Car accident, agreed not through insurance, any implications?

Twopints

My son has had an accident resulting in no damage to his car but some minor damage to the other vehicle. Both parties are happy not to go through insurance to settle. However, I assume that both parties should still report it to their respective insurers.

Can anyone confirm this is the case, or would this effectively be the same as going through insurance i.e. in term of impact on no claims or future premiums?

ETA: My son is covered in his own name

Quentin

Your policy does require you to inform them about incidents that could lead to claims.

You can see what impact this has on future premiums by doing dummy quotes online with and without the incident in your history.

As long as no actual claim is made then his NCD is not impacted.

InsideInsurance

Assuming that you are the one thats at fault, just be aware that just because you decide to pay for their damages yourself now that it wont stop them in 2 years time being persuaded by an ambulance chaser to put in a claim against you for whiplash or other low level personal injury.

Twopints

Thanks for the replies so far. For the other party, if they go through their insurance does that count as a claim and impact their no claims bonus, or if they are not at fault does that not count against the NCB? I assume (again!) that they would also have to pay any excess as per their own policy?

For a small value claim (I hope) it would appear there is no benefit to either party to settle via insurance, except for the convenience of them handling it all.

InsideInsurance

Twopints wrote: »

Thanks for the replies so far. For the other party, if they go through their insurance does that count as a claim and impact their no claims bonus, or if they are not at fault does that not count against the NCB? I assume (again!) that they would also have to pay any excess as per their own policy?

Fault, as far as an insurer is concerned, is judged on if they have a net payout by the end of the claim.

If the TP claims off their own insurance and their insurers recover their outlay from either your insurers or you yourself then it will be a non-fault accident and not impact their NCD (though it may during the time the claim is open).

An excess is strictly always payable (if you have one) but some insurers will waive it in straight forward cases where the TP is fully identified and the TP is certainly 100% to blame. If it isnt waived then they would be able to reclaim their excess and any other uninsured losses (eg hire car, injury, loss of earnings etc) from you or your insurance.

Quentin

Twopints wrote: »

T

For a small value claim (I hope) it would appear there is no benefit to either party to settle via insurance, except for the convenience of them handling it all.

The innocent third party in an incident is entitled to all their costs (not just the repairs). They don't have to pay any excess (or if they do they get it back off you/your insurer).

eg. if they need a hire car whilst theirs is in dock/lose earnings etc it is down to you (or your insurer) to pay up, A small value claim can end up far more expensive than just the garage bill!