Really dumb car insurance question ...

happycatuk

My car insurance is due tomorrow (eek), and I'm putting a friend on my insurance as an additional driver as I am often too disabled to drive for more than a 5-10 miles (due to CFS). I asked him if he's had any accidents over the past 5yrs, and he says he was driven into in a car park by a lady, who he believes claimed on her insurance even though he didn't make a claim as it may have written his rather old vehicle off!

And I got to thinking; I've had two very minor 'bumps' (slide into someone's tailgate on a slope, scraping my front bumper but giving the other party no damage, and having a rear wheel arch caught by someone in a car park) which, because I've never claimed for them - it was only really cosmetic damage - I realise I've never told an insurer about :eek: .

So .. I am going to state them this time around. But I still have a bunch of random knocks where my shopping trolley, other people's car doors etc have occured. Do I mention them? My car's coming up for 11 years old and is worth very little, do insurers accept that it may well look allitle, erm, worse for wear?

Also - what do I say about how much the damage cost? I haven't had the two 'knocks' above repaired, so technically they've cost me nothing, or do I say 'unknown cost', or estimate £100 each for them to be fixed?

I should know all this, and I feel so incredibly dumb for asking ..

Thanks x

happycatuk

Anyone?

Or am I better off starting afresh, donating my car to my friend and getting a new one through Motability ?

I feel really at a loss over what to do, and my insurance runs out at midnight tonight ...

JoeA81

The only thing your insurers will be interested in is any previous incidents where either you or a third party have claimed against a motor insurance policy and money has been paid out. If you have had the odd bump or scrape, but have never claimed any money back from the insurers (and importantly - the other person involved didnt claim against their insurance or against yours), then there is no reason to tell them (and I really dont think they would care about it). It would be impossible for them to prove that a bump had occured if no insurers had ever been told of the incident.

But your friend whos car was driven into...an insurance company (even thought it was not his) was told about this accident, meaning his information might be on file somewhere as having been involved in an accident, so you may need to declare it.

I would say insurance is a bit like a game. Dont tell them anything more than you absolutely have to, ensuring of course you tell them just enough to remain legally insured, and of course never blatantly lie.

And of course insurers are only interested in things that are going to cost them money. If shopping trolleys are going to continue to bump into your car in the future, as long as you arn't going to claim money from them for repairs, they wont care that it has happened in the past!

happycatuk

Dear JoeA81,
Thank you so, so much for putting my mind at rest!! :beer:

I wish I'd asked this question years ago, as I've always felt guilty about not telling an insurer about my little bumps but had no idea whether I should tell them or not! I've just visited Confused.com, who don't actually give you any drop-down option to tell them about unclaimed-for prangs, so I'm finally getting this issue resolved - thank you!

Right, now to sort out my actual insurance, lol [opens a search for any bad news on Elephant, Diamond or Bell]!