Son's motor accident - how to settle
Comments
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^^
I agree, tell him to just go through his insurance. Even though it seems unlikely in this case, the cost of a claim can quickly spiral into 5 figures. It's just not worth the risk.
If he's already 25 then depending on his no claims, the increase in premiums he'll pay over the new 3-4 years shouldn't be too excessive (few hundred pounds total)
With respect telling someone to go through your insurance is effectively inviting them to roger you senseless.
If it can be contained to £300, i'd pay it. It will be marked on the insurance as an accident but no costs which will have a minimal effect. Accident + costs + potential personal injury claim will send the insurance renewal quotes mental. :eek:0 -
I dont see the point in paying for insurance so that when you need it you decide not to use it.
The risk to your son by not using the insurance is a a future claim of an undetermined amount. This could be 50p or £50k. To give some perspective the maximum claim for a fractured foot that heals completely is £4,300. If it doesnt heal completely its bigger, if thers loss of earnings as a result its even more.
The risk to your son for going through the insurance is paying a few hundred pounds more a year for a few year on insurance.
To give some perspective. My OH had an accident with no one else involved, skidded on ice and ended up ploughing through a private estate and tearing up the grass. The claim from the other party was in the thousands, OH car was clost ot being a write off, but was repaired for £4k. When she renewed she added me to her policy (had 3 points, and 2 accidents, 1 fault 1 non fault to be reported) im male and younger htan her. It dropped by i think £55.
With regard to my fault accident, again on ice, i was 24 and the reduction from getting older far offset the increase from having a crash. Again my insurance dropped on renewal after a fault accident. Although i do believe there wasnt much claimed.
Just put it through the insurance and never think about it again. He might be slightly disgruntled upon renewal but if he can afford £300 to pay for the repairs he should be able to afford an increase in his premiums.
Either way any insurance provider will want him to declare any fault accidents. Because youve settled outside of insurance doesnt change the fact that there was an at fault accident. The damage to his insurance is already done.
Paying £300 direct to the other party after informing your insurance company of the incident does not expose you to the risks of a subsequent claim for personal injury. This would be handled by the insurance company as usual. Depending on there NCB and premium, it may be worth taking the risk of a later claim affecting NCB as well as base premium.0 -
^^
I agree, tell him to just go through his insurance. Even though it seems unlikely in this case, the cost of a claim can quickly spiral into 5 figures. It's just not worth the risk.
If he's already 25 then depending on his no claims, the increase in premiums he'll pay over the new 3-4 years shouldn't be too excessive (few hundred pounds total)
See Nobbie1967's post. I don't see there is any risk settling privately. Insurance works in perpetuity. If you make a claim on your household insurance for subsidence, and you have used different insurers over the years, first thing your current insurer will do is investigate the subsidence and try to work out when it commenced and attempt to pass the claim to the insurer who covered that year. I have heard these inter-insurance discussions can delay settlement of a claim for years, but ultimately you are insured. Same with a late-notified motor claim. If you have paid your premium for that year you will be covered.0 -
Several contributors have questioned the insurer's promise that the incident will not affect future premiums, saying there is no such thing as a non-event once that event has been recorded. This might be a little too pessimistic. My whole working life was spent in IT working for an insurance company. I often worked on the rating and renewal systems. Rates were set by accessing rating tables. The databases held many pieces of data that had no corresponding entries on the rating tables and were therefore transparent as far as premium calculation was concerned. It could be that Hastings' rating engines do not access data concerning incidents not resulting in a claim, conviction, or allocation of blame.
On the other hand, Hastings could have a ruthlessly efficient system that rates on everything including colour of your eyes, your inside leg measurement, and how you voted in the Brexit referendum. I don't know.0 -
Programmer wrote: »Several contributors have questioned the insurer's promise that the incident will not affect future premiums, saying there is no such thing as a non-event once that event has been recorded. This might be a little too pessimistic. My whole working life was spent in IT working for an insurance company. I often worked on the rating and renewal systems. Rates were set by accessing rating tables. The databases held many pieces of data that had no corresponding entries on the rating tables and were therefore transparent as far as premium calculation was concerned. It could be that Hastings' rating engines do not access data concerning incidents not resulting in a claim, conviction, or allocation of blame.
On the other hand, Hastings could have a ruthlessly efficient system that rates on everything including colour of your eyes, your inside leg measurement, and how you voted in the Brexit referendum. I don't know.
The flaw in that is that any insurance broker / online quote will ask your sone if he's had any accidents, claims or convictions. He would have to declare that he had an accident. In my experience, that will affect the quote.0 -
Just for interest i plugged the following details in to Compare the market
25 year old
3 years NCB
driving 3 years
Driving a 2011 Petrol megane 1.4
No accidents
Cheapest quote = £670
Ran it again only with one accident declared, June 2018, £0 cost claim, other party involved, driver at fault.
Cheapest quote = £707
Ran it again with above, damage = £300.
Cheapest quote = £707
So yes the accident impacts the premium slightly but it definitely is taken in to account0 -
Programmer wrote: »Several contributors have questioned the insurer's promise that the incident will not affect future premiums, saying there is no such thing as a non-event once that event has been recorded. This might be a little too pessimistic. My whole working life was spent in IT working for an insurance company. I often worked on the rating and renewal systems. Rates were set by accessing rating tables. The databases held many pieces of data that had no corresponding entries on the rating tables and were therefore transparent as far as premium calculation was concerned. It could be that Hastings' rating engines do not access data concerning incidents not resulting in a claim, conviction, or allocation of blame.
On the other hand, Hastings could have a ruthlessly efficient system that rates on everything including colour of your eyes, your inside leg measurement, and how you voted in the Brexit referendum. I don't know.
If the insurer was given the same information that you have given on here then there is no way that they would have acted as described for one simple reason - the injury to the biker.
You need to check again with your son exactly what he told Hastings. It sounds to me like they believed that the £300 damage was to your sons vehicle as with a £250 excess they may well recommend that he pays for the repairs himself but even this is highly unlikely if they were told about injuries to the other party.All matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration, we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively, there is no such thing as death, life is only a dream, and we are the imagination of ourselves.0 -
If the insurer was given the same information that you have given on here then there is no way that they would have acted as described for one simple reason - the injury to the biker.
You need to check again with your son exactly what he told Hastings. It sounds to me like they believed that the £300 damage was to your sons vehicle as with a £250 excess they may well recommend that he pays for the repairs himself but even this is highly unlikely if they were told about injuries to the other party.
Yes I agree, attempting to deal with this out of his back pocket instead of passing on to the insurers is absolute madness in my opinion.
Why on earth do people buy insurance then try not to use it? The chances of this not ending up as an injury claim are tiny.0 -
With respect telling someone to go through your insurance is effectively inviting them to roger you senseless.
If it can be contained to £300, i'd pay it. It will be marked on the insurance as an accident but no costs which will have a minimal effect. Accident + costs + potential personal injury claim will send the insurance renewal quotes mental. :eek:Just for interest i plugged the following details in to Compare the market
25 year old
3 years NCB
driving 3 years
Driving a 2011 Petrol megane 1.4
No accidents
Cheapest quote = £670
Ran it again only with one accident declared, June 2018, £0 cost claim, other party involved, driver at fault.
Cheapest quote = £707
Ran it again with above, damage = £300.
Cheapest quote = £707
So yes the accident impacts the premium slightly but it definitely is taken in to account
Would you still rather pay the £300?0 -
Many thanks for all these contributions. I put them before my son then sat on the fence (I'd make a great politician) and said he'd have to decide what to do. And here's what he did....
He decided the biker would be as good as his word. He typed out a very short document, not mentioning the settlement at all, in which each party made mirror statements absolving the other from blame and declaring the matter closed. He invited the biker round and they signed the document (so two signatures each), at the same time as my son transferring the money via his laptop.
Whether he has acted wisely or not remains to be seen. My son did say something which assured me to some degree. The biker conceded he had been travelling at about 20 mph at the time of impact, which is much too fast considering a red light was just yards in front of him. He would hardly have said that if he had been secretly plotting to pocket the money then make an insurance claim. Also, he made no attempt to negotiate the wording on the document.
As someone above has said, it's now a waiting game.0
This discussion has been closed.
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