Should I claim on Insurance?

KaiserKeiser

I damaged my 06 campervan when pulling out of the drive. No one else's property involved, no injuries. I have 1yr unprotected no claims discount on my policy. I've had the policy for 15 months.

I've had a couple of quotes to put it right from £1350+ VAT to over £2K. I have not approached my insurance company yet.

I don't know how to work out the best way of proceeding. Should I claim or not? I don't have a massive NCD to loose, but I don't know how much the premium will increase on renewal, and I know that once the insurance company knows, I'll have to declare when shopping around at renewal. 

Any advice please?

Thanks

caprikid1

Problem is it's not just about your NCD, you will have an at fault claim, so you will lose your NCD and gain an at fault claim also .

Easiest thing is to do a quick comparrison quote and decide based on renewals quotes. Feel's marginal to me, we don't know what insurance you currently pay though. If £200 Per Year then claim if £1500 probably not worth it.

Any garages able to do it for cash ?

Sandtree

Whats your excess? Whats the rest of your risk profile look like? What were this years premiums?

KaiserKeiser

Thanks for replying - didn't know about the At Fault Claim - good info, thanks @caprikid

The premium is £375. There's £350 excess on the policy. Not sure about my risk profile Sandree. I have had not clames in over 10 years. I have only 1 year NCD as it's a different class of vehicle (i think).

Ebe_Scrooge

For that sort of money, it's going to be a fine balancing act.  You've got your excess to pay, you'll lose your NCD, and next year's premium will increase since you'll have at "at-fault" claim.

What sort of damage is it?  Structural or purely cosmetic?  If the latter, is it something that one of these "chips-away" type outfits could sort out?  Or even something you could do yourself if you're not too bothered about it looking pristine?

KaiserKeiser

ChipsAway are not interested - it's too big a job because of the bent panels.

It's looking more like I'll be paying cash i think!

born_again

KaiserKeiser said:

Thanks for replying - didn't know about the At Fault Claim - good info, thanks @caprikid

The premium is £375. There's £350 excess on the policy. Not sure about my risk profile Sandree. I have had not clames in over 10 years. I have only 1 year NCD as it's a different class of vehicle (i think).

That sounds like you have other car ins policies.
If that the case then remember you will have to declare this claim on them as well. If you go the ins route.

Username03725

If it's a close thing between additional insurance costs and paying out once, the one-off is the best way surely. Pay it, get it sorted and forget about it. The alternative is having to pay the loading for the next few years. If you can, do it all now and move on.

Sandtree

KaiserKeiser said:

Thanks for replying - didn't know about the At Fault Claim - good info, thanks @caprikid

The premium is £375. There's £350 excess on the policy. Not sure about my risk profile Sandree. I have had not clames in over 10 years. I have only 1 year NCD as it's a different class of vehicle (i think).

So at £1,200 for the claim after the excess, your premium is low and so a percentage uplift could be material for the fault claim but in absolute terms its unlikely to be massive.

Whilst it will only impact this NCD it will impact the premiums of all the vehicles you are named on or a policyholder for so if there is only one other and it is also a small premium currently then its possibly worth claiming but fairly borderline... obviously if the panel comes off and much more damage is found then claiming would have made sense.