A kid drove in to the side of my car yesterday. I was turning right in to a junction, he was waiting to pull out and turn right. He pulled out prematurly, into the side of my car. The rear wheel took most of the inpact, there is a little bit of a dent / scrape in the body work. We exchanged deatils etc.

Should I immediately contact my insurers, or can we deal with it privately? We are both full comp, but will I still incure costs if we claim and he is at fault? I fear this might be the case, so was going to get a quote for the fix and then let the other driver make the choice whether he could handle it privately…

He’s at fault so your premiums wont go up.
You may have to pay your excess but that can be reclaimed from his insurers once he’s deemed to be at fault.
I had the same thing earlier this year.

go through your insurers – you have nothing to lose really and they’ll deal with him for you.

If you start negotiating with him privately they may refuse to offer help later on if he gets arsey about paying.

In my experience claiming for a non fault accident will cause your premium to rise despite what the insurers tell you. Even if you do handle it privately you’re obligated to tell them about the incident at renewal time so doing the right thing by the kid that hit you doesn’t really do you any good.

On the plus side with the rise of third parties offering to handle your case for you without involving your own insurance company insurers seem a lot keener to get things resolved for you in an efficient manor.

Your premium will probably go up a bit as you have had an accident – even if it is non-fault.

But, if it were me I would do it through the insurance. Last time someone hit me, they then tried to turn it around & claimed that I hit them. The whole thing was a nightmare.

Problem with getting a quote & getting the other half to pay privately is that people don’t realise/believe how much proper repairs cost. A new panel with a spray can easily get up to £1k.
Plus if your wheel took the main brunt of the impact you need to have the suspension components carefully checked over for damage, plus any damage to the wheel/tyre.

The wife was parked in a shopping centre and a woman reversed into our car. The woman drove off and the wife ran after her. She stopped eventually, said she would pay to get the car fixed. When the wife came home, i said no, we go through insurance, as if she drove off, who said she would pull a fast one on the repair outside the insurance company. They said we had no excess to pay as we were parked up. Gave me a hire car for a week, was quite badly mangled under the plastics. The woman called us up and shouted expletives down the phone and told her tough, its going through insurance. Didnt cost us a bean and also actually didnt affect the following years insurance even though we advised the insurance of a no fault claim. Go through insurance unless you see the colour of his money up front.

Its a diffucult one

He’s at fault so your premiums wont go up.

They will

You either have to trust the person and get it done without involving the insurers or informing them or just go through them.

My advice would also be (if going through your insurance) to insist that the repairs are carried out at a main dealer as there are loads of shoddy repairers out there now who are on the list of insurers. One big one (Sapphire) in Manchester botched my repair massively, insisted on Mazda after my wife had an accident and tehy did a fantastic job, even doing extra paintwork repairs for a negligible amount while at it!

On top of the above – if you then (heaven forbid) go on to have another proper crash where you outright NEED to claim on insurance due to write offs or whatever – the insurance company might claim your policy is void due to you having a crash previous and not letting them know/let their authorized engineers check over your car/etc

It’s worth keeping to the wire with these things.

He’s at fault so your premiums wont go up.

Not ture unfortunately, the question is “have you been involved in any accidents” not “made any claims” or “been at fault”.

On the other hand someone on here (so possibly bolloks) was saying they claimed off the other drivers insurance for their increaced premiums for the next 5 years.

It may go 50/50 in which case dont forget that it will affect your insurance for 5 years, not one as commonly forgotten so whatever your insurance goes up by in year 1 you need to double or triple the amount to get a real world cost of using the insurers.

SOmething people forget when being offered a speed awareness course and taking teh points as it was the same rise in premium in yr 1 as it was to do the course. What about the extra you pay in yrs 2 – 5

SOmething people forget when being offered a speed awareness course and taking teh points as it was the same rise in premium in yr 1 as it was to do the course. What about the extra you pay in yrs 2 – 5

Aren’t admiral now saying they’re going to treat the course the same as points?

How can it be 50/50 fault? The other party drove into the side of the OP. 🙄

My policy went up initially as my claim was days before my policy was due to renew so I had to pay extra because the claim wasn’t closed and deemed the other party’s fault yet.
About three month later after a bit of badgering, I got a refund of the difference AND an extra £35 that I wasn’t expecting.

If it’s a “kid”, here’s what will happen.

The third party will want to deal with it privately.

You’ll go and get a quote for the repairs. The figure will be about five times what the other driver was expecting.

The other driver will then um and ah for ages and either a) disappear off the face of the Earth and never pay or b) go “well, actually, I think we should go through the insurance anyway.”

Simpler all round just to go through the insurance in the first place, IMHO.

Incidentally,

How many “kids” are fully comp? Maybe times have changed, but that seems odd to me.

Go through insurance – that’s what you pay it for and it’ll go up anyway.

You’ve been involved in an accident so your risk profile in the eyes of an insurer will change.

It’s a no CLAIM discount, not a no FAULT discount 😉

Same thing happened to me, i rang the insurance co at the scene. claimed everything back without shelling out a penny, excess or otherwise.

Can’t imagine doing anything else and strongly advise you to go the same route, sharpish.

How many “kids” are fully comp? Maybe times have changed, but that seems odd to me

A friends son had a Seat Arosa 1 ltr . Cost TPFT was £3000 . Cost for fully comp £3000 . Guess what he went for?

Doesn’t really matter if be is Fully Comp or not really though does it ?

The absolute minimum cover he needs to have is Third Party ONLY.

Which means the OP is covered for any losses (providing its not a case of “no insurance at all”)

I had an incident 2011 Nov, other driver went into the back driver side, i was stationary handbrake on as traffic wasn’t flowing. Called insurance company about 10 mins after. Other driver admitted liability wasn’t concentrating on traffic flow, i paid nothing out at all. My excess is covered if im not at fault so paid nothing, had a courtesy car for a week, could of had it for 3 weeks but i was out the country for 2 so i returned it.

My insurance renewal actually went down in august this year so all good, one snag is that i was pestered for months from no win no fee people about the accident, really annoyed me as i wasn’t injured.

How many “kids” are fully comp? Maybe times have changed, but that seems odd to me.

I suppose ‘kid’ is a relative term. Anyone under 30, seems like a kid to me now.

Often fully comp doesn’t come up any more expensive that 3rd Party these days, because it’s the ‘3rd party’ element of the claim which can often be the most costly (especially with personaly injury calims).

How many ‘kids’ have brand new Ford Fiestas. Maybe the car wasn’t his. Maybe I’m underetimating his age.

I was scared that there’s be a hefty cost to me, but some of you are allaying those a little.

Time to give the insurers a call I think.

OP did you take pics? Note for everyone – if it ever happens take lots of pics before the cars are moved from as many angles as possible. Also get a sly shot of the driver in the pic(s).

If the other driver objects- say you want to record for your own piece of mind.

OP speak to your insurer asap. Be prepared for a fight incase the other party changes their story or adds passengers into their car ‘suddenly’ etc.

Its only happened to me once but thankfully the other driver was a decent bloke on his Mums policy.

What hora said +1. Even if it means taking a pic before you even get out of your seat…

Mrs FF knocked a neighbours car and dented their bumber, neither party wanted to involve insurers, so we just paid a local garage to fix it for the neighbour. Pretty simple.

A friends son had a Seat Arosa 1 ltr . Cost TPFT was £3000 . Cost for fully comp £3000 . Guess what he went for?

Fully comp.

Mrs FF knocked a neighbours car and dented their bumber, neither party wanted to involve insurers, so we just paid a local garage to fix it for the neighbour. Pretty simple.

Thing is unless you drive your own car thats older/not fussed- chances are you’ll be in a financed car, leased car etc and a cheap repair wouldn’t suffice. Bumper etc nowadays can be close to a grand can’t it.

Well, Mrs FF works in the motor trade, so the local dealer was one she looks after, so we got the bumper at trade price and fitting for free…..

A friends son had a Seat Arosa 1 ltr . Cost TPFT was £3000 . Cost for fully comp £3000 . Guess what he went for?

A bike?

I’m going through a claim at the moment.

My van was parked on the street outside the house, the lady from over the road reversed off her drive and into the front of it! I went through the insurance as it was quite a lot of damage, paid out a £200 excess at the garage to get it fixed and 4 months later her insurance is still arguing liability despite the fact the van was parked, locked, out off gear, handbrake on and no one in it! How can it be anyones fault but hers?

My insurance company have been next to useless regarding informing me what’s going on, infact i’m off to ring them again now! On the plus side I had to renew whilst the claim was pending, I expected to get hammered but the premium actually went down.

Get evidence, take pictures of everything. The insurance company will try everything to wriggle out of paying.

How can they argue liability- on what grounds? you were dangerously parked?!

even if he was dangerously parked, or even stupidly parked or whatever, if it was stationary then its her job not to drive into stationary objects! Sspecially if just exiting your own drive, its not like it was parked in the middle lane of the m4.

A friends son had a Seat Arosa 1 ltr . Cost TPFT was £3000

Christ, really?

And people still pay this?

On top of the above – if you then (heaven forbid) go on to have another proper crash where you outright NEED to claim on insurance due to write offs or whatever – the insurance company might claim your policy is void due to you having a crash previous and not letting them know/let their authorized engineers check over your car/etc

It’s worth keeping to the wire with these things.

Thats a load of old cobblers, so if you bump your car into a wall and have it repaired yourself without insurance knowing they might not pay out if you have a further claim ?

You would need to declare that you had an accident, thats all. Whether it was repaired or not has no bearing on the insurance.

Yes your premium will go up even if it is not your fault. A m8 of mine worked for an insurance company and told me this. Insurance companies don’t like telling their customers this though. If you have been involved in an accident, even if it was not your fault, you are statistically more likely to be involved in another accident and so your premium goes up.

A friends son had a Seat Arosa 1 ltr . Cost TPFT was £3000

Christ, really?

And people still pay this?

Yes sadly, they have to, to get a car on the road and be 18 yr old male driver. My daughters Polo worth £500 was £1400 TPFT for the first year. We are in year 3 and at £370 for the same car. I know the lads insurance is now £1200 on a new Corsa , which he just bought with 2 years no claims on it.

My insurance company have been next to useless regarding informing me what’s going on, infact i’m off to ring them again now!

Well, that seemed to work this time. Apparently 3rd party have now accepted liability and have issued a cheque for the excess. The power of STW strikes again!

Im only mid twenties, but since i was 18 there has only been around £30to £50 differance in full comp and third party fire and theft and the TPFT was the more expensive.

everyone i know who has been in a non fault accident have suffered a boost in premiums, working in a supermarket every accident we have seen and had reported in the car park has been 50/50.

And if you don’t report it to your insurer,and they say your insurance is void,in another accident because of this,how do they get round that you may have bought the car and not know of past repairs?

I had a no fault prang a couple of years ago. Called my own insurance companies claim line which was actually answered by a Personal injury firm! (who proceeded to call me daily for weeks despite being told to jog on) then dodgy credit hire car hire people. When I finally got hold of my actual insurer they were pretty unhelpful.

Contacted 3rd parties insurer directly, explained my insurer was keen to run up costs but I prefered to play with a straight bat assuming they made things easy. They took the car for repair leaving a replacement, sent me a cheque to replace car seats (they were unoccupied at the time and it was a very light impact but there you go) absolute zero hassle. All this despite their insured party not responding to their attempts to contact.

In the years since, it’s had no impact on my premiums, tho some insurers no longer appear at the top of the list on aggregator sites.

In summary, call the lads insurer direct, you may be surprised how helpful they can be

Called my own insurance companies claim line which was actually answered by a Personal injury firm! (who proceeded to call me daily for weeks despite being told to jog on) then dodgy credit hire car hire people. When I finally got hold of my actual insurer they were pretty unhelpful.

Its not Direct Asssist is it? They’ve just gone bust owing…

£350m in debt. apparently they lost a huge £180m a year contract.

I also did the same – went to the insured parties insurer as my own wanted lots of redtape etc.

On the ‘must tell the insurer of all accidents’.

Where do you draw the line at an accident.

An unfortunate incident that happens unexpectedly and unintentionally, typically resulting in damage or injury.
A crash involving road or other vehicles, typically one that causes serious damage or injury.

Damage could be a punctured tyre. KERBED ALLOY- seriously, you kit a kerb uninentionally and the only damaged is scouring to the alloy. wind blows drivers door ont a wall resulting in 3mm of damage. This can fall into the ‘accident’ category.

Jog on insurers. The vast majority of insured drivers don’t claim, they pay effectively all their premium every year and if they did have accident they’d pay twice both in premiums, excess etc etc.

Insurers are now owned (alot) by private equity companies.