Panel beating cost

Panel about €200. About the same again up to €300 for a good spray job and installed if no mounts or trims are damaged would be my guess. That's assuming front end of car. If its a rear quarter panel it will be more. Happy Christmas how are you.

Impossible to say without photos.

If the wheel arch is all out of shape and needs a new quarter panel it will be major money and then owner might insist on whole side of car being resprayed to match. It's an 18 car so if it was mine I'd be wanting everything A1.

If there's parking sensors on your bumper it can dramatically jump the price to fix.

I'm not doubting you but an awful lot of people say they are happy to pay but when the quote comes back for 3.5k, the **** hits the fan.

Why would they claim against their own insurance when they weren't at fault?

Remember, there are two vehicles involved here. The question of blame or who is at fault arises. Both parties, if comprehensively insured, would be entitled to claim against either their own or the other party's policy. That's the legal position in situations like this where there more than one vehicle involved. A completely different scenario would be, say, if I reversed my car into a concrete barrier in a multi-story car park. That would be a single vehicle incident so I would claim against my own insurance policy, obviously.

I would hardly recommend anybody going to insurance companies over such a relatively small incident, if it can be worked out between the parties, otherwise it could cost a lot more in the long run.

I think your making this situation out to be more complicated than it actually is. The OP hit a stationary vehicle.

Can you explain why it might cost more by making an insurance claim rather than paying from your own pocket? I would have thought the opposite would be the case. We have not seen photographs of the damage caused in this instance but we all know what can appear to be insignificant damage often ends up being very expensive to fix. I am talking in the range of seven hundred euro and far upwards.

The OP doesn't get to decide where the other person's car is repaired if the OP is at fault. The OP can get all the quotes they like but the other person decides who repairs their own car.

Get a quote from several panel beaters, and then decide if you want to pay yourself, or use your own insurance to cover the costs.

I never understand this talk about not claiming off your own insurance 'as it will cost you in the long run'. Herself hit one of the barriers beside a fuel pump in a station and it was costing ~€3000 to repair. Had all the know it all's in the family telling us to pay it ourselves but I ignored them. Insurance went up by €150 the next year, was back to same following year and it's been lower every year since.

I do have a protected NCD with stepback, so NCD went to 60% after the claim for one year and then back to 75%.

I would say thanks though to all the eejits who never claim from their insurance even though they're paying for it.... as I guess it keeps all the rest of ours down a little ;)

Everyone doesn't have your right mindedness though.

I had an accident with a dog. Owner said he would pay at roadside. He even spoke to Garda and said he was going to pay.

Got quote of 4700 and he went silent.

Had to claim on my own policy and insurer were saying they would recover costs from other party and delete the claim.

Insurer had zero interest after paying out. Didn't make any effort to recover and claim was left against me.