Accident pay cash or insurance ?

what to do ???

I reversed into a parked car behind me, very little damage just a few scratches on a bumper and bonnet no dints and a cracked grill. its a customers car and I know the customers father. we have had a price from a local coach works who are very good and they have came up with a price of £460 and that's with discount, so what do I do pay the cash or ring my insurance.

my insurance went up from £179 to £400 with no points accidents or claims in the last year so god knows what a claim against me will do.

my heads all over at the minute need some advise

I can get the £460 to pay for the job but im just a bit grudged as this is the reason I pay insurance for.

there is no damage to my vehicle

If you can pay it. Insurance will cost you more in the 5 years you have to declare crash.

I wouldn't like to make a suggestion which you stuck by, as it is really only a decision you can make on an individual basis. Taking in to account the excess, no claims situation, previous history etc.

If your excess is in thgis case £300, you may as well pay out the extra £160 to avoid having a 'claim' against you, after all, you'd be paying £300 anyway. If I have had a previous claim, then that may cause me to pay it off myself again. If you were going to claim, do you have to worry about NCD being stepped back, is it protected? Have you already used some of your 'lives' which will still mean stepping back of NCD? How will that then affect the discount applied automatically to you policy in addition to a loading for a claim against your name.

It's all based on looking at the details on an individual basis and analysing the best way for you, either way, you will still need to tell your insurers about it for the next 5 years.

Regards,

Ed

Adrian Flux said:

It's all based on looking at the details on an individual basis and analysing the best way for you, either way, you will still need to tell your insurers about it for the next 5 years.

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Yep... everyone always pays up themselves, then, tells the insurance company so they can bend them over and rape them with a barge pole at next renewal...



Legally, yes, you should tell your insurance and I understand why Ed has said the above as he is here representing A/F - however, (and not speaking from experience) it would appear most people choose to pay out themselves than tell their insurer. If you're going to tell your insurer just claim. you're going to be peanlised anyway.

If i were in that situation (not that I ever have been) I would pay out every time - I have 3 separate insurance policies, the effect on them + the missus' which i'm also on, spread over 5 years - I imagine I could afford several £1000's in a single pay out to protect my insurance policies.


£460 is not a lot of money, you f**ked up, you've admitted that, you've got a solution which has a small financial hit now, mistakes cost money, i'd pay.

If you have the dosh pay up and forget it ,most of us have had little bumps don' t worry about it and you will still have a clean sheet insurance wise.

If it's only cosmetic and not structural I would pay, I have been in that situation but been in the car that was hit, I chose the garage and they picked up the bill but the garage wanted most of the money before they would start.

Why do you need to tell your insurance company? It is not a claim therefore it has F all to do with any insurance company, if the issues is settled between the two individuals concerned then there should be no legal reason as to why you have to tell your insurance company, well in my mind there isn't and I would argue that case quite happily (I'm sure your going to tell me the legal position but I would still argue against it and take it to court as I see it as going to far by the insurance comp-anise)

Jongould said:

Why do you need to tell your insurance company? It is not a claim therefore it has F all to do with any insurance company, if the issues is settled between the two individuals concerned then there should be no legal reason as to why you have to tell your insurance company, well in my mind there isn't and I would argue that case quite happily (I'm sure your going to tell me the legal position but I would still argue against it and take it to court as I see it as going to far by the insurance comp-anise)

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I think it's because they assess your risk of claiming - if you have had an accident your more likely to have another (statistically, insurance is all about statistics) therefore your policy will be higher.

HOWEVER - i see it as if you're the type of person who might have the odd bump (most people do) and are happy to settle yourself you're a better person to insure as you're less likely to claim on your insurance for the little things.

UNLESS there is a corollation between people who have minor bumps and people who have major crashes.

At the end of the day they ask you if you've ever had an accident, not if you've ever made a claim.

In essense Bump is right.

Despite you haven't claimed on your insurance you have had an accident, which like said, statistically makes you more likely to claim again. In having a small enough accident to cause little enough damage to settle privately you are lucky, but the next accident (which statistics say is likely to happen) may not be one which you can settle privately for example, although an extreme circumstance, in November 2012 a settlement of £23m was paid out in personal injury alone to a young girl who was paralysed.

Again, I appreciate your stance and approach to the issue, but hopefully the explanations that I provide can clear up some of the muddied water of what insurance can be.

Regards,

Ed

This is all so typical of vehicle insurance and the main reason I hate all insurance companies.

If you have a bump, you can't actually afford to claim because of all the future ramifications and loss of NCD/protection. But if you haven't claimed you are still obliged to inform your insurance company which will then increase your next premiums regardless.

NCD protection is my absolutely major hate and I don't buy it any more. It's like insurance for insurance and if you make a claim on a protected policy then you are obliged to stay with the same insurer to retain your discount and that insurer will then increase your basic premium because you've made a claim. What a joke, it would be funny if it wasn't so financially serious.

Pay it cash and don't tell the insurance.
Benjamin Disraeli once said-
"There are three types of lie. Lies, damned lies and statistics"
Just because you've had a minor bump, doesn't mean you are going to have another in the next 12 months. You may never have another one for as long as you have a licence.

Adrian Flux said:

In having a small enough accident to cause little enough damage to settle privately you are lucky, but the next accident (which statistics say is likely to happen) may not be one which you can settle privately for example, although an extreme circumstance, in November 2012 a settlement of £23m was paid out in personal injury alone to a young girl who was paralysed.

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On that basis anyone that has a minor bump should be banned from driving for ever.

Anuvver load of insurance bull****.

A bit like when NU told me my insurance had gone up because I'd had a no fault claim, someone had hit my parked car with a horse transporter. Apparently a no fault claim means you are statistically more likely to have a fault claim in the future. WTF!

I used to have my no claims protected, goodness knows how much over the top I was paying to do this but it proved worthless.

I had 3 claims within a 3 year period (around 12 years ago), each one was a no fault incident but I lost my no claims on the last one due to 3 calims in 5 years.

The first one, an old bloke pulled onto the roundabout from my left while I was still going around it to turn right and he hit my left rear corner (said he did not see me - I thought that was only the excuse for motorbikes ).

Second one, a young lad in a mini pulled straight out from the middle of a dual carriageway crossing point without looking, just had time to hit the brakes enough to reduce the impact speed. He had been too busy chatting to his friends in the car to look if anything was coming.

Third one I was in a supermarket shopping and came out to find someone in a red vehicle has hit the rear right on my 6 week old car and removed the bumper on that corner as well some body damage. Of course the supermarket car park security cameras were not switched on so no trace as to who had done it.

Had not had an accident in the 20 years previous to this and not had any more since but lost 20 years no claims because of it.

flookyk said:

I used to have my no claims protected, goodness knows how much over the top I was paying to do this but it proved worthless.

I had 3 claims within a 3 year period (around 12 years ago), each one was a no fault incident but I lost my no claims on the last one due to 3 calims in 5 years.

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By the looks of your explanations of the claims, it seems in two cases your company may have paid out, which is why you would have lost your NCD. In the case of the dual carriageway accident, you may find it was settled 50/50, even though you had nowhere to go, because it was you that hit him from behind most companies would split the blame. In the case of the car park incident, that would have been a claim off of your insurance, it's not your fault, but it was a claim from your insurance.

Obviously that's just based on what you've explained, I may be wrong.

I had a no fault claim some old bloke pulled out in to the side of my car my car was written off he was completely at fault and admitted it when I went to renew my insurance it had gone up from 600 to 1800 so told them to go jump, I got new quotes from elsewhere and it was 500! If I was u I would settle in cash and keep it to yourself if the other party is willing to do that.

my daughter just passed her test but decided to do the pass+ before insuring her own car in the hope this would reduce her premium a bit, the quotes she was getting were for around £1500
On her first lesson some plank ran into the back of her while she was stationary at a roundabout, her instructor had to notify his insurance because the car was damaged and the plank was been a ####
Because my daughter had to declare this her insurance went up to over £1700, so it's costing her money because someone else hit her ?????
Insurance companies suck, the whole system sucks :mad2:

dustmaker said:

Because my daughter had to declare this her insurance went up to over £1700, so it's costing her money because someone else hit her ?????

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Dustmaker, with young drivers, any claim is a huge crippler. But if I can offer any consolidation at all - £1700 for a new driver is an excellent price.

I'm a young driver myself, so I'm still very much in touch with the 'pleasures' of young driver premiums.

Adrian Flux said:

Dustmaker, with young drivers, any claim is a huge crippler. But if I can offer any consolidation at all - £1700 for a new driver is an excellent price.

I'm a young driver myself, so I'm still very much in touch with the 'pleasures' of young driver premiums.

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She is 21 driving a 98 1.25 fiesta with no mods of any form and has completed a pass+ so i didn't think that was good at all

Adrian Flux said:

By the looks of your explanations of the claims, it seems in two cases your company may have paid out, which is why you would have lost your NCD. In the case of the dual carriageway accident, you may find it was settled 50/50, even though you had nowhere to go, because it was you that hit him from behind most companies would split the blame. In the case of the car park incident, that would have been a claim off of your insurance, it's not your fault, but it was a claim from your insurance.

Obviously that's just based on what you've explained, I may be wrong.

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All 3 of the claims were settled on a no fault basis with none of them meaning I had to pay any excess. The second one (the car pulling out from the central reservation on the dual carriageway) if I had been on the bike rather than the car, it would have meant he would have killed or seriously injured me. It was also lucky I was only doing 50mph at the time rather than the 70mph allowed on that road.

The only one of the 3 my insurance company did not or could not have got the full costs back from the third party was the last one when there was no trace of whoever had hit my car.

Dustmaker, you are right in that about Insurance Companies. There is no reasonable reason why a drivers insurance premium should go up if they have been hit from the rear when stationary unless she had pulled out on the vehicle.

Flookyk,

In which case, I have no idea as to why they would have steppend back your NCD.