Do I claim on my car insurance or take the hit? Voices of reason needed!

Brie

Car seats as in kids seats?  So not part of the car and can be removed?  You might try to claim on it, get the £300+ after the excess and then keep the car and scrap it yourself.  If the car seats are actually what you sit on to drive then someone is likely to want to buy those for a decent price and you might manage to get the £1500 to get a new to you replacement.

GrumpyDil

Advice generally is not to use car seats after a crash (I wouldn't treat this as a crash though) and not to buy second hand as you have no Idea of whether or not they have been damaged. 

OP. I would look into write off and buy back but only after getting a view on whether there is any structural damage involved. 

Car_54

Nobbie1967 said:

Just keep driving it. As long as the doors still open and there are no sharp edges, it should pass the MOT. Pointless claiming as you’ll get very little for it after they’ve taken your excess off their their valuation of a Cat C with 175k on the clock and you’ll lose your NCB. As to whether you inform the insurer, that’s between you and your conscious.

No, the OP said it's protected.

Jimby509

paul_c123 said:

I can't believe you wrote off the car in an incident at that speed, yet the van is undamaged. Pics please.

To any one interested!

Jimby509

The Ford van that was the other vehicle had prominent hinges that did the damage.

Obviously it is still fine to drive but looks bad. Bad dent as well along the scratch but the door still opens and closes.

It's MOT is in Oct and it will need work that will cost.

Thank you for all of your input.  I think it is obvious to not claim and mess up my premium for the sake of a few hundred quid.  I can probably get £300 scrap.

I was under the impression that it was a matter of getting an insurance payout that would cover buying the same car, age, state, millage etc minus the excess of £370. Obviously it already being a Cat C car would reduce the payout.

Cheers for all the input

Stubod

..if that's it I would just carry on driving it!!!

Jimby509

Brie said:

Car seats as in kids seats?  So not part of the car and can be removed?  You might try to claim on it, get the £300+ after the excess and then keep the car and scrap it yourself.  If the car seats are actually what you sit on to drive then someone is likely to want to buy those for a decent price and you might manage to get the £1500 to get a new to you replacement.

Sorry for not explaining.  Yes, Child Car seats.

Jimby509

Mildly_Miffed said:

paul_c123 said:

I can't believe you wrote off the car in an incident at that speed, yet the van is undamaged. Pics please.

"Write off" is simply a shorthand for saying that the insurer will pay you the value of the car, rather than repair it.

For an 18yo 175k car with a declared value of £770, anything much beyond a tiny scratch on the paint will have the insurers throwing it in the bin.

OP - that £770 is auto-populated by many insurers when you fill in the proposal, based on their guide prices and what you've told them it is. The time to query that was when you got the quote. By buying the policy, you agreed that was the value.

Thanks for this advice.  I will certainly be reviewing the quotes in the future.

400ixl

Mildly_Miffed said:

paul_c123 said:

I can't believe you wrote off the car in an incident at that speed, yet the van is undamaged. Pics please.

OP - that £770 is auto-populated by many insurers when you fill in the proposal, based on their guide prices and what you've told them it is. The time to query that was when you got the quote. By buying the policy, you agreed that was the value.

They have not agreed that was the value at all. Please don't pedal that myth, seen it a few times recently and there is no fixed value, minimum or maximum from that figure. It is a guide figure for underwriting purposes for the quote. Nothing more.

The value of the vehicle is the market value at the time of the claim.

400ixl

You have to report it, even if it is just a notification.

That damage though is not an MOT failure, so you are in no worse a position than you were before the accident from the point of view of do you invest in the other repairs.

As for the car seats, no reason not to use them as normal. The advise on not using them is when they have been in an accident which would have in some way compromised them such as the seat belts being under pressure or airbags going off. Your scrape would have done no such thing.