Insurance - to claim or not to claim?

sarah1980

... that is the question!

Hubby pranged car (lamppost, private land) last week.  Estimate to repair what appears to be very minor damage is around £650. Our insurance excess is £200.  SUV crossover, fairly new, our premium is around £450 for the year 

The question is, do we claim on insurance or pay for this personally?  We have protected no claims, but what does this actually mean?  £450 is a lot to find this time of year but if our insurance will skyrocket perhaps it would be better to take it out of the ISA on this occasion.  I never know what's best in this situation.

Any advice/experience of this would be gratefully received.

Mark_d

You have had a prang and this needs to be reported to the insurance company.  Regardless of whether you claim this time, your insurance premium will likely increase next year.
If you do claim and have another prang later in the year, then you might lose your no claims discount.  For this reason it might be best not to claim.
Do you need to take money out of an ISA?  PersonalIy tend to keep about £10k in easy access savings because you never know what unexpected bills are around the corner.