Do I make a claim with my insurer or other party?

oscarward

I had a similar situation recently. Clear cut third party fault so I claimed against their insurance and just informed my own insurers for info.  Their insurers accepted liability but then proved very difficult to get hold of, you are 130th in the queue🤬, please hold.  After a few months of trying they told me to contact a 3rd party repair organisation who when I eventually got hold of them weeks later said they didn’t repair private vehicles.  So back to the telephone queue. In the end after 6 months of frustration I chucked it back at my insurers ,LV who were brilliant. Like for like courtesy car, repairs arranged within 2 weeks and no affect on my NCD or excess. 

So it comes down to the insurers, cheaper ones may deduct excess and reduce NCD until they get all the costs back in which case going to the 3rd party may be easier.  But not always true.

SoozyJ22

I've unfortunately had a car crash into me while I was stationary twice in the last couple of years. Both times the other company's insurers phoned me to offer to do the repairs rather than going through my own insurance, to whom I'd already reported the accident.

The first time I found my own insurers very efficient when I reported to them online with all repairs, hire car etc arranged within a couple of hours, so I chose to stick with them rather than risk using the third party's insurers. 

The second time I was with another insurer and I wasn't impressed with them either in terms of their reporting process or the fact that they wanted me to wait 24 hours for someone to get back to me to arrange things. So when the third party's insurers (Direct Line) called me I decided to go with them as I'd had a good experience with them in the past. They were very efficient and easy to deal with and also paid me £250 for the inconvenience. 

So I'd say it really depends on the insurance companies in question.