Is there any reason not to claim for our damages on car insurance?

[UnderOpenSky]

My partner had a car accident recently. Fortunately, it was very low speed and everyone is ok.

What I'm now regretting is I had both cars and drivers on the same insurance policy. Although it sounds like the other party (a taxi) was being very unpredictable, I don't see anyway that this won't be classed with my partner being at fault or at best 50/50. The car that she uses is a 2007 Renault and not really worth very much. We've got the option about if we want to claim for damages to our car. TBH they aren't really bad at all, scratched bumper and a bit of bodywork damage. She doesn't really care what the cars she drives look like.

I'm assuming this going to be brutal on my insurance for years. Will it make any difference not to claim the damages to our car? If it doesn't, it seems like a no-brainer to claim. I'm guessing the car would be written off and we'd have the option to buy it back and do nothing? We've no plans to sell the car, it will be driven until it can't pass an MOT economically. If however it might make the next 5 years premiums slightly cheaper than it makes sense to not claim them as the car still runs fine.

 

[existentialist]

I'd imagine that anything much worse than a stuck ashtray is going to result in a write-off on the Renault, so it might be worth checking the book value, and seeing what the insurance company will offer. My 2007 Hyundai got a Cat N writeoff after having one of its rear wheel arches tractor-streamlined. There was no structural damage, and they paid me out about £2000 (about 3 years ago) including £350 buy-back.

You usually have to get it re-MOT'd to get it back on the insurance, and in my case the insurer (Admiral) just continued the policy. The V5 gets a big thing printed on it to say it's a written-off vehicle.

If you're operating banger-nomics, it's perfect - you get a cash payout at today's value, less a bit, and your car is now officially worth £0, which makes it a lot easier to tolerate any further bangs and scrapes.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

a few thoughts -

you have reported this to your insurers, haven't you? even if both drivers agreed at the scene that damage was superficial / not worth bothering about, there's a risk the other driver may report it later (either they are being a twunt, or they find damage they didn't notice at the time) - even reporting a 'no damage' accident may affect your premium.

if there's no claim (either for your car's damage or from the other driver) then it shouldn't affect your no claims. if other driver is going to make a claim that your insurers settle, then that's already buggered.

insurers seem ever more keen to take the 'write off' route now. cars are getting ever more expensive and complicated to repair, and if it's the sort of policy where they will want repairs done through their (expensive) approved repair centre to a 'good as new' standard, and / or if the policy involves them paying for a loan car until either the repair is done or they say 'write off' then it makes opting for write-off more economic for them.

you don't have to claim for own damage - you can tell insurer it's just a couple of scratches and you don't want to claim.

although be aware that having a current MOT doesn't stop you from getting done for an 'unroadworthy' vehicle if the damage makes it in any way unsafe.

there are some categories of write-off where it's not legal to re-licence a car. it sounds like yours isn't one of them. but write off and buy back is a fair amount of faffing about, and not convinced you'd be financially better off doing that, it's going to affect your no-claims and may increase your premiums / insurance options in the future. and re-sale value, although that may not be an issue here.

at one time, if you repaired and re-licensed a write-off, you had to get a new MOT when it was done, and get the car inspected - to prove it really was the same car (i guess it would be an easy way to launder a stolen car if you had an MOT write off that was similar, and said the dodgy one was the write-off that you had repaired.) I'm not sure this is still the case now they have closed the local DVLA offices.

some time ago now, some nurk tried to break in to my car with a crowbar, which bent the front passenger door slightly and broke the window in that door. my insurers wanted to write it off. i was able to withdraw the claim and got it fixed with a second hand window - the door got un-bent and was secure but wasn't perfect, and the whole thing cost me less than 50 quid and as i didn't make a claim, didn't affect my no-claims.

 

[existentialist]

Useful, if basic, page on writeoffs.

What is a Cat A, B, S or N Insurance write-off? | RAC Drive

What is an insurance 'write-off'? How do Cat A, Cat B, Cat S and Cat N write-off categories work? Find out with the RAC's in-depth guide.

www.rac.co.uk

 

[UnderOpenSky]

Thank you both, yes it was reported shortly afterwards, although we had it recovered to the garage we use for MOTs for a basic safety check. I'm pretty confident it will get through it's MOT (GEM Breakdown for the win as most won't cover this).

My insurance is going to be fucked, so it sounds like I should totally claim and put the money towards premiums if there's no financial reason not to do so. I was just rather surprised by the question. Like why wouldn't I claim?

It's totally after the horse has bolted, but I'll be doing separate insurance policies next time and getting a front and rear dash cam for my own car. I'm annoyed at myself we've got this policy, it was a massive cost saving when we took out a number of years ago (bundled house and stuff in as well), but the last few years it's been no different to doing them separately.

 

[hash tag]

if there's no claim (either for your car's damage or from the other driver) then it shouldn't affect your no claims.

Yep, just like a no fault claim, it won't affect your no claims but it won't stop the insurers loading the basic premium on renewal. The logic I believe is that if you have been involved in an accident your chances of being involved in another accident are increased.