Help - Accident not my fault. Do I tell my insurance company?

humfer

Hello all. Some kind person reversed into me this afternoon smashing my headlamp and damaging the bumper. We are meeting up tomorrow at a local body repair place to get an estimate of how much to put right as the guy wants to pay up straight away and not involve insurance companies. I kind of prefer this route as I'm paranoid that my insurance company would up my premium next year even if its not my fault and the other parties insurance company pays up. Am I right to be paranoid? Just worrying that if the quote is very high and he wants to go through his insurance company, where does that leave me? If he claims to get my car fixed, and his insurance company sorts it all out, do I need to inform my insurance company at all?

Sagaris

"the guy wants to pay up straight away and not involve insurance companies" - implies to my suspicious nature that perhaps he doesn't have any insurance?
If the prang wasn't your fault it shouldn't affect your insurance when you next renew, unless the claim still isn't settled when you come to renew (well that's what happened to me a few years ago anyway). My insurance was re-instated to it's former status when the claim was settled when this happened to me.
Good luck!

humfer

Sagaris wrote: »

"the guy wants to pay up straight away and not involve insurance companies" - implies to my suspicious nature that perhaps he doesn't have any insurance?
If the prang wasn't your fault it shouldn't affect your insurance when you next renew, unless the claim still isn't settled when you come to renew (well that's what happened to me a few years ago anyway). My insurance was re-instated to it's former status when the claim was settled when this happened to me.
Good luck!

Well I'll see what happens tomorrow at the repair place

In terms off affecting future insurance, what do you put when it asks 'have you had any accidents, claims, etc. in the last 5 years?'. Is this related to incidents that have gone through your insurance policies and/or including where the other party has sorted it

nickmack

humfer wrote: »

Well I'll see what happens tomorrow at the repair place

In terms off affecting future insurance, what do you put when it asks 'have you had any accidents, claims, etc. in the last 5 years?'. Is this related to incidents that have gone through your insurance policies and/or including where the other party has sorted it

Usually the requirement is to inform them of any accident regardless of blame. Be careful about arranging to have these repairs done 'off the record'. If your insurance company subsequently finds out you have not informed them of this information, any future claims could be affected.

Tight_Git_3

I'd be inclined to let the bloke pay up and forget about. It's minor damage and shouldn't affect the structural integrity of the car.
It might not be the correct thing to do, but as Sagaris mentioned he may be an uninsured driver.
If you decide to let your insurance company sort it (and why not - that's what we pay them for) you could be opening a can of worms if this bloke is uninsured, which depending on your insurance company could result in you loosing some of your no claims bonus.

shelly

Have you met up with the guy yet humfer?

If its a small prang and he's willing to pay for it I'd say let him. Maybe he just wants to protect his NCB which he will lose if he claims.
This happened to me a long time ago when I first started driving. Long story short, we paid him to get car fixed, no ins co's were involved and everyone was happy.

cutebabe01

Sagaris wrote: »

"
If the prang wasn't your fault it shouldn't affect your insurance when you next renew

Unfortunately I have to disagree with that.

I have had two bumps in the last 5 years. Both not my fault (hit from behind), all sorted through their insurance and my pemium goes up now by £200

Even when I state, not my fault, they hit me etc.

humfer

Thanks guys for all your replys. Anyway to update you all. Met up with the bloke today at the paint shop to get a rough idea of how much its going to cost. Full quote tomorrow but they said it was going to be around £400 (£205 for the lamp from Audi and the rest on paint and labour for the bumper). Seemed a fair price to me. Anyhow the other chap has checked his insurance and found it only has a £200 excess, so is now starting to say he wants to put it though the insurance. He is going to do a few quotes tonight to get an idea of what this would do to his insurance next year and then sort it all out tomorrow

My biggest problem is that I had a renewal quote for 1st August which was £440. Adding a yes in the 'have you had any accidents, regardless of fault or claim in the last 3 years' now takes this up to £520!!! Thats even with no claim and no claim cost stated. Playing around with the quote system also shows an extra £80 for year 2 but back to normal year 3. The insurance companies simply cannot loose can they:mad: Anyway going to try a few more insurance companies to hopefully find one that doesn't penalise me for something clearly not my fault

EDIT - Well just done a quote with Privilege and I reckon I will be ok. All they ask is "have you made a claim in the last 3 years?" Well the answer to that is no as I am not making the claim.

raskazz

humfer wrote: »

EDIT - Well just done a quote with Privilege and I reckon I will be ok. All they ask is "have you made a claim in the last 3 years?" Well the answer to that is no as I am not making the claim.

Be careful... I thought I would check this as it sounded very unusual practice. The question does ask "Have you made any claims in the past 3 years?", however the "i" icon next to the question reveals:

"Claims History
Details of Claims should include any accidents, claims or losses made by you or against you irrespective of fault."

So make sure you inform them of the incident.

MarkyMarkD

Insurance premiums are based on risk.

It may SEEM unfair to have a premium increase after an accident which isn't your fault, but it is statistically true that someone who has one accident is more likely to have another one.

It's interesting that cutebabe has indeed had two no-fault accidents within 5 years. That's almost definitely more accidents than the average, and so the insurers were quite right to increase the premium after the first one as their risk was increased.

Just because after one no-fault accident the insurers recover their outlay doesn't mean it's cost them nothing. It costs money to administer claims.

And another time when you have a "no fault" accident, the third party may do a "hit and run" or be uninsured, leaving your insurer holding the baby.

shelly

humfer, don't worry too much about your premiums increasing, shop around and I think you will be ok.
Last year as named driver I made a claim on hubbys policy. Was totally my fault, no other cars or people involved. Our renewal increased but on shopping around I got a cheaper quote.
Also I think raskazz is right by saying you should inform ins co's when calling for quotes as sometimes the wording is a little confusing. You are right that you won't have made a claim but if in future you do need to claim and you haven't declared this incident they might not pay out.
I wasn't sure what to say at renewal regarding my claim on hubbys policy. I asked them and they were helpful by saying that hubby hadn't made a claim, even though its his policy, I had so it went on my records, not his.