Comprehensive Insurance or 3rd Party, Fire & Theft?

emeraldisle

Insurance renewal time here. We have an 02 car that's mechanically perfect, but has dents in at least two panels and a busted car door handle that needs to be replaced (and will have to be by NCT time in March). It has low mileage (about 42k).

I looked at the Revenue site to get an idea of its book value (without dents etc.) and it's about 3200 - a big drop from last year. Of course, with dents etc. we'd get less than this. So now I'm thinking that there's no point in getting comp insurance. Am I right?

3rd party including windscreen cover is about €200 less than comprehensive.

In the event of a crash where I was at fault, they'd almost certainly write of the car, right? Then they'd give me 3200 - cost of repairing dents - excess (€200) at most.... so less than €2k. Plus if I claimed, my insurance would go up by say about €500. So I'd be paying €200 to cover a potential payout of less than 1.5k.

My question: do these figures look right? Is there anything I'm not considering? If I'm right, is my conclusion that comprehensive doesn't make sense reasonable?

Thanks for any words of wisdom.....

Atlantic Dawn

Find out the cost difference first, then decide, if your driving a while it might only be a €100 in the difference.

Colonel Sanders

if you wrote off your car I can't imagine they'd write down the book value by the cost of repairing the dents already there (how would they know the dents were there before the write off?).

For Forks Sake

emeraldisle wrote: »

I looked at the Revenue site to get an idea of its book value (without dents etc.) and it's about 3200 - a big drop from last year.

Probably overpriced if their valuations for imports are anything to go by

emeraldisle

Colonel Sanders wrote: »

if you wrote off your car I can't imagine they'd write down the book value by the cost of repairing the dents already there (how would they know the dents were there before the write off?).

Someone told me that they write the car off if the damage would cost more than half the value of the car to repair. (Anyone know if that's true?) That would mean that with only 1.5k's worth of damage, they'd write off. That's what I was basing my assumption that practically any crash would lead to a write-off.....

I was imagining a minor prang - like one I had this year (my first ever!) where I went into the back of someone at low speed. There was about €3k worth of damage to the bonnet. In that case, it was completely obvious that the other dents had nothing to do with the crash. Of course if it were a serious crash, they'd never be able to distinguish, that's a fair point.

STForSale

emeraldisle wrote: »

Someone told me that they write the car off if the damage would cost more than half the value of the car to repair. (Anyone know if that's true?) That would mean that with only 1.5k's worth of damage, they'd write off. That's what I was basing my assumption that practically any crash would lead to a write-off.....

I was imagining a minor prang - like one I had this year (my first ever!) where I went into the back of someone at low speed. There was about €3k worth of damage to the bonnet. In that case, it was completely obvious that the other dents had nothing to do with the crash. Of course if it were a serious crash, they'd never be able to distinguish, that's a fair point.

Not true, the figure is closer to 70% but is not set in stone.

smash

If your comprehensive policy would cover personal injury then I'd take it... you never know if you'll need it!

seamus

steve06 wrote: »

If your comprehensive policy would cover personal injury then I'd take it... you never know if you'll need it!

That's the key part of comprehensive insurance that people seem to miss. If it only covered damage to your vehicle, then fully comp would be a waste of money for cars under €10k. But if you have a serious accident, then fully comp. should cover the cost of replacing your vehicle, medical costs, loss of earnings, etc etc etc.

In addition, even if it's not your fault, a fully comp. policy will usually mean that your insurer will cover your costs straight away and chase the other guy on your behalf.
With TPF&T, your insurer is only interested is determining fault, and as soon as it's decided that your insurer isn't liable, you'll be on your own to chase up your costs with the other party.

Scruff

Do TPF&T policies typically cover driving someone elses car?

smash

Scruff wrote: »

Do TPF&T policies typically cover driving someone elses car?

no, I wouldn't have thought so!

JHMEG

Common misconception that comprehensive insurance policies include personal injury by default. You need to check!

Another common misconception is that 3PF&T does not inlcude cover for injury to other people in your car. It does. It may even cover you for personal injury.

JHMEG

Scruff wrote: »

Do TPF&T policies typically cover driving someone elses car?

The vast majority do. I don't know of any that don't.

emeraldisle

steve06 wrote: »

no, I wouldn't have thought so!

This one does, actually - it's with FBD. As long as you're over 25....

emeraldisle

JHMEG wrote: »

Another common misconception is that 3PF&T does not inlcude cover for injury to other people in your car. It does. It may even cover you for personal injury.

FBD only covers passengers with comprehensive, and then only up to €1000, which doesn't seem anything to get excited about. They don't cover for personal injury on 3pf&t.