Worth a claim?

dlk

Hopefully someone works in insurance around here and can give me a spot of guidance as my insurance company dont have any contact details to speak to them directly.

I had a bump in my car, scratching and denting the passenger side and breaking the rear wheel arch cover.

The best quote from two garages I've been to was £980 to repair all the damage.

Having contacted my insurance I discovered that when I renewed my policy I forgot to inform then of 3pnts on my licence which would have effected my premium so they've agreed to pay out but I will have to pay 16% of the claim + my £450 excess so about £610.

1. Would the claim make a massive difference to my ongoing premiums. (I do have full protected no claims). My premium currently is around £400 per year so if it goes up 20% because of the claim over the next 5 years that equates to £400 and suddenly it appears I might as well not continue with the insurance claim.

However because I've submitted a claim, even if I don't complete it and get a payout will this still mean increased premiums or will they just close the case if I pay for the repairs myself and not alter  my future premiums because of the claim?

brettcta

You’ve informed them so whether or not you proceed with claiming on your insurance, they’re aware you’ve had an accident and will likely use that for future renewals.

DullGreyGuy

dlk said:

Hopefully someone works in insurance around here and can give me a spot of guidance as my insurance company dont have any contact details to speak to them directly.

I had a bump in my car, scratching and denting the passenger side and breaking the rear wheel arch cover.

The best quote from two garages I've been to was £980 to repair all the damage.

Having contacted my insurance I discovered that when I renewed my policy I forgot to inform then of 3pnts on my licence which would have effected my premium so they've agreed to pay out but I will have to pay 16% of the claim + my £450 excess so about £610.

1. Would the claim make a massive difference to my ongoing premiums. (I do have full protected no claims). My premium currently is around £400 per year so if it goes up 20% because of the claim over the next 5 years that equates to £400 and suddenly it appears I might as well not continue with the insurance claim.

However because I've submitted a claim, even if I don't complete it and get a payout will this still mean increased premiums or will they just close the case if I pay for the repairs myself and not alter  my future premiums because of the claim?

Your way of thinking about the claim is incorrect and would suggest they had increased your premiums 6 fold. 

For a careless false declaration they are entitled to reduce the claim by the same percentage as you'd underpaid your premiums due to the issue. There is a bit of an assumption that they've decided to accept the £980 as fair value for the repairs, they may have reduced that before taking off for the under insurance. Similarly the post devaluation claim value is £610, the size of your excess is irrelevant to the calc.

Premiums go up by percentages, so if you want to see the impact then do two quotes on an aggregator like confused.com using bogus name/address, ideally in private/incognito mode, and do one with 3 points and an incident but no claims and a second with 2 points and a fault claim. The absolute values dont matter, its the percentage difference you are looking for. You can then apply that percentage to your premium to calculate the approximate impact year 1... it will tail off each subsequent year and be at 0% between 3 and 5 years time. 

Id be surprised if it'd been worth claiming had you not already informed them of the incident and been prepared to commit fraud by "forgetting" to mention it but that boat has already sailed as they'll have a formal record of the incident now.

What did you damage your vehicle on? If there is a third party, which can include the council if you damaged street furniture, then that will alter the sums.