Advice on whether to claim after wifes car crash.

Jimby509

Really need some advice on whether to claim off insurance or not. I have never been in an accident so have no knowlege of claiming.

My wife scrapped her car against a van while driving to work this morning. She admits its 100% her fault. The van needs a simple paint job of a few hundred quid (so the other driver says and he is happy not to go through insurance if we settle with him) but my wifes car (2005 kia ) has a deep gash across both passenger doors on left side and wing mirror ripped off.

My wifes car is a mess but totaly drivable. She has no no claims bonus. She has £350 excess on policy. I think her car would be written off by insures as the car can be replaced for the same age model for around £1000.

The car was a bit off a mess before accident anyway and we were only expecting it to make it to the next mot in 10months and then scrap it given all its advisories after last mot.

Is this a no brainer? Do we just claim off insurance? Am I missing any obvious pitfalls?

Any feedback from anyone with knowlege about car insurance claims is appreciated :T

straighttalker

If you claimed and the car were written off, your payment would be net of the £350 excess anyway so you'd just receive £650. Plus losing out on a year's NCB at the end of the term and a claim going down on your wife's policy. If it were me, I'd drive round with the damage like it is or scour ebay for a door.

[Deleted User]

Fix the mirror, make sure there are no sharp edges on bodywork.

Drive car until it dies, or MOT man signs it's death warrant.

McKneff

Even if you are not claiming you have to inform your insurance company of the incident.


You should also tell the other party that you will have to inform the insuance company as will he.
If it comes up in the future that he has had even a non fault incident, and not declaired it, he will be in trouble.

Quentin

McKneff wrote: »

You should also tell the other party that you will have to inform the insuance company as will he.
If it comes up in the future that he has had even a non fault incident, and not declaired it, he will be in trouble.

It's not for the guilty party in a claim to take it on themselves to go pestering the innocent party to inform their insurers!


(Especially when the innocent party is happy to assist the liable driver by not involving insurance)

xHannahx

If you go through insurers you'll end up with value less excess, say £650, plus increased premiums for 5 years or so, plus won't get first years no claims which tends to make the most difference. Claiming will cost you more in increased premiums over 5 years than giving van driver a few hundred quid.

I suspect in reality very few people tell their insurer about small bumps.
As long as no sharp edges can use the car as it is, will just be cosmetic and how people see it.

bowlhead99

So: if you make an insurance claim, you argue the wife's car is worth £1000 but the insurers say sorry we only reckon £900 really, you don't have a big file of impeccable service history and faultless MOTs to support your value.Then lose £350 excess so you net £550. With the £300 from your savings that you now don't have to give the van driver, you have £850 in your hand, and you don't have a car.

You can pull a couple of hundred quid out of the savings fund that you had presumably been building up to change the car in 10 months anyway, and then in total you'll have just over a grand to go and get a replacement car. But at insurance renewal you won't have the benefit of 1 year no claims which she'd have otherwise earned by not claiming, so that's maybe 20% extra cost on the policy from what it would have been, and she will have accident history so that's another unknown chunk. Could easily be another £100 a year on your policy but its pretty difficult for us to guess as we don't know whether she's currently paying £300 or £1500.

Alternatively, pay out the few hundred pounds of repairs yourself and don't claim - drive round in a battered car, build up the no claims, preserve the accident-free history, and scrap the car for parts when it can't pass the MOT.

It's more compelling to preserve the no-claim status if her next car was going to be a step up in value and insurance group to a better car. If she's just going to get another same-age £1k runabout with a relatively low insurance premium, you might as well claim on the insurance, 'cash in' your car that only had a year of life in it, and get a fresh one. That is of course what insurance is for. The loss of excess seems like they are taking a slice out of your car's value but really it is only money you'd have needed to pay over to van man to fix his paint job if you chose not to claim.

Of course, you might find that having cashed in your old car and going out into to the market to buy a fresh one for the £1k you've seen them at, you end up picking up a replacement that is literally the same age and condition and, like your current one, is on its last legs, and you end up changing it before or after the next MOT...

iainscomputer

You could always claim & let your insurance pay out to the 3rd party. Keeping your car as salvage & letting your insurance take the excess from a payout.
We did this with my mothers W reg Honda, they paid out minus the excess about £1000 & we purchased the salvage for £200. It was repaired for £100 & has been used by my wife for 18 months.
Just don't let the car out of your possession for the insurance to inspect it & then it won't disappear on a transporter.

Nasqueron

charliedanon wrote: »

Why? It will cause the OP more hassle like it did to me.

The "why" is because your insurance policy terms and conditions say so and they will happily cancel your insurance (which will mean crazy premiums for a long time) - if you get to renewal and get a reduction based on your incident free year you would also find yourself losing the difference between your premium and the extra they would have charged you had they known about the accident from any future payout

mcjordi

if you are happy to pay the van driver for repairs then just make sure you get a receipt signed saying that x amount was in full and final settlement of the incident dated x date x time etc
if you are going to do this i personally wouldnt inform insurers as even a 0 value claim will increase premiums.
replace mirror and door on your kia for less than £100 and live with the scrapes.

dannyrst

Nasqueron wrote: »

The "why" is because your insurance policy terms and conditions say so and they will happily cancel your insurance (which will mean crazy premiums for a long time) - if you get to renewal and get a reduction based on your incident free year you would also find yourself losing the difference between your premium and the extra they would have charged you had they known about the accident from any future payout

But they would have to find proof that you had an accident. If the van driver gets money and is happy, no report was made to the police of the incident and the OP doesn't mention it, how are they ever going to be able to prove that you had the accident?

Yes, the damage might be there, but perhaps it was like that when you bought it.