Wife was in a non fault accident, third party insurance wants her to go through them rather than own

2pints

Wife got rear ended (non fault)and other person admits liability, their insurance have already been in contact to say they will deal with it with no excess  and £200 for the trouble along with hire car and an approved garage of my choosing for repairs  with a 3 year guarantee.

She hasn't informed her own insurance as yet due to time of accident and time getting home and they are closed.

Few years ago I had non fault accident too and the other persons insurance offered similar but I went via my insurance and they advised to ALWAYS go through your own insurance.

What is the best option to take?

Thanks.

McKneff

I did mine That way, as long as you ring your insurance company tell them it's fir information only and go with the 3rd party. Smooth and easy. 
Mine was settled in a week. 

cw8825

Point to remember.  You are not a customer of the other insurance company so if anything were to be an issue you are less protected. 

phey708

It sounds like they are admitting liability which sounds good. They have likely contacted you as it will work out to be the most efficient way of dealing with the claim.

They will be wanting to avoid an accident management company which is probably what your own insurance will use as this really drives up the cost of a claim and the filters down to increasing everyones premium in the long run.

Brie

If your wife was involved in an accident she MUST inform her insurance company.  She might make her policy invalid otherwise.  Last thing she wants is to get this other company to sort out her car and mess that up and she then have something happen which will be blamed on her and her insurance not be willing to assist.  

Martyn_H

Sage advice from Brie.

This makes for interesting reading:

https://www.theguardian.com/money/article/2024/may/11/cars-charges-insurance-premiums-cost-of-claims

GrumpyDil

Personally I would probably go with the third party insurers offer and make it a notification only to your insurer 

DullGreyGuy

Many will go with the third party and have no problems at all, just remember though that you are not their customer and as such you have no right to complain and escalate to the ombudsman if things do go wrong. 

With that one exception aside then most find going via the TPI less painful given no excess to pay and recover, an appropriate hire car rather than a Corsa from the garage if they happen to have one spare or worse, credit hire. 

As others have said, you are legally obliged to inform your own insurer as soon as is practicably possible even if you intend not to claim from them. Depending who they are they may push you down the credit hire route but that is problematic if the TPI have already offered to deal with it.