Car insurance dilemma

Sparky67

My daughter's car came off the road on a bend and did some minor damage to a farmer's fence (her fault, although she suspects the farmer was running a bit of a scam as this happens a lot at this location). The insurance company have settled the claim for £350 (although they did believe that the farmer had inflated the damage caused, hence the scam - he was claiming £600+ at first).

Point is, my daughter has said to the insurers that she would repay them the money so that it doesn't affect her no claims bonus, which is now up to about 3 years. But, my view is that they are likely to increase her premium anyway because of the claim, so is she better off keeping her money and just paying the renewal?

I assume that if they have a claim against the policy she would lose all the no claims she has built up? Her premium was around £900 last year, so I guess keeping the no claims might be worth the expense?

Does anyone have any wise words of advice (other than protecting the NCB?)

GwylimT

If this happens a lot at the location the farmer isn't running a scam, people just aren't bothering to slow down adequately for a corner, I did very similar to your daughter when I first passed, but luckily no fence or hedge so my car was okay, I kept that quiet from my parents as well!

I would have thought paying back would make little difference as she has already made the claim and so become more risky to insure. Do some dummy quotes saying she had the accident a while ago (eg if renewal in four months, she crashed four months ago) and it should give an idea of price.

AdrianC

How very dare the farmer put a fence just where nice safe drivers happen to run out of tarmac.

But, yes, if she's made a claim for a collision in which she was at fault, then her NCB will be hit, and she will have to declare it for the next five years, and it will affect her premium.

Even if she doesn't make a claim, she will still have to declare it and it will affect her premium.

Since her insurers have become involved, and paid out, she cannot now wind back the clock and "un-claim" by repaying them. Sorry. Bit late.

Advice? Slow down for bends.

Aretnap

AdrianC wrote: »

Since her insurers have become involved, and paid out, she cannot now wind back the clock and "un-claim" by repaying them.

Erm, she can actually, if the insurers agree to it. She would still have to declare the accident, but her NCD would remain intact.

OP - if she does nothing her NCD will be reduced by 2 years and she won't get any increment this year, so if she had 3 at the start of the year she'll have 1 at renewal time, rather than the 4 she'd have if she didn't make a claim.

You're right that her premium is still likely to go up if she preserves her NCD, but it won't go up by as much as it would if she loses the NCD. it's worth doing some quotes on a price comparison site with two different NCDs to get an idea of what the difference is likely to be before she decides what to do.

sh0597

Might well be worth keeping the NCD.

arcon5

She has two options (based on her currently having 3 yrs ncb):

- Repay £350 to them.
- End year with 4 yrs NCB.
- End year having to declare accident but not claim.

or

- Keep £350.
- Renew with 1 yr NCB (I think it's 2 years she loses isn't it?).
- Declare accident and claim on renewal.

In most cases option 2 would cost a LOT more than £350. Some cases it is unlikely to - usually though thoses cases are middle-aged to elderly people with 5+ yr protected NCB.

I know personally NCB can make a big difference - last year we paid £800 with 2yr ncb, this year prices are going down to £500 with 3yr NCB. If we was renewing with 1 yr, I suspect prices would be about £900-£1k+. So just in one year it would cost us about £400+, then of course yr 2, yr 3 and yr 4 until we reach 4yr NCB again.

You need to do some dummy quotes to assess which option is the money saving one.

Assuming of course she's not involved in another accident before renewal making reimbursing them a waste or time and money

arcon5

Oh and as for the farmer, i'd be trying to milk it as well if I was him, if it happens a lot. It's probably a massive inconvenience him having to take time away from his every day work to fix his fence

colino

Think yourself lucky, one of the local farmers not only charges for recovery wagons to be on his property, but (successfully) claims not only for the destroyed fence (which is much more than £350 to reinstate a roadside section) but the damage to crop/soil too.

redcard

What a bizarre world we live in; Blaming the fence owner when we crash our car off the road and into his fence.