My wife runs a 51 Micra with some disability options. Local council bin lorry damaged her rear wing when parked outside. Driver & supervisor admitted liability and gave us Zurich insurance details. We are not as young and sharp as we were, as policy is hers wife decided to ring Saga out of courtesy to let them know we would be dealing direct with Zurich and not claiming on her policy.

She was quickly transferred to Claimfast by Saga, was told to do nothing, they would do it all, to take her car to a certain garage, leave it there, an Enterprise hire car would meet her there. Despite pointing out the minor damage, car still useable, etc., she was told this was part of the deal, and if she didn't take the hire car she was possibly liable for the excess, which they wouldn't help her to get back.

Luckily I had read somewhere on here about claims companies, got onto Saga to cancel everything, got an estimate of £300 for the damage. I could see the hire car costs boosting everything into 'write off' territory!

Zurich were great, rang and wrote admitting clients liability, gave lots of options. Interestingly they wrote that even if we wanted to use our own insurers, they could still hire us a car, which would only be £16 per day, which they would cover, they are obviously wise to certain practices.. Our estimate of £300 was immediately given the OK.

We were perhaps naive in even telling Saga, but being in our 70's are not quite up with some modern practices. We just did not want my wife's car written off by inflated costs.

From previous experience and advice from a friend in the industry (given too late) always claim on their insurance if you can.

Just make sure Saga hasn't kept a record of any no-fault claim, or placed your original query in a file marked 'liability'.

 

Sometimes even phoning the insurers with a claim query can result in them marking you down as more at risk, and your premium increased as a result. Sad but true.

 

I hope this isn't the case with you :sun:

From previous experience and advice from a friend in the industry (given too late) always claim on their insurance if you can.

Just make sure Saga hasn't kept a record of any no-fault claim, or placed your original query in a file marked 'liability'.

 

Sometimes even phoning the insurers with a claim query can result in them marking you down as more at risk, and your premium increased as a result. Sad but true.

 

I hope this isn't the case with you :sun:

Thanks both, points noted, wife was so disappointed with Saga handing over her query to Claimfast as a claim, she will probably look elsewhere come renewal time. We were shocked in our innocence to find that claims companies apparently use expensive hire agreements as a means of making profit, which to us must surely put up premiums for others in the long term by increasing claim costs.

I'm pleased to hear you managed to get it sorted out reasonably, I don't think you're naive and quite honestly despite being in my 30's I've been quite shocked how insurance claims can be handled.  I've a friend who had another car scratch his when it went by which went across several panels and has a slight dent so he checked with a local body shop he trusted to get a quote.  The insurance company however wanted to tow the car to their own approve garage (some considerable distance away) and give him a courtesy car which which meant much greater cost (not to the person but he didn't agree with the money being wasted) and inconvenience.  After much arguing he managed to get his own way dropping the car off for the day at the local garage and all sorted with a minimum of fuss and cost.  You'd think this would be the normal way to do it but sadly not it seems.

 

John

As a claim has been, even though not your fault you must now declare it for the next 3 to 5 years (depending on insurer). The question they will ask is "have you made any claims within the last 5 years", to which the answer is yes. Your premium will be loaded as a result, even though not your fault. If you answer no, since insurers now share data you may find yourself uninsured when the policy is cancelled by whoever you go with.

Even in a claim from the other parties insurance who admitted liability + where it was NOT your fault.. you will be marked down as a liability, by your own insurance company.

 

Statistics say if you have had an accident no-matter your fault or not, your percentages rise in having another accident..

 

This in turn will no doubt effect your next insurance renewal, you must declare the no claim fault accident, otherwise the insurance company could default on a claim later..

 

Whether or not you contacted your own insurance is irrelevant, as you would be expected to declare the non-fault accident to your insurance company, where again they default on a future claim..

As a claim has been, even though not your fault you must now declare it for the next 3 to 5 years (depending on insurer). The question they will ask is "have you made any claims within the last 5 years", to which the answer is yes. Your premium will be loaded as a result, even though not your fault. If you answer no, since insurers now share data you may find yourself uninsured when the policy is cancelled by whoever you go with.

All quite depressing really, when you consider the car was properly parked and unoccupied, a no-win situation for the poor old customer. Thank you all for the insight into insurance goings-on, neither of us having made a claim for many years we hadn't really realised all the implications, it sure is a minefield.

Even in a claim from the other parties insurance who admitted liability + where it was NOT your fault.. you will be marked down as a liability, by your own insurance company.

 

Statistics say if you have had an accident no-matter your fault or not, your percentages rise in having another accident..

 

This in turn will no doubt effect your next insurance renewal, you must declare the no claim fault accident, otherwise the insurance company could default on a claim later..

 

Whether or not you contacted your own insurance is irrelevant, as you would be expected to declare the non-fault accident to your insurance company, where again they default on a future claim..

Even if you claim directly from the third parties insurance, all motor claims are recorded on Mid and will flag up if an insurer checks your details (car, address or policy holder).

As above you will still need to declare it unless you fancy having your policy voided through non disclosure.

Having been through this myself you should not have a loaded premium for one no fault claim. This wasn't contested and you didn't pay an excess (key point that).

You might lose out while things are in process since until your insurer recovers its money it will be listed as an 'at fault' claim.

 

THAT's why you go to their insurer if you can, there is no recovery of costs to be done so you don't have that delay with an 'at fault' sitting on your record. It can take 6 months for a simple claim to get resolved and you don't want to lose out if you can.