Daughter was involved in a car incident. Whilst waiting in a queue at a one way stop a man drove out of a car park and grazed her beloved Golf car.
‘No real problem to my car (knackered Audi) Luv just a scratch on yours.
Luv… will they never learn.
A scratch that will cost £650 to repair and re spray. She took his phone number and held him responsible by text.His excess is £500.
She is reluctant to involve her insurance company as they will use the incident to raise her premium.
If he refuses to meet the cost are there other options are there to make him pay apart from involving her insurance company. I did explain to her that this was the purpose of insurance companies and financial risks would always be involved in driving.
No. Not my fault. Imagine on of my beloved Jack Russells with a rat.
Just go through her insurance company. That’s why you pay them
I had a very minor (my fault) bump a couple of years ago. The damage didn’t look much but a new plastic bumper plus paint was around £2000. My premium went up by £20 the first year after and nowt the following.
It’s likely a condition of her policy that she informs them of an accident whether she makes a claim or not anyway.
As per the last paragraph of @Basil1966 reply, you need to inform your insurance company regardless. I have just renewed with NFU and they make it very clear in the conditions of insurance
Fingers crossed for her though that her company doesn’t penalise her next year. Seems to me insurance premiums are a bit “smoke and mirrors” and any excuse to make an increase is valid!
Not sure if this is still the case these days, but, way back when, in ancient times, car insurers had what were called “Knock for Knock Agreements”, whereby, regardless of which driver was at fault, they would pay for the repairs of their own insured’s vehicle, rather than instigate a claim against the insurers of the other party
The idea was that it all averaged out over the financial year and kept administration costs down.
As usual, Joe Public was the loser, since, even if you weren’t at fault, “It’s a No Claim Bonus, not a No Blame Bonus”.
I think their philosophy is if someone crashes into you, then you are driving in places where accidents can happen, and so you are more at risk. Also if your surname has a vowel in it, then you are more likely to have an accident with someone else who has a vowel in their surname, and hence raise the premium. The best way to get your premium down is to age.
I would go through my insurance company. I wouldn’t want any hassle from someone. Not worth it. Yes her premium will go up, that’s life. Nothing you can do about it.
I once had someone drive into my parked car, causing considerable damage. It took me a while to get their insurance details, but when I contacted their insurer they had my car repaired and gave me a hire car until it was done.
At no point did anyone ask for details of my insurer. I guess I could have told them, just like I could have flushed fifty quid down the toilet.
Well at some point, you could have a very serious accident and you lied about any accidents or claims. If it went legal, I’d be sweating. Just a point.
Keep you updated.
D#1’s windscreen on the golf was badly cracked to day,will need replacement and occasioned a chat with the insurance company about the just a scratch,luv saga.
She has a no fault clause in her insurance policy which allows her to persue the culprit privately but to keep them informed.Should he not settle the bill then the insurance company will persue him for settlement.
Increasingly, I see enough poor driving that I’m thinking about a dash cam. It won’t catch every incident but it might just help.
I recently had someone back into my car, inspect the damage and drive off. This was at the local supermarket. Luckily the store cctv captured it and a fellow shopper took pictures on her phone and then took the trouble to track me down. I sent details to my insurers and the Police (who took action).
The repair cost for even minor damage is through the roof at present. Unfortunately my wife clipped my car with her mirror on our drive last year. It put a shallow dent in my door, scraped the paint and broke both door mirrors. The total bill across both cars was over £4,000 and had they been older, the dents and scrapes were of a nature where you’d not have bothered. The mirrors were £1,800 between them to replace, though, and there were limited ‘used’ options.
Rising insurance costs are increasingly looking like an ongoing rip off in plain sight.
Insurance firms are blaming rising inflation and I understand that is with good reason. Indeed insurance costs barely changed for over decade with near zero annual inflation in the UK for over ten years. However the market then was also more competitive when they didn’t have to offer the same price to everyone.
Now, I suspect they’re taking advantage of the consumer knowing inflation is a thing, coupled with the necessity of insurance being a greater need during a ‘cost of living crisis’.
If we look at compounded RPI for the last 4 years in the UK (insurance carries a higher weighting in RPI then CPI) then that’s sitting at about 32%.
Now this is a whopping figure but tales of insurance more than doubling are not uncommon and I figure our car/house insurance costs are over 50% up between them, my PMI has increased by 110%!
According to ONS data, it appears average car prices have increased ~35% since 2015, although I think this needs unpacking around the model spreads and segment costings, as my impression is that EVs generally cost > ‘average’, and we know the EV market has grown – where it is right now is questionable if the 2nd-hand data is in any way accurate i.e. indicating a marked softening and reluctance to buy this way(?).
With insurance, it’s equally what you might hit/hit you and the risks & costs around such events, as EV’s and some of the expensive marques, appear to have very heavy repair costs, almost out of any proportion to their ticket costs! Here, main dealers and many in the trade had a tough time during Covid, and one wonders if service and repair margins have spread to compensate?
…and we all know that repairs can be effected > the main dealer and main ARC routes, but insurers don’t want to go these routes, so the costs have to be borne.
