Crashed into car-what to do?

FutureGuy

Hi everyone, after 11 months of driving without a problem, I crashed into the back of a car. Merry Christmas me bum etc.

It was completely my fault. The woman was very nice about it. I drive a 00 Focus and she was driving a 00 Renault Megane. The damage was around the bumper area and the back and my Dad (used own a garage) reckons the damage is about 1500 to her car and about 400 to mine. Miraculously, no major damage was done to my car and I could go without repairing it.

I have 1 year NCB and my insurance dropped from 1500 in year 1 to 900 in year 2.

If I put this crash on my insurance, how much could I expect it to increase. Also, how long would it take for my insurance to be back to pre-crash levels?

So should I bite the bullet and pay the damages out of my own pocket or should I just let her claim? Which would be cheaper?

Thanks for all your help everyone. Apologies as I really haven't a clue about these things!

Zorba

I'm no expert but i'd expect your insurance to go back up to 1100 -1200 region, as for it coming back down to 900 it could take 2 maybe 3 yrs. Also your obliged to tell your insurance company you've had a crash so they might load your insurance whether you actually make the claim or not. I had a crash years ago and they added i think 20 % onto my insurance the next yr and they had to pay out 15k or something so might be worth claiming off your insurance plus you've only 1 yrs no claims, not like your gonna lose 3 or 5 yrs no claims.

fasty

If you can afford it, pay it yourself. Don't worry too much about the insurance loading, worry more about the fact that other insurers will tell you to feck off when it comes time to shop around.

Zorba

fasty wrote: »

If you can afford it, pay it yourself. Don't worry too much about the insurance loading, worry more about the fact that other insurers will tell you to feck off when it comes time to shop around.

Yes forgot the bit that you'll have to stick with your insurer for 3 yrs. But when u inform them will the others still not tell u to feck off anyway ?

FutureGuy

Thanks for the info guys, sorry for not replying. Didn't know about informing the insurance company tbh. Will do.

Just got word that the owner of the car got word from the garage that the car was written off :eek: I'm stunned. They said that the underside of the car was warped. I hit her in traffic and wasn't going fast, so I am at a loss really. My car is almost perfect. So the cost is 5 k so obviously I am going through the insuance.

Although I trust the woman, everyone I have told about it and showed the pics to say that it was impossible to write of a car based on the situation.

I really don't know what to do

Bluetonic

FutureGuy wrote: »

Although I trust the woman, everyone I have told about it and showed the pics to say that it was impossible to write of a car based on the situation.

I would say it's impossible for anyone to diagnose from a story and some pictures to be honest.

As the claim will be going through your own insurance, your own assessor will decide if it's a write off or not. Have you spoken to them?

chris85

Ask your insurer. They will advise on what you can do. My girlfriend rang them after she had a minor crash into someone. There was bout €1000 damage to the other car and she was tempted to not claim but decided to claim and the insurance stayed the same for the renewal.

Edit: Just read the post bout the write off of her car. Get onto your insurance and ensure that you have the other car checked over by your insurer's accessor as they will verify whether it is a write off

FutureGuy

I tried ringing them at 715 this evening but they are closed until the morning.

I'll ring them first thing.

I didn't know I was supposed to ring them...the originalplan was to pay for the damage off my insurance-I didn't know I still had to contact them until I read the posts above. Will this cause trouble-should i have reported it in a given time frame?

corkandproud

Contact the other driver and tell her you are sending an assessor and get your own.

Remember the insurance assessor is working for the insurance company, not you.

tossy

It was most likely written off because the cost of the repairs exceeded the value of the car,i crashed into a guy a few years back pretty similar story to yours and he was very nice about it and i thought he was the soundest guy ever,that was until he got home to the wife/mother/brother or whoever who convinced him that he had severe back pain and i got a solicitors letter.however in hindsight i dont blame him and i would have done the same thing,you see i was talking to an insurance guy a few weeks after the event and he told me that his car was written off due to the cost of the repairs being more than the car was worth,he was driving a pretty old rover,the insurance company offered him somethnig like 500 euro for it!!!

Now put yourself in his position a normal family guy with kids and a job and suddenly no more car and a cheque for 500 euro,of course you are going to file a personal injuries claim,in the end my insurance company paid out in the region of 10,000,4000 or so for my car,500 euro for his car and the rest for loss of earnings,doctor etc for him.i was subsequently told by the insurance guy who was handling my case that once it gets to the stage of personal claims it doesnt matter how much he gets your insurance is going up by a set amount.

I lost a 2 years NCB,my first insurance the year after went up a fair bit(cant remember exactly sorry) the year after wasnt so bad and the following year was lower than before the accident and that was on a bigger car than the one i was previously insured with - i was in my late 20s though and a full license holder (you dont give your age and license details).one thing worth noting is that you are pretty much at the mercy of your own insurance comppany for 3 years as no one else will touch you if you have had a claim against you in the last 3 years,some even in the last 5 years.

Hope that hleps.

FutureGuy

Thanks for all the advice everyone. I really appreciate it.

Corkandproud, I'm sorry for my lack of knowledge, but are you saying i should send a separate assessor other than the the insurance assessor?

tossy, I'm 30, male and full licence. Hopefully, It won't gop up too much!

corkandproud

I woulod get an assessor, if you engage him he will act in your best interest.

Eoin

tossy wrote: »

Now put yourself in his position a normal family guy with kids and a job and suddenly no more car and a cheque for 500 euro,of course you are going to file a personal injuries claim

I certainly hope I have the honesty not to do so if I find myself in that position.

You're right about the cost of repairs being too expensive though, and I don't it even has to exceed the value of the car - probably 50% of the value of the car, and it's not economically viable. '00 Focuseseses go for anything from just over 3K to over 10K. If it was valued at the lower end, then it wouldn't have taken much for it to be a write-off.

Not that it's relevant at this stage, but I have never heard that you have to disclose an accident to your insurer if you have no intentions of going through them to settle the damage.

FutureGuy, I don't suppose you had any protection on your policy?

tossy

eoin_s wrote: »

I certainly hope I have the honesty not to do so if I find myself in that position.

Well having been through the long drawn out process that it is and seen the resulting effect or ultimate lack of effect on my insurance cost,if i found myself in that position i would have no hestitation in doing what he did.

Sam Kade

So you would claim for injuries even though you were not injured, thats the reason that honest people have to pay more for their insurance.

tossy

Read my original post...

Put simply you are a normal joe soap of a motorist not made of money in any way,just trying to eek out a living and trying not to let the government ride you too much between road tax - car prices - petrol prices etc etc,you are going about your day minding your own business ans some idiot crashes into the back of you(because lets face it i was the idiot who crashed into the back of him _ i made the mistake and learned my lesson),suddenly your perfectly good car which was in sound mechanical order,the car that was your lifeline in terms of dropping the kids to school,picking them up,getting to work etc is now no more written of by an insurance company who offer you 500euro for it!

What would you do? take that at face value? let the kids miss school for a while? tell the boss you are going to have to miss a week or two from work maybe more? you see not everybody has a second car in the house or not everybody can call a brother or friend or whatever and borrow their second car,sometimes though no fault of your own reality bites and you have to do something you might have previously morally objected to and play the system.

To be honest you can take the moral high ground and its the easiest path but until you are put into that position i don't honestly believe you could say how you would react.

January

Ring your insurance company, and ask them will it affect your no claims bonus. They're the only ones that know. I know some companies offer a no claims bonus protection whereas in the event of one claim your NCB isn't affected but any other claim is.

Gumbo

because the other fella is claiming off your insurance, your insurance company will automatically send out an assesor to inspect his car to determine if it wrote off or not. but they could also accept a letter from another garage so its 50/50 wether they send out an assesor and see if the guy is bluffing on wether the car is a right off or not.

hope you get it sorted with out too much trouble to yourself.

SMERSH

What will cripple your insurance is if he gets a solicitor after you for any injuries he may have suffered as a result.

Gary ITR

Probably would be written off if the car was worth 5k and the damage is roughly 1.5k because once the bill goes to around 30% of the value of the car they are written off

LegacyUser

Future guy, sympathy on the crash. Just to let you know that Renaults are damn expensive to fix. I own one and have been crashed into from behind, not at high speed and it was 4500 to fix. Thats not including the 6 weeks car rental when I was waiting for Renault to get the parts. Not sure what the deal is, but the REnaults look absolutely unmarked - but the bumper popping out will conceal the real damage. The boot will completely warp and buckle.

I hope you are making sure that this person you crashed into is looked after! The most frustrating thing I had to deal with was the phone calls from the other person's insurance company threatening to take back the hire car! All I wanted was to have my car back! So I could get to work, and not to waste my employer's time making phone calls to insurance companies.
If I were you future guy I would go through the insurance, 1500 isn't very much really. This person could claim personal injuries, they have some time to do that. The could do it. Cover yourself and let your insurance company deal with it. Driver more carefully the next time.
My car is worth NOTHING now, I can't even change it becuase it depreciated so much after the crash.

Grrrr ...