Advice needed. (Car Insurance)

Cla89

Hi everyone,
Haven't posted for a long time so please bear with me as the story is quite long.
At the weekend I scraped the bumper of a parked car in a supermarket car park. I waited for around half an hour to see if the driver would come back but in the end I wrote my details on a receipt and asked them to contact to me and put it under the windscreen wiper. However, during my drive home there was a significant rain shower and I was concerned the receipt would be either washed away or be made illegible. With this in mind I contacted my insurance company (Admiral) to let them know of the incident and the potential for a claim against my policy should the driver make contact. I also reported the incident and left my details with the police in case the driver reported the damage.

So two days went by, and I had no contact from the driver. Then yesterday, I received a phone call from the driver who had managed to dry out the receipt and get the correct number. She was very co-operative/understanding and thankful that I had left a note. She said that there was a small scratch but it had gone down to the metal but that she hadn't contacted my insurance yet as she wanted to know what position i was in regarding settling outwith insurance.

So she has offered to get a quote for me which would allow me to make a decision on whether to settle outwith or through insurance which was really decent of her.

The way it is looking just now is the increase of my premium at renewal is roughly £200 with/without claim as i have reported the incident. The only loss would be my 2 years NCB.

I then received a phone call from insurance today asking if driver had been in touch, to which i replied yes. Admiral had then asked for drivers details (as they would need to contact to ensure no claim being persued) several times i tried to explain that the claim was still open at the moment until a quote had been received and i had made a decision, to which admiral insisted on contacting the driver.

I then made contact with the driver myself just out of courtesy to alert her that my insurance might make contact with her. She then returned my phone call around half an hour later saying that my insurance Admiral had phoned her and were pressing her to make a claim and offering her a courtesy car, to which the driver reiterated our situation to them and declined the offer at present.

I am unsure why Admiral would be offering a courtesy car to someone who has not made a claim against my policy and why they would be so desperate for a claim to be made against one of their policy holders.

When on the phone i also asked what the procedures are for settling outwith insurance to which they said verbal contact (via telephone) from third party to confirm closure of claim. Is this correct? Would i not need written confirmation/receipts of repair work?

So in conclusion I am looking for advice on:
Why admiral are pressing for a claim to be made against me (THEIR policy holder).
Why are they offering a courtesy car to someone who has not yet filed a claim?
Do you think it's best to settle outwith insurance or just have a claim made against me?
How do I go about settling without insurance the right way?

TIA

worried_jim

Sounds like it is too late now for you to deal with and Admiral of taken control and are doing what you have paid them to do.

Cla89

Thanks for your reply, but third party has not agreed to pursue the claim at present? Can admiral still go ahead without permission from third party?

worried_jim

They would be daft not to now, guaranteed repair and a courtesy car if needed.

Quentin

When you cause damage to a third party they are entitled to all their costs off you not just the repair which is why they have been offered a replacement car.

Admiral have told you what to do if you want to keep it private.

Though the third party may not be so pleased to cooperate now that they know you have reported their details meaning they too must now tell their insurer and as well as you will have this on their record to disclose to future insurers, causing premiums to be loaded over the next 3/5 years

InsideInsurance

Admiral want to avoid the third party going through the Accident Management route hence contacting them to try and "capture" the claim.

Admiral will get very low labour rates from their preferred garages, a decent discount of parts and paints and will initially try to get them to take a group A hire car for which they will be paying £10 a day.

If an accident management company get involved they will charge an inflated labour rate, no discount of parts or paint and will go for a like for like hire car. Even if it is a group A car you're talking almost £40 a day and needless to say they will get an extra day or two hire than is absolutely necessary. If it was an entry level Toyota RAV4 then its £115 a day.

These companies give healthy kickbacks so if your TP goes to a garage to get a quote theres a fair chance they will try and persuade them to use their "accident specialists" or sell their details for the cold calls to start. I've even known them to try to claim for "psychological damages" after they discovered it was a unoccupied car that was hit.

Needless to say that most with damage do claim and so insurers find it better to deal with them directly themselves and possibly have one or two additional claimants than to let a load of claimants go through the AxM route and double or triple the costs.