Car insurance after accident

ericthesanddune

Apologies if this is in the wrong forum 

My partner had an altercation in her car with a petrol forecourt metal barrier causing damage to a side door and wheel arch (her fault). The quote to repair is £1200. She has 9+ years no claims. Just wondering from any experience,  approximately how much car insurance premiums go up after a claim and if that increase in premiums is year on year… basically want to know the cheaper option, either claim on the insurance or stump up the money for the repair bill 

Thanks 

400ixl

No one can tell you that as it depends on the insurer and the insured. Does she have protect NCD? Not that it will make much of a difference.

You are typically asked if you have made a claim in the last 5 years, so thats how long it could have an effect. But that could be anything from no increase to hundreds.

Equally it could be your excess is £100 or £1000 so you need to compare it there as well.

Try doing a quote bot declaring a claim and not to see the difference

Redleavme

I'd do a compare with a online site, 1 declared 1 none. Bear in mind though the premium changes every year, so it won't be exactly,  but give you an idea

CliveOfIndia

ericthesanddune said:

The quote to repair is £1200.

Is that just for the repairs to the car?  I only ask because, if the garage claim against her insurance for damage to their property (which they would be perfectly entitled to do), you might be in for a shock when you find out how much it will cost - these kind of things can often cost waaaay more than a "layman" might expect.  So it may be a moot point as to whether you claim or not.

That aside, I'd concur with previous comments - there's really no way of knowing, doing some dummy quotes may give you a ballpark indication.

The excess, as noted by 400ixl, will be a factor as well - though it's not applicable if the insurers pay out only for the third-party damage.

DullGreyGuy

ericthesanddune said:

Apologies if this is in the wrong forum 

My partner had an altercation in her car with a petrol forecourt metal barrier causing damage to a side door and wheel arch (her fault). The quote to repair is £1200. She has 9+ years no claims. Just wondering from any experience,  approximately how much car insurance premiums go up after a claim and if that increase in premiums is year on year… basically want to know the cheaper option, either claim on the insurance or stump up the money for the repair bill 

Insurers ask you to declare all incidents, irrespective of fault or if you claimed or not, in the last 5 years (some are 3). The more recent the incident the more impact it has so it is on a year on year but it tails off fairly quickly. 

Insurance pricing is typically done my multiplication, so changing from A to B may increase the premium by 10%. If your premium is £200 thats £20 so probably most won't think too much of it, if your premium is £3,000 then thats an extra £300 and many people would feel that. Some factors are compounding so a single claim for a 17 year old will likely have a bigger percentage difference, as well as absolute, than the identical claim for a 40 year old.

Ultimately you need to consider the cost of repairs, if there will be a third party claim, excess, impact to NCD and impact to premiums. The NCD isnt likely to be massive even if unprotected as she'll drop down to 3 years but with many insurers the difference between 9+ and 3 is 10% or less these days.