The Lemon Fool

One of our cars was damaged by a 3rd party in a car park but no details were left and the car park CCTV did not capture it.

The cost of the repair will probably be £150 to £200. Is it worth claiming this on insurance or is it likely to increase future renewal costs?

Insurer is Directline. There is NO excess for accidental or for 3rd party damage. The policy has maximum no claims bonus and we pay for a protected no claims bonus.

Should we claim on insurance?

Thanks
C

I'd just suck it up and pay for it yourself
Your premium will jump and be on your record for 3 years it DL (5 with most others)
and you'll pay for than the repair cost in the long run
Sorry that has happened, so annoying VERY annoying
PS keeping your NCB catches most people the premium just goes up
PPS I did the same a few years ago even though cost was just under £1,000, it would have been my 2nd claim in 3 years

I'd agree with pje16. NCD may well be unaffected, but the base cost will inevitably increase, and its never something you can determine as you'll not know how much it would have risen anyway.

Strictly speaking, whether you claim or not, you should inform your insurer, and probably declare it at renewal. 99% of motorists, including me, would not do so in a situation like this, but it's clearly something only you can decide on.

If your conscience says you must declare it, then there is probably little downside in claiming.

On the subject of always declare
a few years go I didn't report one for over 3 weeks after the incident
I was never asked why I hadn't at the time
btw I have heard tales of just reports, not claims, putting up premiums, so my preference is to keep quiet on the score

if you call them, even for an inquiry, it'll go on your record whether you claim or not.

staffordian wrote:Strictly speaking, whether you claim or not, you should inform your insurer, and probably declare it at renewal. 99% of motorists, including me, would not do so in a situation like this, but it's clearly something only you can decide on.

Personally I can see no good coming from voluntarily declaring the incident. Especially since in this case Clariman's vehicle was parked at the time and hit by another vehicle, which clearly implies no fault on the part of Clariman.

I scratched the side of my vehicle driving into my own garage a while ago, and did not declare it, again because it is prejudicial to do so. Fixed it myself with some rubbing compound and spray paint.

However if it is an accident involving two moving vehicles, or of course if there is serious damage or an injury, then that is entirely another matter. and you should disclose even if you do not claim.

The trouble about a £150/200 claim is that in the insurer's hands, or rather once the repairer knows that it is an insurance claim it could easily become at least a £500/600 claim. Clariman may even find that although it looks like £150/200 to repair it, it might be rather more so I think there is no hard and fast rule. I would not tell the insurers but I would take the car to my friendly repairer and make sure I let him know that I intend to pay for it myself. See what he comes up with.

Dod

a good site to use (as I have done once or twice is)
https://www.whocanfixmycar.com
get local garages to quote for a variety of work

The other thing Clariman might do is at the next renewal see what discount the insurers might offer for an own damage excess of say £250.

Dod

This happened to me a couple of years ago, but the repair cost was £2,500. So I did claim (Admiral) and only had to pay my £500 excess. Their repairer was very good and they sorted out all the arrangements. To be fair to them I don't think my renewal cost since then has gone up other than the normal inflation increases so protected NCB does seem to work.

[quote="scrumpyjack"][/quote]
You must have been lucky or some other factor and you're not sure how much it went up by?
NCB is a discount on your premium

pje16 wrote:

scrumpyjack wrote:

You must have been lucky or some other factor and you're not sure how much it went up by?
NCB is a discount on your premium

The bottom line premium is all that matters and that did not significantly increase.

Clariman wrote:One of our cars was damaged by a 3rd party in a car park but no details were left and the car park CCTV did not capture it.

The cost of the repair will probably be £150 to £200. Is it worth claiming this on insurance or is it likely to increase future renewal costs?

Insurer is Directline. There is NO excess for accidental or for 3rd party damage. The policy has maximum no claims bonus and we pay for a protected no claims bonus.

Should we claim on insurance?

Thanks
C

I'm sorry but I have a completely contrarian view to others on this. I know I would wouldn't I

If you're not going to claim why are you paying out all that money. I'd check the policy and see what "protected no claims bonus" means first.

Three years ago I wrote a car off when I hit a parked luton van. I was blinded by direct sunlight and misjudged when I pulled out and didn't pull out far enough. I had protected no claims and a "no fault" policy. My premium went up by £18/month and has now come back down. At the time I was driving over 20K miles per year so protecting my no claims seemed worthwhile.

You're also paying excess premium for a "no excess" clause. I sort think you may be paying for something you're not getting.

AiY

one aspect not mentioned so far is that on renewal...I assume that you 'shop around' and use comaprison sites??
but for the next 5 years you will have to declare on each comaprison site where they ask 'any claims in past 5 years'

so each place will increase the 'base cost' of quote...NCB is kept...big deal, if price goes up anyway!
as someelse mentioned these compaines brag about keeping your NCB
but they dont add that they will increase base price as you are now in a different driver catagory

AsleepInYorkshire wrote:

Clariman wrote:One of our cars was damaged by a 3rd party in a car park but no details were left and the car park CCTV did not capture it.

The cost of the repair will probably be £150 to £200. Is it worth claiming this on insurance or is it likely to increase future renewal costs?

Insurer is Directline. There is NO excess for accidental or for 3rd party damage. The policy has maximum no claims bonus and we pay for a protected no claims bonus.

Should we claim on insurance?

Thanks
C

I'm sorry but I have a completely contrarian view to others on this. I know I would wouldn't I

If you're not going to claim why are you paying out all that money. I'd check the policy and see what "protected no claims bonus" means first.

Three years ago I wrote a car off when I hit a parked luton van. I was blinded by direct sunlight and misjudged when I pulled out and didn't pull out far enough. I had protected no claims and a "no fault" policy. My premium went up by £18/month and has now come back down. At the time I was driving over 20K miles per year so protecting my no claims seemed worthwhile.

You're also paying excess premium for a "no excess" clause. I sort think you may be paying for something you're not getting.

AiY

I think you have just confirmed precisely what people are saying. If you end up paying £18 per month for say two years that's nearly £500 extra in insurance costs. So to claim for any damage up to that amount is really not worth it.

John

redsturgeon wrote:I think you have just confirmed precisely what people are saying. If you end up paying £18 per month for say two years that's nearly £500 extra in insurance costs. So to claim for any damage up to that amount is really not worth it.

John

Hi John

Hope you're well. Yes I'd agree with you that it is £500 over two years. But I wrote off a £16K car and a Luton Van. I think Mr C should read the small print and make sure he gets what he's paying for. If he has no excess and no claims protection then, subject to the small print of course, he may be able to claim without raising his premiums.

Take care

AiY

AsleepInYorkshire wrote:Hope you're well. Yes I'd agree with you that it is £500 over two years. But I wrote off a £16K car and a Luton Van. I think Mr C should read the small print and make sure he gets what he's paying for. If he has no excess and no claims protection then, subject to the small print of course, he may be able to claim without raising his premiums.

The point many people in the thread are making is that it likely will raise the premiums. And nothing in the small print will confirm this or otherwise. They'll just have standard caveats (reserve the right to ... etc.).

Scott.

What an interesting thread.

Just on the point of being hit by a third party in a car park not being your fault..... the insurance industry rationale on this is that having been hit once demonstrates an increased probability of another accident and potentially a claim - even if you haven't claim on this first one.

They would argue that it might relate to the way you park or where you park or the carelessness of the driver population using that particular car park and that this increase in risk should be reflected in the premium. They had an unknown known which has become slightly more known.

Don't blame me... I'm just saying that's their argument .

Arb.

Arborbridge wrote:What an interesting thread.

Just on the point of being hit by a third party in a car park not being your fault..... the insurance industry rationale on this is that having been hit once demonstrates an increased probability of another accident and potentially a claim - even if you haven't claim on this first one.

They would argue that it might relate to the way you park or where you park or the carelessness of the driver population using that particular car park and that this increase in risk should be reflected in the premium. They had an unknown known which has become slightly more known.

Don't blame me... I'm just saying that's their argument .

Arb.

Yes that is the argument.

I once had to go on a driver training course with my company because I had two car park accidents in the company car park! LOL. I wasn't even in the car at the time. They then tried to tell me not to park at the end of a row. I responded that they should try telling biscuit manufacturers to leave out the top biscuit of each pack since it was often broken!

John

redsturgeon wrote:

Arborbridge wrote:What an interesting thread.

Just on the point of being hit by a third party in a car park not being your fault..... the insurance industry rationale on this is that having been hit once demonstrates an increased probability of another accident and potentially a claim - even if you haven't claim on this first one.

They would argue that it might relate to the way you park or where you park or the carelessness of the driver population using that particular car park and that this increase in risk should be reflected in the premium. They had an unknown known which has become slightly more known.

Don't blame me... I'm just saying that's their argument .

Arb.

Yes that is the argument.

I once had to go on a driver training course with my company because I had two car park accidents in the company car park! LOL. I wasn't even in the car at the time. They then tried to tell me not to park at the end of a row. I responded that they should try telling biscuit manufacturers to leave out the top biscuit of each pack since it was often broken!

John

Amazing anecdote