Insurance Question

Lamps

I had an accident to which I was deemed to be in the wrong. The cost of the damage to repair the other fella’s car is 1100euros (there was nothing even wrong with it!). But anyway it has to be paid.
In general am I better off paying the 1100euro myself now or lettignt he insurance pay out and paying an increased premium next year?

This is my first year driving and therefore have no NCB built up yet and I just got my full licence last week. Im a 23 yr old male, am I going to pay crazy premiums for the next 5 years?

layke

For a start, get an independant quote and itemized list of what's wrong with it and what has to be done and get a 2nd opinion. Mechanics are notorious for jacking up the prices when insurance companies are involved.

Now, you're 23 with a full license meaning you will get cheapish insurance for the moment but when you hit 25 it will drop like a dead weight.
So you need to decide if it's worth it for the next two years. Personally if I was say 18 months away from 25 i'd just get the insurer to pay for it. That's what you pay them for.

Steve

How much are you paying now?

look at how it affects you over the coming years:
(simplified example)
e.g. policy is €1k
without claiming:
yr 2 = 900
yr 3 = 800
yr 4 = 700
yr 5 = 600 (max ncb)
yr 6 = 600
total 3600, average per year= 720

with claim:
yr 2 = 1000
yr 3 = 900
yr 4 = 800
yr 5 = 700
yr 6 = 600 (max ncb)
total 4000, average per year= 800

So loss to you is €400 over 5 yrs - let them pay.

edit:
They can't increase your base premium because of a small claim like this. Happened to someone I know - small claim, premium went up even though they had ncb protection (i.e. still had full ncb but base premium increased). Called the insurance ombudsman and complained, they were forced to reduce the premium to the same as the previous year.

Lamps

layke wrote:

For a start, get an independant quote and itemized list of what's wrong with it and what has to be done and get a 2nd opinion. Mechanics are notorious for jacking up the prices when insurance companies are involved.

Now, you're 23 with a full license meaning you will get cheapish insurance for the moment but when you hit 25 it will drop like a dead weight.
So you need to decide if it's worth it for the next two years. Personally if I was say 18 months away from 25 i'd just get the insurer to pay for it. That's what you pay them for.

He went and got his van repaired straight away and then just sent the bill to the insurance company. He says he got a new bumper, there was no damage to his bumper and i even took a photo on my camera phone which clearly shows that. But the Quinn investigator said its no use. Without the bumper theres only 240euro damage and i would of paid that myself. Frustrating.

I know i won't have a NCB, but the fact ive had an accident will really increse my premium i think and was just thinking of getting something with a bit more power.

Lamps

Just checked on Quinn, i wanted to get a celica. The insurance with 1 yr NCB is 1195 and without is 1700. Doesnt matter that i had an accident, its the NCB that seems to count.

Thats a fair chunk of cash in the difference. Im fecking raging over it all.

bazz26

layke wrote:

For a start, get an independant quote and itemized list of what's wrong with it and what has to be done and get a 2nd opinion. Mechanics are notorious for jacking up the prices when insurance companies are involved.

I'm afraid you can get as many quotes as you like but if you admit liability it is down to the other person where and by whom they want to get the repair work done, not you. I know in alot of cases you can be shafted and it sucks.

If you are not happy with the quote then best thing to do is get your insurance company involved and let them sort it out with the other party.

daedalus2097

Yup, if you get your own insurers involved and they don't agree with the quote, they'll contest it, get their own assessor out and all that. But seeing as this guy went and got it repaired himself I think there's little anyone can do. It's probably overinflated alright - minor damage to a bumper is usually repaired rather than replace the bumper in non-insurance incidents. Just explain it to your insurers and let them deal with it.

craichoe

Afaik, he should have gotten it approved first. They have to assess it and he'd have to get a couple of quotes.

If thats the case i could just get my whole car resprayed and say it was your fault :eek:

Lamps

craichoe wrote:

Afaik, he should have gotten it approved first. They have to assess it and he'd have to get a couple of quotes.

If thats the case i could just get my whole car resprayed and say it was your fault :eek:

He jsut went and got the van "fixed" straight away, so theres nothign i can do.

Quinn are waiting for the engineers report to come through from his insurers, they've been waitng on it weeks now but they say they are being very very slow about it.

bazz26

Lamps wrote:

He jsut went and got the van "fixed" straight away, so theres nothign i can do.

Quinn are waiting for the engineers report to come through from his insurers, they've been waitng on it weeks now but they say they are being very very slow about it.

Generally in my experience insurance companies are like banks, they don't like talking to each other. So they usually put mountains of red tape in the way which unfortunately takes ages to get through.