Insurance Claim Advice

[MartynS]

I was involved in a small accident the other day where someone drove into the back of me, and based on the repair quote I've got from a garage we are going to do it through insurance. Could it make a difference to my future renewals or anything (in particular thinking about when they ask 'have you been involved in any accidents whether at fault or not' or 'have you made any claims' etc) depending on whether I claim through my insurance (who I have already informed) or direct through the third parties thus keeping mine out of it? Mine have said they would freeze my excess so I wouldn't have to pay it, and they would reclaim the costs from the thrid party but it would still go down as a non-fault claim on my policy.

I can't help but feel it would leave my insurance 'cleaner' if I go direct to the third parties, but as mine said, they may not offer the same service/guarantees etc and once I've started the process with them mine can't do anything more. Plus, from what I've read, it can be much harder to get the third parties insurance to pay out.

Any advice would be much appreciated! Cheers

[FOCA]

Yes, it hardly seems fair when someone has bashed into you, and its not your fault, that you lose your no claims/ or your premium goes up through no fault of your own

I can't answer your questions- insurance is not my area of expertiese, i'm afraid.

[iNath]

You would still have to declare that you'd be involved in an accident in the last 5 years which will push your premiums up.

The insurance industry apparently managed to find a statistic that shows people that are involved in an accident (fault or non fault) are more likely to be involved in another accident and therefore are a higher risk.

[Luke Fletcher]

I work in insurance and any incident regardless of blame has to be notified to your insurance company. Usually in non fault claims the costs are dealt with via the third party thus your NCB not being reduced and the claim being closed non fault(please check with your insurer). However, depending on companies with regards to your premiums it varies. One non fault claim may not affect it but a mixture of fault and non fault claims on your policy within the time frame asked by the insurer may affect it. even two non fault claims may affect premiums(please check with your insurer). This is because an incident did occur (wrong place wrong time). If you would like any more help let me know I will be willing to help. I can only answer questions on generic terms.

Different insurance companies operate differently so it is best to speak to your specific insurer.

Luke

[MartynS]

Thanks for the info. My insurers have already said it would be recorded as a non fault claim and they would be reclaiming costs from the third party. WIth regards to the question on renewal of 'have you made any claims in the past x years', do I still have to answer yes if I claim direct through the third party? I'm probably going to be doing this through my own insurance as it seems less hassle, but if doing it through the third party means I don't have to answer yes to that question it could save me a bit each renewal for the next few years! Cheers

[Luke Fletcher]

No prob! That's good. Regardless of what company you claim from. Third parties or your own you have to disclose it to all future insurance companies. If it's non fault your insurer would almost certainly claim from the third party, as the third party is known. If the third party wasn't known then you would be left to claim from your own insurer. The insurer won't pay you out from their own pocket just because you want to claim through them. They will want to recover these costs.

Remember, if you claim from your own insurance company and they got nowhere to recover costs your bonus WILL be affected resulting in higher premiums. The insurer should do most of the claiming from the third party tho so should be pretty simple for yourself in terms of speaking to different companies. As soon as the third party admits liability it should be pretty straight forward. Unless they are disputing blame then it will go on for longer until it is resolved. Your insurer should be doing all of this for you, please check with them for further details tho. It is with a check to see if they have admitted liability because if this is the case the third party will almost certainly be paying out so your insurer will recover all their costs

[MartynS]

In that case then I will do it through mine, the fact that someone drove into me makes it pretty obvious they were at fault so liability shouldn't be an issue! I'll give my insurers a call later and get it underway. Cheers again for the info.

[MartynS]

Bit of a result (as much as having an accident can be anyway) - the garage I wanted the repairs to be done at, which is a Ford dealer, is one of my insurer's approved garages! This means they don't have to send an assessor round who could potentially refuse the cost, and I also know the repairs will be done properly as the car is being traded in to them next month!

[bigmunkynutz]

Hope your Ford dealer repair centre is as good as mine, I had a similar accident and they did an amazing job!