Pay my way or claim on insurance?

Amnesiac_ie

Question.

I'm a 24 year old male "Learning Permit" holder. Driving a 1.0L Yaris. Third year of comprehensive insurance with Quinn. Pay about €800 a year in preiums. Have never made a claim.

Had a very, very scrape against a wall whihc has left my passenger side quite dented and with a lot of scratchwork. I've arrnaged to have it reparied over the weekend. I assumed paying the cost myslef would make more sense than claiming on my insurance; not keen to lose my no claims bonus or see my premiums rocket for the nect couple of years.

However a friend has suggested this damage could cost well over €1,000 to repair here in Dublin. How much would it realistically cost me in the next year or two were I claim this from Quinn?

Any advice from somone in the know would be greatly appreciated as I don't have a clue...

January

Get estimates from a couple of garages and then decide.

No one can tell you how much your premium will rise to except Quinn but if you have a 3 year bonus (30%) then I presume your policy will go up by another couple of hundred.

Amnesiac_ie

I didn't even think about getting estimates... just rang a local garage and agreed to drop the car off on Saturday morning! Silly me; I don't know if I have the balls to go around pricing various garages though... I'm quite shy when it comes to things like that.

Balfa

Unfortunately, you really have to get estimates...

I was rear-ended a couple of years ago and got a quote for the repairs of about $1000 from serviceking. They wanted to replace my bumper, straighten the boot floor, replace the muffler, etc.

I brought that quote to the guy who hit me, and he said eff-it, just claim from his insurance.

So I did that, and after the insurance assessor looked at it, he said the bumper could be repaired instead of replaced, the boot floor didn't need anything, and they could just replace the exhaust tip or something, instead of the whole muffler. He told serviceking to repair it for $300, and they did.

The car's been fine ever since.

It'd be nice if you could get an assessor to inspect something and decide on a fair market price to take to the repair shop, without having to claim on the insurance or affect any bonuses or whatnot. Hmmm, maybe you could ask your insurance company about such a thing!

Anan1

Amnesiac_ie wrote: »

I didn't even think about getting estimates... just rang a local garage and agreed to drop the car off on Saturday morning! Silly me; I don't know if I have the balls to go around pricing various garages though... I'm quite shy when it comes to things like that.

Being that shy is a very expensive business when it comes to cars, i'd get over it quick smart if I were you.

Tipsy Mac

Pay it yourself, 1k in the young male driver world is nothing, they will extract it out of you painfully over the next few years and you will find it hard to get quotes of insurance companies.