Insurance Claim or Not

C.O.Y.B.I.B

Fairly general question , but I "pranged" a 6 month old Passat on a bollard in a private car park .

Front passenger door and lower trim are dented and scraped .

I have fully comp with full NCB and protected claims . I've never had to claim before and am wary of doing so and what long term implications in insurance might be . I haven't had a quote yet to repair but I would guess 1500-2000.

Question is if my protected bonus means that I can claim , paying any excess and there will be no Ill effect on my insurance in coming years or as I suspect they will get me some other way by raising the premium which is really low at the minute in which case I might be better just paying for it myself.

Thanks for any advice

Sleeper12

Your NCD might be protected but that is only with your current insurance company. Your insurance will increase next year and if you go to a different company than you will have no NCD.

I don't know how much your policy might increase after your claim though

User1998

Could you post a photo of the damage? €2k seems excessive

C.O.Y.B.I.B

I'll take a few pics when it's bright tommorow . Only happened so I'm still a bit pssd off at my own stupidity and I'm probably thinking the worst.

I've always had it in my head that there's no point claiming for "small" stuff , but not sure whether that's true or not .

If my premium is 1000 with 50% NCB and it goes up to 2000 with 50% NCB for the next 5 years then obviously there's no point in claiming . Butt if premium doesn't increase or goes up by 100 then it might be worth it.

Seve OB

I had claim few years ago, was a few grand. Can’t remember exactly, maybe close to 4K.

as above, no claims protected but locked me into same insurer for 5 years. Renewal went up probably 5-700 in total over the 5 years.

oddly this year, my first year free to shop around, they dropped price massively so I just renewed as it was an unbeatable quote

C.O.Y.B.I.B

Cheers . That's not as bad as I had thought.

Will get quote first I suppose then decide.

Henry Ford III

Insurance forum mods?

C.O.Y.B.I.B

Got a quote from a well known body repair shop of 3.2k . With labour being the bulk of the quote

User1998

Just to give you some context, I’ve gotten similar work carried out for €650 cash. Did you tell them you were going through insurance for them to give you that quote?

I got quotes of 3k from a couple of places when I was going through insurance but when I decided against it I went for a cash job in another place. The cost was €650 and it was high quality work.

The damage is along the crease of the door which can be difficult to repair. Have you looked online for a replacement door?

I’ve had a sills repainted for €250 also.

Toyotafanboi

That sill is rough enough.

3.2k seems strong but on a 6 month old 45k car, i think this is one to claim for.

I'd agree with the poster above, you'll be locked in and your premium will rise but it wont rise enough to exlipse the repair value.

Anyone whole repair that for a couple of hundred euro will be slapping it full of filler, which is never ideal but particularly on a sill area.

C.O.Y.B.I.B

Yeah the sill is pretty bad alright . Quote does seem high . Even if my insurance doubles , with protected claims and adding excess , it'll cost me about 1300 over 5 years to go through insurance which I can live with .

C.O.Y.B.I.B

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118763661#Comment_118763661

Cheers . I'm going to check a couple more places , but given its only 6 months old I'd be reluctant to get a half arsed job done .

Thanks to all responders