Crashed courtesy car in the snow!

arcon5

withabix wrote: »

....but when the OP then made a claim, they would check and the OP would then find his insurance was voided for providing incorrect information.

Yes the consequences would be catastrophic, but how would they find out?

(Btw I don't condone it; just trying to establish how the industry works)

withabix

Driving licence number and Motor Insurance Database.

They ALL share information with each other, otherwise they wouldn't be able to operate their cartel successfully.

Wig

easilydistracted wrote: »

Unfortunately I managed to crash the car in the snow and a lot of damage was done. I was told the excess I would have was £350 on their car and have paid this, they will need to claim the rest on their insurance.

You were lucky there, it's not uncommon for courtesy cars to come with a a £10,000 excess.

When you tell your insurer, you may be covered for driving the courtesy car and so should look into your insurer paying for the £350

forgotmyname

arcon5 wrote: »

Yes the consequences would be catastrophic, but how would they find out?

(Btw I don't condone it; just trying to establish how the industry works)

As above the CUE database. Although its amazing how they will take your money then only check it when you need to claim.

See the insurance forum where someone got a bill for £6000 after failing to declare all facts to the insurance.

Also there is a post about someone getting a £20k bill after driving uninsured.

dacouch

Wig wrote: »

You were lucky there, it's not uncommon for courtesy cars to come with a a £10,000 excess.

When you tell your insurer, you may be covered for driving the courtesy car and so should look into your insurer paying for the £350

The Op's own Insurer will have their own excess to pay which I'm guessing is circa £350, if they put in for this they will also have their own no claims bonus affected.

Far better to allow the garage to claim on their own insurance, in reality the garage will probably not even claim but assuming they're an accident repair center do the work themselves. Their own Insurer typically only pays for claims for their own repairs as the garage's cost price eg probably circa £25 an hour rather than the price they charge other Insurers or the public.

As forgotmyname mentioned, claims are normally recorded on C.U.E http://www.insurancedatabases.co.uk/default.aspx

The public are welcome to request a copy of the data C.U.E hold on them for a small fee.

artbaron

withabix wrote: »

Driving licence number and Motor Insurance Database.

How would that work in this situation?

easilydistracted

dacouch wrote: »

The Op's own Insurer will have their own excess to pay which I'm guessing is circa £350, if they put in for this they will also have their own no claims bonus affected.

Far better to allow the garage to claim on their own insurance, in reality the garage will probably not even claim but assuming they're an accident repair center do the work themselves. Their own Insurer typically only pays for claims for their own repairs as the garage's cost price eg probably circa £25 an hour rather than the price they charge other Insurers or the public.

As forgotmyname mentioned, claims are normally recorded on C.U.E http://www.insurancedatabases.co.uk/default.aspx

The public are welcome to request a copy of the data C.U.E hold on them for a small fee.

Yep my own insurance excess would have been £350, plus they have a rather dodgy clause about an extra £200 if I choose the garage.

I checked before borrowing the car what the garage excess was as previously it was £1000 and was told £350. It was actually £500, but as they misquoted this and forgot to get me to sign the waiver re reclaiming excesses, they agreed on £350 and it's all been amicable luckily. If the excess was £1000 or more I would have put it on my own policy as my own policy only covers me third party for driving other cars.

I have checked on a hypotheical renewal as a fault accident and its gone up by a survivable amount, so that's not too bad. It seems the main thing I have to worry about at renewal is my new future address and increasd mileage in my new job, which makes the fault accident seem like nothing in comparison!

Thanks again everyone :money:

mattyprice4004

easilydistracted wrote: »

Yep my own insurance excess would have been £350, plus they have a rather dodgy clause about an extra £200 if I choose the garage.

How is that a dodgy clause? They probably get a referral fee from their garages, but they won't from yours.