Should I claim off insurance?

KingCong

Hi,

I recently started driving and yesterday evening had my first (and hopefully last) accident. When turning right on to a main road from a minor road, my view to the right was impaired by 2 pulled in cars. I could see behind them and saw that a car was coming but it was far enough away for me to pull out onto the main road, however when I was half way across the road, almost on the left side, I saw that another (much closer!) car (red Corolla) had been hidden from my view by the the 2 pulled in cars. This car clipped the back of mine before I could make it across to the left side. The Corolla had minor enough damage to the front bumper but my car had a severe enough dent between the drivers door and the back wheel. Luckily, nobody was hurt. I exchanged insurance details with the other driver and admitted I was in the wrong. This morning I got a call from my insurer that she had rang in the claim.

My question is, should I ask her to drop the claim against the insurance company and pay her the cost of the damage myself? This is my first year driving and so I've no no-claims bonus etc to lose if there's a claim against me, so should I just let her proceed with the claim to the insurance company? Will this put up my next year's premium, and if so by roughly how much (percentage wise)?

Eirecanuck

Hi,

Sorry to hear about your accident. This post caught my eye because i work in insurance, specifically the claims department, and have done for over 6 years.

This is a common scenario with first time drivers - Unsure of the process and affect on future premiums.

If you think the other drivers car sustained a minimal amount of damage, you can request she obtains an estimate for repairs and then you can decide if u want to pay for it yourself, or if its too expensive, let it go through the insurance.

Of course the only danger with offering to pay for it yourself is that the other driver might take the piss and give you an estimate way over the actual repair costs. Whereas an insurance company obviously wouldnt stand for that and would investigate the incident fully.

As for the affect on your premium, it will increase at renewal if there has been a claim put through your policy, but the the amount it increases by depends on how much is paid out on a claim e.g. small claims under €500 may only increase your overall premium by 5 - 10%.

Another factor is this other driver may persue a personal injury claim. If you are thinking 'but no one was hurt', keep in mind we are definitely in a claims culture, and with the recession, people are desperate for money.

My advice would be to speak to your insurance company and tell them that u are going to try and obtain an estimate for the damages from the other driver first before deciding if you want the claim to go through them. This is completely acceptable and quite common.

Just dont get ripped off by anyone. If you feel they are taking the piss or are being unreasonable, let the insurance company deal with them.

Hope that helps!? Any questions, gimme a shout.

ADIDriving

As regards the insurance aspect, nobody is going to top the post from our Irish/Canadian friend (Great first post). From a driving perspective. You will have learned the hard way to be wary of blind spots. Creep slowly out of blind junctions to a position where you can see more of the road looking all the way and not impeeding oncoming traffic. Allow time for traffic to pass through persistent blind spots.
Peep and creep.

KingCong

Thanks Eirecanuck, that's a really thorough post, appreciate you taking the time to write it.

TheBody

Sorry for hijacking this thread but I'd appreciate Eirecanucks thoughts on a situation I was in a good few years ago. I was in a crash with a lady who ran a stop sign and crashed into my car. At the time I infromed my insurance company like I'm supposed to. The lady took full responsibility and paid up for the damages to my car. When my insurance was due for renewal, my insurance company hiked up my insurance!! They said it was enough that I was involved in a crash even though it wasn't my fault and they didn't have to pay out a cent!! My question is this common to other companies too or what's the story these days?