urgetn accident advice needed.

hm2be

My partner has had an accident on the motor way after a loose tire came onto his lane. The car is quite damaged and will cost quite a bit to fix. We have one years no claims and £250 excess. Our insurance is quite expensive and we are unsure whether to claim as our premiums will go up and we will lose our no claims. To fix privately we are estimating close to £1000 plus money to tow. We are unsure what to do. Can anyone advise?

Quentin

The problem with making this decision is whether or not you will need to claim again (and again) in the future.

You can work out the implications of making a claim (your ncb is lost and next year's premium will probably be higher than this years as a result of a loading because of the claim), consequently future premiums for ongoing years will be higher than they would have been had you not made a claim.

But if you pay the repairs yourself yet have to make another claim, maybe you will wish you had just put this one through the insurance company!

Towing off a motorway is expensive, so find out the total costs involved before you decide.

hm2be

OK we have decided to go through insurance and we need a courtesy car which is in our policy. However when we phoned to report the accident firstly they didn't want to take the call saying it was out of ours. When we called back today We insisted that they log the call because we are supposed to report within 24hours. Anyway. they took the details and said someone would call back tomorrow but couldn't say whether we would get a courtesy car by tomorrow which would probably mean no car until Tuesday. We have a very busy weekend ahead and need the car. Are we within our rights to insist on a courtesy car at least by tomorrow?

brazilianwax

No, you're not.

The courtesy car is provided by the garage that is repairing the car. Your car has not yet been looked at, let alone booked in for repairs.

Depending on the value of the car, and the fact that insurance repairs are more expensive, it may be that your car is written off.

If the insurance company agree to repair the car (after it's been properly assessed) then you'd get a courtesy car. You won't get anything until then, and I doubt that much will happen over a double bank holiday weekend

patchy987

can i just add that although courtesy cars are supplied by the repairing garage but if you have a policy with certain insurers they have guaranteed hire car cover so you should get a car. also if there is a third party who can be held at fault for the accident then a company like help hire may be able to help you. best thing is to check if you have a policy with guaranteed hire car cover

brazilianwax

patchy987 wrote: »

can i just add that although courtesy cars are supplied by the repairing garage but if you have a policy with certain insurers they have guaranteed hire car cover so you should get a car. also if there is a third party who can be held at fault for the accident then a company like help hire may be able to help you. best thing is to check if you have a policy with guaranteed hire car cover

unlikely with a loose tyre on the motorway

patchy987

true it is a long shot but you never know. i may be readin wrong but i read it to mean a tyre came into their lane rather than one on their car

hm2be

Yes a tyre actually came towards the car and collided with it in the fast lane of the motorway, so we are very thankful that he wasn't hurt. The damage will be expensive but not enough to be written off I don't think. My partner believes there may have been an accident on the other side.

As for the guaranteed car hire I will go and check our policy.

hm2be

I don't think we do have guaranteed car hire cover.

brazilianwax

patchy987 wrote: »

true it is a long shot but you never know. i may be readin wrong but i read it to mean a tyre came into their lane rather than one on their car

so did i

if you don't know who's tyre it was, how would you claim from them?

hm2be

We spoke to insurance who say they will record it as a fault accident . Is that right? We knew we would have to pay excess but to have it recorded as a fault when it was something that could not have been avoided cant be fair.