Advice on whether to claim after wifes car crash.

robbies_gal

id go with private- happened to me neighbour and i agreed not to tell insurers and settled it ourselves

Horizon81

As long as the van driver seems a decent chap and is happy to take the cash, I wouldn't be telling the insurers anything despite the 'what if' doomsayers above. In other words, keep your wife's "deep gash" to yourself.

Nasqueron

charliedanon wrote: »

How will the insurance company ever find out?

Accidentally mentioned on the phone to insurer; driver is employed by a firm who insist on it going into the insurer when they find out; quote done with it on by mistake; bodyshop finds there is much more damage and it'll cost a lot more than a few hundred quid etc

Can happen, probably won't. Depends how much you value having to pay for a policy with cancelled insurance on whether you want to risk it

dannyrst

Nasqueron wrote: »

1)Accidentally mentioned on the phone to insurer; 2)driver is employed by a firm who insist on it going into the insurer when they find out; 3)quote done with it on by mistake; 4)bodyshop finds there is much more damage and it'll cost a lot more than a few hundred quid etc

Can happen, probably won't. Depends how much you value having to pay for a policy with cancelled insurance on whether you want to risk it

1) It shouldn't even cross your mind when on the phone to your insurer.
2) But you'd be informing the insurance company, therefore playing by the rules.
3) That isn't proof of anything.
4) Again, you'd then go through insurance and be playing by the rules.

I highly doubt you have reported every single incident to your insurer. When you ding your door on the fence? When you clipped the kerb and hit your alloy wheel?

McKneff

Quentin wrote: »

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)

I didn't say he had to go pestering the innocent parties insurance. I meant if he wanted to do it privately he had to inform his own insurers, (even if he wasn't making a claim)

Jimby509

Thanks for all the info, I knew I could count on this forum.

Informed the insurance and they have been great. They are paying out for the paint job on other vehicle and will tell us how much it cost, we have the option to pay off the amount in which case no 'no claims' will be lost.

I am taking my wife's car to the insurance aproved garage tomorrow as I want them tell me if it is a write off or not. If it is I can claim the cost of the car minus the excess and then keep the car for a small fee and do the work myself.
The insurer also advised me to claim for new childrens car seats as two were in the car at the time.

My wifes premium will double to £900 but found another insurer who will insure her for around £500 (even with £50 cashback via quidco).

All depends on if car is a write off or not. Find out tomorrow.

Regards informing the insurance or not... the other party had already informed his insurance, not sure if insurance providers share info but I am glad to have declared it. I could understand not reporting my wifes bumps but a deap gash is another matter.

Richard53

Jimby509 wrote: »

I could understand not reporting my wifes bumps but a deap gash is another matter.

Snort


Let us know how you get on.

Nasqueron

dannyrst wrote: »

1) It shouldn't even cross your mind when on the phone to your insurer.
2) But you'd be informing the insurance company, therefore playing by the rules.
3) That isn't proof of anything.
4) Again, you'd then go through insurance and be playing by the rules.

I highly doubt you have reported every single incident to your insurer. When you ding your door on the fence? When you clipped the kerb and hit your alloy wheel?

1) It is a possibility, that's all. I am insured on my partner's car and she on mine, if I had a bump and didn't mention it to the insurer but obviously told her, she might mention it to the insurer - it's an easy enough mistake to make
2) My point on the other driver would be that you would then have to ring your insurer and effectively admit to not telling them about the accident in breach of the terms
3) I meant a quote that goes to the insurers
4) See 2 - admitting to the insurer you were breaching the Ts & Cs by hiding the accident

I have a new car, it's parked on the road, it has never dinged a fence or scraped things. When I replaced my car after skidding on ice and doing enough damage to make the old car not worth repairing I informed the insurers for information purposes only - I could easily have just told them I found a new car as I was planning to replace the car at 10 years old and the finance was too good to miss (0% deal that I have) but to me that's not worth the risk, at renewal I got a new insurer with a lower quote even with the incident and have peace of mind

SeduLOUs

Fortunately I've never been in the situation but I think I would go through insurance.

My biggest fear would be that I'd hand over the cash for the repairs, and the next day I'd get a call from my insurance company to inform me that the 'innocent' party I have just paid has now put a claim in.

I could hardly turn round at that point and start presenting receipts for amounts paid, as that would just be a blatant admission that I had deliberately attempted to hide the incident from my insurer.

Jimby509

I never thought an insurance claim could be so tedious. The first assessor took look at the car and said it will cost £3,000 to repair (the car can be replaced for £1,200) therefore was a write off, the second assessor from the insurance has taken a look at the photos of the car and told the garage to go ahead with the repairs!

I have no idea why the insurer would pay more on repairing the vehicle than the vehicle is worth???

I'm expecting a phone call from the second evaluator and I'm going to try to convince him to write off as category D. I don't want to have to pay the £350 excess I just want to take the money for the car and organise the work myself.