Car insurance claims

Recently my car took a bump in the works car park by a van using the car park to turn round. Luckily someone spotted it so got some details and the reg.

Damage to my car amounts to a new door which I’ve had quotes of £1200 for a new door or £450 for 2nd hand door and cash in hand repairs. Initially he wanted to sort it direct which I was okay with but he’s now decided he’s not paying up.

I’m not sure I want to go through my insurance as it might end up being a write off which would lead to my policy being cancelled (only one month into it), excesses, increase in premiums, etc. Has anyone had experience of dealing direct with a 3rd party’s insurance? Is it possible?

You can go direct to the third parties insurer but, if your insurer are likely to write off then it’s more than likely they will come to the same conclusion.

True, but if I’m dealing with them not my own insurance does my policy still get cancelled?

Both times I’ve had a car written off, I’ve never had the policy cancelled. They’ve just switched the policy to the new car.

Source: my car was written off in February, all I did to insure the new car was phone up and change the details on my policy

Ok will double check the policy again as I’m sure I read this earlier

Yes mine was suspended when my car was written off, then transferred over to my replacement car.

Would be interested to hear if you can claim direct off the 3rd parties insurance as well….

Of course you can claim direct from the other party’s insurance (which is what happens if you’re not fully comp, as I wasn’t when somebody else wrote off my car – though in that case it was major structural damage rather than just economic, and I was more than happy to get 10% less than I’d paid 18 months earlier), it’s just that’s not the normal way to do it.

Claiming off somebody else’s insurance does give you a bit more latitude in outcome – if you can find a repair which is less than the value of your car then it should be possible to get that paid for.

Yeah checked the policy wording and it does state that in the event of a total loss claim the policy will end with no refund – not ideal when I only took it out a month ago

Yeah checked the policy wording and it does state that in the event of a total loss claim the policy will end with no refund – not ideal when I only took it out a month ago

This didn’t use to be unusual, and looks like it’s come back – maybe buy an old car and get the policy transferred beforehand?

But when you look at it from their point of view, not unreasonable, they’ve had, at most the value of the policy off you, at the least one month’s payment, and they are going to have to pay out the value of a car. Why would they then risk paying out even more during the rest of the year? Insurance companies tend to run at a loss on car insurance I believe.

But when you look at it from their point of view, not unreasonable, they’ve had, at most the value of the policy off you, at the least one month’s payment, and they are going to have to pay out the value of a car. Why would they then risk paying out even more during the rest of the year? Insurance companies tend to run at a loss on car insurance I believe.

It’s completely unreasonable. Losses from one particular driver are or should be more than offset from people like me, who have paid premiums for 20+ years and never made a claim, let alone had a car written off.

This is just a slightly sneaky way of harvesting extra cash or discouraging valid claims from people who have paid up front for insurance.

Whether or not they make a loss overall from car insurance shouldn’t be an individual customer’s problem when they need help. Perhaps insurers should sort out the market, stop quoting ridiculously low and offer an honest service?

It’s not like they are going to refuse to pay out for the car, simply that they are refusing to pay out for more than one car on that policy.
Anyway, the top and bottom of it is that the OP has agreed to the terms and whether it’s worth his while to pursue some other avenue to try and re-coup some of his losses is going to be dependent on the how much money is involved. It’s not dishonest it’s just not what you might hope would happen.
Car insurance isn’t fair, I’ve had to claim and been screwed over because the circumstances of the accident made it impossible to prove who’s fault it was.

your in a no fault position although you ll make a claim via your insurance provider they claim for 100% of the costs from the other guys insurer.

approach the other guy give him the quotes or say to him.. 500 quid and i ll forget it.. you car is after all worth less than 1200.. you bang a new door on and away you go..

Firstly, i’d go direct through the third party insurers.
Secondly, should your vehicle be a total loss, there are several categories where it is either “beyond economical repair” or not fit to be repaired and only to be scrapped for parts. If it is just a door, and the engineer finds no structural damage, you could have a cash in lieu payment for the repairs or get them to write it off and then buy back the salvage for usually 10% value and then repair the car privately. If written off, the car will go on the salvage register and your insurer will want to see repair receipts and a new MOT before continuing to insure.
Worst case scenario where the car is written off and your insurer imposes the “policy termination clause”, they should allow you to transfer the policy to another car with an additional premium (depending on what you replace it with) and an admin fee.
World ending scenario where they refuse to insure or refund (highly unlikely) – the money you lose becomes an uninsured loss and you provide evidence to the third party insurer to reimburse you for your losses.

Anyway, the top and bottom of it is that the OP has agreed to the terms and whether it’s worth his while to pursue some other avenue to try and re-coup some of his losses is going to be dependent on the how much money is involved. It’s not dishonest it’s just not what you might hope would happen.

It’s true, we should all scrutinise our t&cs before buying a policy, but a lot of us don’t. We take note of the figure for the excess, but to squirrel something away in the small print which could potentially cost you much more is pretty underhand.

If insurers don’t want to expose themselves to the risk of a further claim on a particular policy, they should refund on a pro rata basis.

Good luck to the OP – I’m sure they’ll find some way to avoid paying out altogether if they can.

Also important to remember that by paying monthly, you do not have “montly insurance”, the insurance company are offering finance to spread your policy cost over the year (and making a bit of profit on the APR).
If you don’t claim, you can cancel at any time (ending monthly payments with usually a slight penalty or receiving a partial pro-rata refund if you pay in full at the beginning of the year).
If you claim the full cost of the policy applies, if you cancel the direct debit, you’ll get chased for the remainder of the premium.

BTW I used to work for an insurer and I’ve personally had a car and motorbike written off, both times claimed directly through third party insurer.