Cost estimates for accident repair

[pauljmcnulty]

Paul, I understand your point at being fair, but its a common mis-conception that NCB will be lost and excess be paid, you only pay excess or lose no claims when claiming on your own car. Third party claims never have excesses or lose NCB for this very reason, no one would ever claim fearful of the loses, the only thing he would have to do is declare the accident to his insurers and he wont have to pay a thing for you car to be repaired.

That does sound odd? If he has an accident, admits liability, and claims the repair of my car on his policy, surely he'll lose his NCD and have to pay the excess, along with having a claim on record?

If he pays me some money directly to repair it, as if he'd bumped in to it with a shopping trolley or his kid's bike had scratched it, there's no claim so no loss of NCD. Of course we both should advise our insurer of the minor incident for their records, which shouldn't affect either of us.

 

[Copperman05]

Sorry your right, he loses his NCB but pays no excess on the damage to your car, if he has damaged his car, and claims repair work for that he will have to pay the excess here only.

Edd

 

[nick9one1]

ORIGINAL: Copperman05

ORIGINAL: pauljmcnulty


I think it's only fair to offer him the chance to pay it direct if he wants, saving his excess and no claims.

Paul, I understand your point at being fair, but its a common mis-conception that NCB will be lost and excess be paid, you only pay excess or lose no claims when claiming on your own car. Third party claims never have excesses or lose NCB for this very reason, no one would ever claim fearful of the loses, the only thing he would have to do is declare the accident to his insurers and he wont have to pay a thing for you car to be repaired.



Edd

I'm afraid this is slightly wrong.

NCB
Who ever has the insurance claim against them will loose their NCB.
e.g. If your in an accident and the other driver is to blame they will loose their NCB when you claim. You wont loose your own.
NCB is how insurance companies rate how good your driving is. If you causing lots of accidents and lots of people are claiming on your insurance for damage/injuries. Your insurance company removes your NCB and your premium goes up because your a higher risk.

Excess
You only pay excess when you make a claim against your own car on your own insurance when you are to blame.
e.g. If your in an accident and the other driver is to blame, their insurance will pay out and no one will have to pay any excess.
e.g. Third party insurance doesnt have any excess because you cant claim against your own car. TPFT does have excess because you can claim for fire and theft.

 

[pauljmcnulty]

Gotta love how complicated the insurers make the policies! I think I understand that now, thanks Nick and Edd.

Well, quote's in and he's going through the insurers. It ranged from £500 cash to repair the wing and paint, to around £1500 with a new wing and VAT at a more fancy specialist.

What I did find is a bloke about 2 miles from my house who's a classic-car restorer. Some amazing kit in the workshop, great attitude and the work looked very high-standard. I might be sticking the car in there for the sills, wing repair on the other side, wheelarches, odd bits like the door, and a full respray. He has done 944s, and owns a 924 Turbo that's stripped for a track car project, so priced it based on needing work to inner sills and floorpan as a worst-case scenario, and it was still a price I could live with. []

 

[graham.webb]

Hi Paul
Sorry to see this...esp after your comments in PP about cost of ownership!! As usual some wise advice here.

The dent may be a bit too big for this, but I've had some success on quite bad dents with the "dent doctor" type of repair...these people are just amazing, they use traditional panel beating skills and if the paint's not damaged they heat before they beat. The paint's then flexible and doesn't crack off! They disappeared a dent the size (and depth) of a golf ball above the A pillar on my first Saab.

Suspension damage won't polish out, though...

 

[pauljmcnulty]

Hi Graham,

This wouldn't suit paintless dent removal, as the paint has been damaged. Looking at it, the repairer was 50/50 he could fix the existing wing to as good as it was. He was really only happy to replace, which obviously suits me as it's a new wing rather than a repaired one with an additional repair to the rusty bits.

I've spent nearly two hours on the phone tonight, though. The guy's admitted full liability, so his insurer has passed the case to their "non-fault" department. They wanted to pick the car up, give me an equivalent courteousy car, do I need to see a doctor as I might have a personal injury claim etc. And that's HIS insurer! Then, I've gone to my insurer who needed the same endless details, to then offer me the same "freebies", that are the reason we pay so much for our cover. Their approved Porsche repairer is in Bristol, a 200 mile round trip on a lorry. Mine is 2 miles away, and I'll walk home with the dogs. [&o]

People who take the lovely "free" car when they don't need it, who inflate claims with dubious whiplash symptoms, who allow these "claims" specialists to ramp up the bills, should think about it when they come to renew.....

Time for a glass of wine and to unwind a little, me thinks. [&:]

 

[bighead]

yes typed paul[]

 

[944Turbo]

My coupe was parked and hit by a woman who was trying to pull in to park in front of it, she then drove off, my (then pregnant) wife was in the car and got her number, the damage to the front bumper wasn't that bad but the fact she drove off annoyed me, so I went to the police. The police said the car was local and insured but they couldn't do anything else about it as they didnt have the manpower - report it to insurance.
I reported it to my insurance company who told me to take it in for a quote, from memory it was about £700 to repair, They contacted the woman who denied it and as there were no independent witnesses it could go no further. i could have claimed on my insurance but the excess was £400 and it mostly polished out so I didn't bother.

Around 6 months later I was renewing the insurance on my other car - separate policy, different company - they asked if I had any accidents - I had forgotten about this incident at the time - so said no - they repeated the question and warned me it was an offence to lie - I said no, so they said how about on so and so date - as it happened on my Birthday it came back and I said yes, a women hit my car while it was legally parked, and I wasnt in it, I didn't claim. They put my premium up by £100 for this event, (and lost my business). So don't be too sure being the innocent party will turn out ok if you go through insurance.

Tony

 

[andy watson]

Hi Paul,

How you getting on with this?

 

[pauljmcnulty]

ORIGINAL: andy watson

Hi Paul,

How you getting on with this?

Ha ha, laughs in a slighlty "I'm going crazy" way.....I've now got no internet for at least 5 days so having to do everything on the mobile, piggy-backing the neighbour's connection. As everything from the insurers is through email it's been interesting. []

I've actually had a lot of problems. The third-party insurer wants to take over, delivering me a nice courteousy car, taking mine on a 200-mile round trip to Bristol to their approved repairer, and "have I felt any pain anywhere". This is HIS insurer!

My insurer wants to do the same. I have the right to choose my own repairer in my policy, and have someone within walking distance I would prefer to use. I don't want a replacement car, and I really haven't broken any vertebrae in this walking-pace accident. I'm guessing that the insurers make more out of the kick-backs from the suppliers involved than they do from the cover I pay for. It's a real eye-opener.

I did have a long talk with Classicline this year, as their renewal was 50% higher than me buying an ordinary (unlimited mileage) policy from the likes of Direct Line. They were insistent that, in the event of a claim, it was a totally different policy. Sadly I've found out today that, if I choose to use my own repairer, I have an additional £200 excess that has to be paid up-front. In my case I should get everything back, as the other guy admitted liability, but in most cases I would be totally compromised whatever policy I had, as the classic policy seems to have been farmed out to a "normal" company.

The good news, or at least that's how I'm seeing it [&:], is that I might be able to tie in work to the rest of the car on the back of the insurance claim. As in, rather than blending in the paint, we could use that money to contribute towards a more extensive respray. See my thoughts on a new thread, if my connection lasts that long.

 

[andy watson]

That is not good news, sorry to hear that.
Hope you are sticking to your guns and have the work done locally, can you imagine the problems with the car being returned from Bristol and you not being happy with the work?

Keep us posted

 

[pauljmcnulty]

can you imagine the problems with the car being returned from Bristol and you not being happy with the work?

That was my point to them. I'm going to guess a pound a mile for transport at least, so £200 for that alone. Add in the replacement car, and then, if there's a problem you can take the car back to Bristol. Even if all went well it would be, say £500 added to the claim for things I don't want.

We all know how these things filter down to our next renewal. It's a double-whammy if the insurers are making money from "selling" extras in to a claim, then passing those costs back to us next year. []

 

[jasonp]

hiya,,paul,,so sorry to hear about the damage, so frustrating but fixable,,,hope your insurance situation works out positive for you,,good luck,,cheers jason

 

[timmyturtle]

Sorry to hear about your car.
If its the local repairer Im pretty sure it is,he has worked on my car,previous to my ownership,it all seems ok
He has also just done a full body restoration on my mates Dolomite
If you want to see the quality of his work,the Dolly is only just down the road from you,you probably have seen it
The owner is car mad and will be willing to let you have a look
He also has a 911 at the moment(about his 10 th Porsche!) so loves the marque.
His name is Kevin and knocking on his door wont be a problem.

 

[Hilux]

People - listen up..............

You need to understand the readiness of insurance companies to supply courtesy cars and transport cars miles for repairs when to you and I we wonder how the economics work.

The insurance companies cream each other in charging the other insurance company the maximum rate for the car - its why they dont care how long you have it and why they offer them so readily. They also charge horrendous rates to each other for transporting cars which is why they are so ready to do it.

Both actions add large (and I mean large) profits. Its an absolute scandal and premiums are higher for it.

Take the car to YOUR garage so it is near and can be inspected readily. If its miles away they will bring it back but what if you arent happy with it!!!

In the meantime you are inconvenienced and they make more money out of the claim.

You can see why they will do anything to get your business - the old myth that they arent making money etc is b*ll*x