motoring and nsurance, but what's going to happen if he has points as early as now? I don't know if the car will be written off as well.

Or, call insurance.

If we call insurance, it can be written off - if it's written off, as this is just the 1st month, do we still need to finish the rest of the months to pay the insurance?

So, if example, my son gets the points for this, and if my husband makes him a second driver, will my husband's insurance be affected?

I appreciate any reply....thanks in advance

pawlala

nova_dee wrote: »

So, what should we do? Have the car repaired and shoulder the expense, so that it wouldn't show as points in his driving license?

You won't get points on the licence if you claim on your insurance, they're not the police.

Joe_Horner

The DS reply is that, if there's no damage to other people's property, you can happily have the damage repaired yourself but must notify the insurer that an accident has occurred "for information only". That won't result in the car being written off but they'll then bump his premium up next year.

The real-life advice is that, if the damage is relatively minor (perhaps tracking and new rim) then insurers really aren't interested in being informed every time someone lightly curbs a wheel when parking, and these modern cars can fold awfully easily given a mild curbing

Assuming the scenario was as you've described (presumably second hand from him) then there's really no reason that he should be penalised by his insurers for avoiding a situation caused by someone else this early in his driving career. If it really was what happened (sorry to repeat that but it's a big if!) then he should be getting a pat on the back!

Get it into a garage to have the damage assessed and go from there. If it does become a claim and they write it off, then yes you will still be liable for the rest of the year's cover btw.

rev_henry

Just get the damage repaired at a local garage and pay for it yourself. No need for insurance to get involved. No one is going to give him points either, not sure why you think that!

JQ.

Points are handed out by the police - did they attend and did they say they were planning to prosecute?

As for insurance, you'll need to weigh up the cost of repairs against the cost of the excess plus future rises in premium. Try running some dummy online quotes with a single fault claim and see what it does to the insurance cost. Then get a quote for getting the car repaired amd see which ends up more expensive. I'd guess that it will probably end up cheaper to just get the car repaired yourselves.

custardy

nova_dee wrote: »

Hi everyone, please I need any advise.....please please please

My son just passed the driving test 2 weeks ago, we bought a second hand car as well and got a car insurance costing us £2,600 per year.
His car was a 2002 skoda bought at £1,400.00

Today, on a turning, a car suddenly made a very quick wide turn and to avoid him and a collision, he swerved to the left ending him hitting the pavement/gutter. The result, left wheel was misaligned, car needed to be towed to bring to our house.

So, what should we do? Have the car repaired and shoulder the expense, so that it wouldn't show as points in his driving license? I don't know anything about motoring and nsurance, but what's going to happen if he has points as early as now? I don't know if the car will be written off as well.

Or, call insurance.

If we call insurance, it can be written off - if it's written off, as this is just the 1st month, do we still need to finish the rest of the months to pay the insurance?

So, if example, my son gets the points for this, and if my husband makes him a second driver, will my husband's insurance be affected?

I appreciate any reply....thanks in advance

very unlikely to be written off
bent wishbone or similar is more likely

yes,if you claim you need to pay the full premium
you would be using the service,so would need to pay.

victor2

He's probably got an excess on the insurance which is very high, and possibly more than the cost of getting it repaired.
Get an independant estimate for repair. Assuming it can be repaired, then do it that way. Insurance company could write it off anyway, as it's a relatively low value car.
If you do claim, the premium will go up even more next year, so probably not worth it. If the car is scrapped, look into what the cost is of not claiming but cancelling the insurance, you'll probably get something back. If you claim, and the insurers write it off, you'll get nothing back.
As already said, don't worry about points. You don't get them for swerving and just hitting the kerb.

DCFC79

Cant really add anything else that hasn't already been said. Get it to a local garage to see what it will cost to put right, dont worry about points if all that happened is hitting the kerb.

Dasa

[QUOTE=rev_henry;56678481]Just get the damage repaired at a local garage and pay for it yourself. No need for insurance to get involved[/B]. No one is going to give him points either, not sure why you think that![/QUOTE]


Do this for sure.

nova_dee

Thanks guys, at least it's clearer now. I don't drive at all and this is giving me a massive headache.

forgotmyname

Did the police attend? If not then n worries on that, Only an issue if they attended and are considering driving without due care etc.

Any claim will probably mean you need to pay the policy in full even if he sells the car in a few weeks.
And then having to declare that for 5 years. Even if he notifies them of an incident and makes no claim it will still increase the premium.

They consider young new drivers to be very high risk, Your son proves that to be true.

If you add him to your insurance they will increase it a lot and if he has an accident you may lose your no claims.
Better off on his own policy. If he had hit another car or roadsign it would have been very expensive.