Accident repair. Insurance claim or pay myself?

johnb123

My wife has just had an accident in our car. Not too serious but repairs will cost about £900. I have a £350 excess with my insurance company, plus if I arrange repairs myself a further £200 excess will be payable. Obviously, if I ask the insurance company to arrange repairs I will lose my no-claim bonus plus my premiums will rise in the future. My first question is do I have to inform the insurance company if I go ahead with the repairs? Secondly, if I do contact the company about the accident will this count against me in future premiums, even if I pay for the repairs myself?
Lastly, considering my position, would you suggest that I go ahead with the repairs myself, or let the insurance company deal with it?
Many thanks for any help!

glentoran99

johnb123 wrote: »

My wife has just had an accident in our car. Not too serious but repairs will cost about £900. I have a £350 excess with my insurance company, plus if I arrange repairs myself a further £200 excess will be payable. Obviously, if I ask the insurance company to arrange repairs I will lose my no-claim bonus plus my premiums will rise in the future. My first question is do I have to inform the insurance company if I go ahead with the repairs? Secondly, if I do contact the company about the accident will this count against me in future premiums, even if I pay for the repairs myself?
Lastly, considering my position, would you suggest that I go ahead with the repairs myself, or let the insurance company deal with it?
Many thanks for any help!

I don't understand why would their be two excesses? you either claim or you don't, but you must notify either way, It will count against you for future premiums


I would go through insurance, its what you pay it for

Quentin

Assuming no third party involved you can keep insurer out of the picture.

You can get a good idea of what a claim will do to future premiums now by doing dummy quotes online with and without the claim in your history (, change NCD too when doing this)

Don't contact your insurer unless you are certain you are going to make a claim as they will record the reported loss on your record. You will then have to disclose it to other insurers you approach for quotes in the future

johnb123

Thanks, Glentoran! My policy says that if I Insist on using an unauthorised repairer then a £200 excess is payable. Presumably this is because that they have contracts with repairers, and the more referrals that they make to them the cheaper the repairs are?