Car accident with 0 no claims?

Andy_Zse

I need a bit of help with a situation. I hit a friend of a friend the other day. She's ok with it, and said that we could sort it without the insurance getting involved. There was minimal damage on mine, just a bit that I bumped out and a little bit of paint.

Her's wasn't bad either, just a crack on the bumper. We discussed it a couple of days later, she said that she had found the part for about £50 and knew someone who could install it, costing me around £100 which I was happy to pay.

She has just come out now with a quote from a garage for £700. She hasn't said she will definitely use it, but it seems like a joke of a quote for the work that needs doing. They've said the metal bit behind it is dented, but that's something I could bump back out in minutes, and it's behind the bumper anyway. Was only a minor hit so there won't be any serious damage to it. I do minor car repairs for myself and family, and there's no way that should cost anywhere near that. I don't want to kick off as it could get ugly with my friends, but I won't be happy if I have to pay that.

I basically have 2 questions. Can I challenge her if she does try to get me to pay that? I know it's it's a rubbish quote, but do I have any right to challenge it?

Secondly should I go through my insurance? I had the direct line thing, where I had no claims on another policy for 5 years, and got the discount applied to this one, which I've had less than a month! I know that's just a discount for the first year, and acts differently to normal no claims. Would me making a claim like this bump it up loads? My excess is £350 so I'd have to pay that anyway. I don't know how it would react, because really I have 0 no claims discount?

So do I try to get her to get a more realistic quote? Pay her for this quote? Or go through insurance and hope it doesn't put my rates up loads?

InsideInsurance

1) You can do very little.... if she is going to a formal garage then the quote isnt surprising. Unless its basically cash in hand type of place you can get very little done for sub £500 and many will charge service rates (£100+/hr) for bodywork on small jobs

Challenging work needed to repair and rates charged by garages is very difficult. You'd need to get an expert to validate the work needed and as long as the garage is charging their/ industry standard rates there is nought you can do about that bit.


2) You dont pay an excess on TP claims so as long as you dont claim for your vehicle then there is no xs to pay. You will however get the double hit of losing the discount and having a claim against you which you must declare on both your policies (you should declare the incident on both anyway irrespective of if you claim but many would "forget")

Do some dummy quotes online using slightly modified personal details and see what the impact is of 1 years ncd and clean record -v- 0 ncd with claim + 5 years ncd on 2nd vehicle but 1 recent claim

Andy_Zse

Thanks for the quick reply. Sorry I missed a bit out about my insurance. I was a named driver on the other policy, not the policy owner. I was gonna try the dummy quote but I have no idea where to start putting that in!

I don't understand the bit about no excess? I'm not sure what TP means either? Would I not have to pay the £350?

I thought that might be the case with the garage quote. I've told her I think that's a bit excessive for what is probably 10 mins work. She's gonna get a few other quotes.

InsideInsurance

Your excess is only payable on claims for damages to your own vehicle. If only the Third Party (TP - your friend) claims then you dont pay the excess

To the dummy quote.... put details similar but not identical to yours in (eg change your name but keep the same gender, marital status etc, use a dob 1 day different to your dob, say you dont have the vehicle reg and enter it using the drop downs etc)

These days software is used to quote for jobs in large garages. You just enter the make, model, damage and hourly rate and it spits out the costs. It makes it very hard to challenge as it is industry standard data that is used and arguing if a panel should be replaced or beaten tends not to get very far (and often the price difference isnt massive anyway)

Andy_Zse

Ah I see. Right I've got some figures here.

I pay £450 a year at the moment. The dummy quote, with 1 claim for £600 (the quote was actually this looking back at it!), is £590.

With 1 years no claims it's £540. That seems a bit strange to me, I thought it would affect me a lot more? Do these figures seem right to you? And does having my girlfriend on as a named driver affect her insurance at all?

Looking at this it might work out a lot cheaper to go through the insurance? Would you say so too?

InsideInsurance

Seems surprisingly close given that 1 years NCD traditionally represents a 30% discount but the methods of doing premium calculations are getting ever more complex and so things are not as simple as they used to be especially when comparing hundreds of companies each with their own rules/ preferences etc.

It doesnt effect her insurance by adding her to yours, she will need to ensure she declares that she does have access to another vehicle on her policy. The only time it impacts her is if she has an accident in which case her record must be updated on both policies.

Andy_Zse

I'm using a compare tool but both quotes are with the same company!

I haven't explained myself properly again. She is currently a named driver on mine, and doing these quotes I've put here on again. When I got this policy out, having her on it made it about £200 cheaper. Will it affect her if I claim on this current policy? She has her own policy which I'm not on at the minute.

InsideInsurance

No, as she is not the driver nor the policyholder so the fact she is a named driver on your policy makes no difference.

If you are named on her policy (or anyone elses) then they will need to declare the change in your claims history as a ND

vaio

try and keep her sweet and get her to let you repair it or use the cheap garage

If either of you report it or even mention it to your insurer then you both must declare it for the next 3/5 years and will both suffer premium loadings as a result.

Obviously the at fault party will be worst hit but the non fault party will suffer a hit too.


I

dalesrider

Andy_Zse wrote: »

She has just come out now with a quote from a garage for £700. She hasn't said she will definitely use it, but it seems like a joke of a quote for the work that needs doing. They've said the metal bit behind it is dented, but that's something I could bump back out in minutes, and it's behind the bumper anyway. Was only a minor hit so there won't be any serious damage to it.

I do minor car repairs for myself and family?

So you will be aware that bumpers and their fittings behind are designed to deform in a accident.
So just bending that bent metal bit could cause far more serious issues or injury if it was hit again.

Andy_Zse

The damage is more cosmetic than dangerous. Mine is fixed now, minus me getting a bit of paint to touch up some scuffs.

She's still waiting for the quote. If it is £600 or thereabouts, I'm definitely going through the insurance. If it only makes £40 difference, it's gonna work out a lot cheaper in the long run than paying £600 out now.

I've tried using the "your insurance will go up too", but I don't think it will change her mind. Not even sure she believes me but that's up to her.