Car insurance question

tostaky

Last week I reverse into someone who "magically appeared" behind me just as i was parking my car....  I suppose it was my fault then as I reversed into him...
He sent me a quote from his garage for about £1,200 which is a lot.
I have just renewed my insurance, I have 20+ years of no claim bonus. My excess is £500 - I paid £400 of insurance for one year.
would i be better off :
1) paying the £500 excess and accepting the next time i renew my insurance i will have to pay a higher rate
2) paying the garage the guy quoted
3) Tell the guy he can do a no-fault claim if he has a comprehensive cover and i wont have to pay anything
3) another way???

Thank you!

baser999

Given the other party ‘magically appeared’ are you sure it’s not a crash-for-cash operation? What sort of damage did they sustain to generate a £1200 bill. Garage costs aren’t cheap, but that seems a lot of damage.
Personally I’d not pay the garage or the other party - if that’s a genuine repair cost, I’d go down the insurance route. Your insurers may well go out and have an assessor look at the supposed damage.
Was there comparable damage to your car - that can be a good indication of other party damage

daveyjp

I assume no damage to your car?

You don't pay the excess for damage to the other party's vehicle.  Let insurance deal with it.

You will need to notify the insurer of the incident next year, but you can shop around if the premium goes up.

tostaky

Thank you both. 

No, no damage to my car…
i have never heard of crash for cash… 
this is very interesting but it would be very hard to prove… It did seem like really bad luck. 

I had two kids with me so i did not bother asking for witnesses…

another question: this happened when i was with my previous insurer. Now this has expired and i have a new insurance. Who should i talk to? The one when it happened or the current one? Many thanks! 🙏 

DullGreyGuy

You dont pay the excess on third party claims, only if you claim for your own damage. 

1 & 3 are the same other than for your mistake about paying an excess.

baser999 said:

Given the other party ‘magically appeared’ are you sure it’s not a crash-for-cash operation? What sort of damage did they sustain to generate a £1200 bill. Garage costs aren’t cheap, but that seems a lot of damage.

"Magically appeared" = proper observations weren't being made... even fraudsters haven't mastered the art of teleportation and so a vehicle has had to come from somewhere.

£1,200 is a tiny sum for a quote for insurance repairs... insurers only use brand new parts, expect all paint to be blended into the surrounding panels and an A1 quality repair. More than a decade ago the average fender bender we'd reserve at £3k per vehicle and a massive amount more for luxury marks or high speed collisions.