Repair claim from other car insurer

Aly_2

I had a ding with another driver who accepted full responsibility. The damage to my car is just the front bumper paintwork, approximately £350 plus hire car during works. 

I haven’t informed my car insurers and the other insurer, Admiral,  has offered to cover all costs and I’ve agreed to use their choice of body shop. Am I being naive? It’s been a long time since I’ve ever had to make a claim and I’ve never not gone through my own insurer but this way, I understand, my own insurance isn’t affected. 

Would appreciate any advice on this as I don’t want to be diddled! 

DullGreyGuy

Aly_2 said:

I had a ding with another driver who accepted full responsibility. The damage to my car is just the front bumper paintwork, approximately £350 plus hire car during works. 

I haven’t informed my car insurers and the other insurer, Admiral,  has offered to cover all costs and I’ve agreed to use their choice of body shop. Am I being naive? It’s been a long time since I’ve ever had to make a claim and I’ve never not gone through my own insurer but this way, I understand, my own insurance isn’t affected. 

Would appreciate any advice on this as I don’t want to be diddled! 

Why haven't you informed your own insurers? You're obliged to tell them as soon as practicably possible. 

Third party insurers are often keen to "capture" the non-fault claimants. They believe they can control costs better and thats certainly true compared to you ending up in the arms of an accident management company. 

Generally its all good, as long as you do inform your insurers, but as you are not their customer you have no rights of complaint/to go to the Ombudsman so if things do go wrong you'll be having to deal with it yourself. 

Obviously many people do choose to "forget" to tell their insurers, having claimed off Admiral they are likely to note the claim on CUE making it much easier for your insurers to detect your fraud -v- were you settling privately with the third party.

Aly_2

That’s a great and helpful response, thank you. I haven’t purposefully not told my insurers and I understand the need to, so will do today. I had only spoken to Admiral yesterday but began to get nervous about doing it that way, hence my query. Thanks again.