Car insurance claim young driver

GS7

Hi, looking for some advice, apologies for the long post.

My son crashed his car last week (1st car) no-one else involved and he's fine, but car was a write off ( structural)

He got a replacement car, and unfortunately had a slight bump in traffic yesterday (he went into the back of someone, misjudged the conditions, braked too late).  Again thankfully no one hurt, he's obviously upset, he annoyed with himself as, after the first accident he said he thought he  was driving really carefully and just didn't manage to stop in time.   Rear bumper damage to the car he hit, but his car is bonnet, wing, headlights bumper and radiators (he's got a golf, car he bumped was SUV, so connection was higher up on his car, causing more damage).  Insurance would probably write this one off as well due to cost of repair v value, but not structural so we could repair ourselves with bits from scrapyard etc.

So question is how best to proceed, to keep him right insurance wise, but not crucified in premium ( premium almost doubled  to £1500 when he got a new job as a tyre fitter/ trainee mechanic from being a student and working in a bar, then went up another £1100 after the accident last week and the new car)

As I see it we have a couple of options

1- Claim on insurance, and deal with the premium increase likely for next 5 years

2- Pay for repairs for both cars to avoid involving insurance. This obviously assumes the other party would be ok with doing that.

I guess there could be a 3rd option of only claiming for repairs to other car, and not claiming for his car, but I'm not sure there would be any advantage to that?

Do we have to still notify insurance if we are not making a claim?

If we do notify insurance and don't make a claim, will the resultant premium hike be as bad as if we made the claim anyway? If it's not going to save home money longer term on premiums, we may as well save the cash we would be spending on repairing.

Oh and son is going on the advanced drivers training course both to help avoid reocurrances and also to help with insurance premiums going forward.

Appreciate any advice/feedback 

MX5huggy

Nightmare!
Claim for the other car no doubt, too many issues when trying to repair someone else’s car, if they find more damage, want to use the Harrods of bodyshops, decide not to fix the car but want cash etc etc. 

GS7

MX5huggy said:

Nightmare!
Claim for the other car no doubt, too many issues when trying to repair someone else’s car, if they find more damage, want to use the Harrods of bodyshops, decide not to fix the car but want cash etc etc. 

Thanks MX5huggy, and you make a good point.....Trouble is, if we claim for their car is he going to be hit in same premium increase, as if we claim for both?  If he's looking at the same increase either way, no point in claiming for their car, then paying to fix his car and paying additional premiums as well....l

Aretnap

A claim is a claim. If he makes a third party claim anyway, adding on a bit for his own repairs will make little or no additional difference to his own premiums going forwards.

His policy will require him to declare any accidents whether he plans to claim or not, though many people who settle minor accidents with a handful of banknotes do forget to do this. It could come back to bite him though if the other driver decides that he's suffered some whiplash somewhere down the line... 

GS7

Aretnap said:

A claim is a claim. If he makes a third party claim anyway, adding on a bit for his own repairs will make little or no additional difference to his own premiums going forwards.

His policy will require him to declare any accidents whether he plans to claim or not, though many people who settle minor accidents with a handful of banknotes do forget to do this. It could come back to bite him though if the other driver decides that he's suffered some whiplash somewhere down the line... 

Thanks Aretnap, issue is, insurance will write off his his car as uneconomic repair so it will significantly increase the size of the claim.

facade

Just claim on insurance, for both vehicles. If they write off the golf, ask to keep the car and use the payout to fix it and offset some of the insurance increase.

If it puts another £1000 a year on his insurance for the next 5 years, it would still be cheaper than paying for repairs to both cars and a possible whiplash claim from the other driver- he hit the other car hard enough to write off the golf, there is a real chance the other driver will get a sore neck in a couple of days.

pinkshoes

It is safer and easier to claim on insurance. 

The cost in the long run could be far cheaper than paying for the damage to the other car. What if more damage was found? What if they claim for an injury? The bill could run into £1000s.

Someone "bumped" into my car which looked like just bumper damage to mine (and their VW polo was written off), but when the garage got round to having a good look at it, it had buckled lots of the back end of the car which was not visible from outside, and ended up almost being a write off!

Arklight

Yes, you have to notify your insurer. 

I don't understand people who try and wiggle out of telling their insurance company they were in an accident. It just isn't worth it; the consequences of trying to cover up a crash where one car has been written off and another damaged can be thousands of pounds in repairs and injury claims, and an eventual claim against your own policy, which your insurer will then most likely cancel for deceiving them.

The other party may well have already told their own insurer and passed on all your details. They aren't going to let you bypass yours so you can repair their car on the cheap, at your convenience, while they get to know the area's bus routes.

Also, this is about a young driver who has written off two cars in a week and damaged a third. It might not be a bad thing if he has a break from driving. 

MEM62

GS7 said:

If we do notify insurance and don't make a claim, will the resultant premium hike be as bad as if we made the claim anyway?

That is probably the case but you do not have the choice.  Your son is obliged by the terms of his policy to report the accident either way.  After the second, the cost might not be your biggest issue - the underwriter may have an issue offering continuing coverage.  I think some additional lessons would be prudent.      

Sandtree

GS7 said:

If we do notify insurance and don't make a claim, will the resultant premium hike be as bad as if we made the claim anyway? 

"Incidents" that dont result in a claim tend to have less impact than claims however each insurer has their own pricing logic and there will always be exceptions.

GS7

Thanks for all the feedback folks, we have informed the insurance company and are pending what the next steps are