Dinged Car - Settle Privately or Thro Insurance?

caitR

I dinged a car about 3 months back. Broke an indicator light and scratched a couple of panels, my fault, pulled out in front of other driver while trying to pass a jeep + trailer stopped in middle of country road :-(.

Anyway, we both agreed at time that i would settle it myself, no need to involve insurance co, although we did swap insur co details.

So, I asked her (polish girl, seemd quite reasonable) to get quotes from at least two garages and to send them on.
Well she got the quotes alright, both approx 600euro, but never sent them on. I said i would pay garage directly when she was ready to get work done.
About 1.5months after I get another call from her to put the money directly into her bank account, I was suprised at this and said that I have no problem paying the garage directly, but was not willing to put money in her account....after all, how would i know that was it?

And I asked her again to send on quotes (twice)....nothing...

I heard nothing from her UNTIL i got a call from my insurace company just last Friday (again about another 1.5months on) saying she had made a claim......

At this point, it's registered as a claim and that can't be changed.

However, I can still try to pay her directly or I can let the insurance crowd deal with it and take the hit on my premium or pay the insurance company back.
Then I rang the other driver back, now she wants car hire too.....(while it's being fixed)....I know she's entitled to it, my mistake and all that, but somehow i feel i'm being conned here.
If I pay her directly (into her bank account) how do I know that's it? How do I know she won't claim against my insurance also?

Any suggestions how i proceed?

Bluehair

caitR wrote: »

Any suggestions how i proceed?

Leave it to the insurance company to handle at this point. Mate of mine had a nightmare a few years back in a similar situation where he told the insurance company not to pay out he'd do it himself. Next renewal they promptly loaded his policy anyway on the basis 'he'd caused an accident'.

Steve

What insurance have you?
Fully comp / how much no-claims / it it protected?

If it's going to go through insurance, then you might as well get yours fixed as part of the claim.
I'm sure a phone call you your insurance company would better answer your question. If they happen to say yes, "pay it yourself and there will be no impact or your policy" then make full sure you get this from them in writing.

caitR

Thanks Bluehair - i really want to avoid that kind of nightmare.

SteveC - good advice too, thanks! At the time of incident, i only had 3rd party (bad move cause i'd just bought a newer car about 1 wk prior) my insurance was due for renewal just 4 days after the incident (. I've since gone full comp. I have Full NCD...or at least i had :-( not protected.
my car came out of it relatively unscathed, small crack to the bumper and borrowed some of her red paint, but i've taken care of that already.

daveharnett

Let her bill your insurer. Once it's all settled, you can figure out with them whether you're better off paying them back now or over the next few years on your premium

Del2005

caitR wrote: »

I dinged a car about 3 months back. Broke an indicator light and scratched a couple of panels, my fault, pulled out in front of other driver while trying to pass a jeep + trailer stopped in middle of country road :-(.

Anyway, we both agreed at time that i would settle it myself, no need to involve insurance co, although we did swap insur co details.

So, I asked her (polish girl, seemd quite reasonable) to get quotes from at least two garages and to send them on.
Well she got the quotes alright, both approx 600euro, but never sent them on. I said i would pay garage directly when she was ready to get work done.
About 1.5months after I get another call from her to put the money directly into her bank account, I was suprised at this and said that I have no problem paying the garage directly, but was not willing to put money in her account....after all, how would i know that was it?

And I asked her again to send on quotes (twice)....nothing...

I heard nothing from her UNTIL i got a call from my insurace company just last Friday (again about another 1.5months on) saying she had made a claim......

At this point, it's registered as a claim and that can't be changed.

However, I can still try to pay her directly or I can let the insurance crowd deal with it and take the hit on my premium or pay the insurance company back.
Then I rang the other driver back, now she wants car hire too.....(while it's being fixed)....I know she's entitled to it, my mistake and all that, but somehow i feel i'm being conned here.
If I pay her directly (into her bank account) how do I know that's it? How do I know she won't claim against my insurance also?

Any suggestions how i proceed?

Why wheren't you willing to just pay her off? €600 for a couple of panels resprayed isn't too expensive. Even if she doesn't get the car fixed you're out of the woods as you've paid her. She must have got p!ssed off waiting 3 months, as I would, for you to pay her off so now she is going to screw you through your insurance for everything.

You can let the insurance sort it out and then pay them off, this doesn't affect your NCB.

caitR

thanks Del2005, yea you're right, 600 euro isn't so much. In hindsight, yeah, I should have paid her and hoped that was it - but i had no proof of anything (no quote, nothing) and how could i know she wouldn't approach my insurance also? It just seemed bizzare to put money into a strangers bank account...

The waiting 3 months was her doing... not mine, she didn't seem in too much of a rush to get it sorted for whatever reason. I thought i would have seen the back of this ages ago, I just want rid of it!

Vertakill

You were dead right not to put the money into her account. As you said, she could just take the money and then claim off your insurance anyways, and you wouldn't have a leg to stand on.

However, as far as I can remember (correct me if I'm wrong someone) there is a time frame where you must report an incident like this. Making a claim 3 months down the line doesn't sound right at all. The damage on both cars would have to be assessed shortly after the incident to avoid anyone influencing the damage and so on.

cabrwab

Yeah i can't believe the insurance company has even decided to deal with this, were the fuzz called out?! Just saying doesn't sound like there is much of a record, she may have crashed since the incident and now your paying for all that. She sounds like she is ripping the piss, id let the insurance company deal with her, but let your insurance company know this incident happened ages ago etc.
and you want to be sure your fixing the damage you caused.
Did you take pics or anything?

Dont think the boards policy of pics or it didn't happen will swing with your insurance company?!!
I don't understand why she didnt just go to get a quote for you right away, people are weird. I wouldnt put the money in her account either, as she could just screw you over as poster has said already

JimmyCrackCorn!

Bluehair wrote: »

Leave it to the insurance company to handle at this point. Mate of mine had a nightmare a few years back in a similar situation where he told the insurance company not to pay out he'd do it himself. Next renewal they promptly loaded his policy anyway on the basis 'he'd caused an accident'.

Get the insurance company involved theyll negotiate on your behalf.

Quinn Direct offered to let me pay the cost of the damages and keep my no claims. Find out if your insurance company allows the same.

Trust me on this let the insurance company deal with it as when this happened thy were calming all sorts of fun stuff including 20% depreciation on the car as i broke there bumper.:eek: I could nearly bought them another 00 fiesta with the figures they wanted. Insurance comany stepped in and it was 2,000 euro.

Also the first thing the insurance company does is to send an assessor to prevent extra damage being caused to the car post-accident. Trust me this is what you pay insurance for

Vertakill

The point I was making in my previous post was that, in all these situations, an assessor is called to assess the damage to both cars. If at some point in the last 3 months, this girl has damaged her car even more then you're in serious sh1t.
So going to your insurance company and saying 'Oh yeah I drove into her etc etc' isn't really good enough as you may be unknowingly setting yourself up for something you weren't expecting.

You really should've taken pictures of both cars after the incident (whether you had a camera/phone with you or not, even if it meant going to her house at a later date).

But as Jimmy says, insurance companies are good at sorting out these situations and they've most likely came across situations like this before. So, make sure to explain the story to whoever is going through your claim and also to the assessor and try to be as detailed as possible regarding the damage you've done, in case she's trying to claim for recent damage as well.

caitR

i took pictures alright, only of the affected area though...

And i did call the cops, but this happened in the back of beyonds, given the small nature of the damage, rather than wait, I rang em back and told them not to bother that we'd agreed to sort it ourselves.

i'm not claiming for the very minor damage to mine, so wouldn't have thought i needed pics of my own.

Del2005

caitR wrote: »

thanks Del2005, yea you're right, 600 euro isn't so much. In hindsight, yeah, I should have paid her and hoped that was it - but i had no proof of anything (no quote, nothing) and how could i know she wouldn't approach my insurance also? It just seemed bizzare to put money into a strangers bank account...

The waiting 3 months was her doing... not mine, she didn't seem in too much of a rush to get it sorted for whatever reason. I thought i would have seen the back of this ages ago, I just want rid of it!

OK, I thought you where casusing the delay. Sorry.

TBH it sounds like she just wanted to get some money off you and not fix the car. She didn't want to spend money on a quote for repair as she was never going to fix the car. Bit dishonest, but you did damage her car.

The old great hindsight, you could have got her to sign a document that she was excepting the money as full and final payment for the damage to her car and then get someone else to witness it.

As the rest are saying let your insurance company deal with it now and then pay them off when it's done if it isn't too much.

Toots

Trust me, let the insurance sort it out. If you can pay them back, then do that. Nearly this exact same thing happened my next door neighbour, he rear ended this guy on a roundabout outside Dundrum shopping centre one day, and they decided to get it sorted without getting the insurance involved (but like yourself they swapped details). The guy rang the neighbour and said the damage was coming to €2k approx. I think it was a new bumper, some respraying and panel beating but can't remember for sure.

Anyhoo, neighbour said ok, and sent him a cheque in the post. The cheque came out of his account and he didn't hear anything else from the guy so assumed everything was sorted. Then about 6 weeks later he got a call from his insurance to say this guy was claiming for the damage to his car!!! Luckily for the neighbour, he'd kept a copy of the letter he'd sent along with the cheque to the guy he hit, he'd sent the letter by registered post so he could prove it was delivered to the guy's address, and the bank was able to send confirmation that the cheque had been lodged to the guys account, but he was really lucky! If he'd paid that guy in cash he wouldn't have had a leg to stand on. Of course the other guy denied everything, and then the neighbour had to get the Guards involved. There's still a load of messing around with it now cos the guy who he hit is being done for insurance fraud or something like that because of it.

It's probably not worth the stress to go down the route of paying her yourself. As Jimmy said, this is what you pay your insurance for. Let them sort it out!

L1011

Toots85 wrote: »

There's still a load of messing around with it now cos the guy who he hit is being done for insurance fraud or something like that because of it.

Wahey, justice prevails

Can't see why people assume they're going to get away with this these days - insurers are extremely wise to fraud and do their best to ensure anyone caught for it gets ridden for it.

Steve

Toots85 wrote: »

There's still a load of messing around with it now cos the guy who he hit is being done for insurance fraud or something like that because of it.

Keep us posted on that one - too much of that crap going on and too many people getting away with it..:mad:
Kudos to your neighbour for having the sense to keep records of everything.