Insurance claim

[kkogu]

I started my insurance with this company last june. I am currently making a claim and my excess is �350. I have got a quote from somewhere else for �340.
The car I scratched is going to be taken care of by my insurance company. But I want to know if repairing my car from my pocket would make my insurance cheaper if i change companies...or it would still count as a claim. I have tried getting quotes for a new insurance (testing the market) and one of the questions asked is if i have made a claim in the last 3yrs and how much it was for! Need answers ASAP please!

[JB9000]

If you have already informed your insurers of accident & they are paying for other cars repairs then it would seem you are too late. My premium went up, when someone hit my car & they admitted liability!! Try using an intenet company such as Bell.co.uk or Elephant.com if your going to swich. Hope i was of some help

[steve2010]

all insurance companies will ask you if you have made any claims in the last3/5 yrs,you should have found out first how much the car was going to cost before involving the company,then you could have paid for it and it would not have gone on your record.

[Englandfan]

If you pay for it yourself then you haven't made a claim, when you switch companies make sure who you switch too isn't part of the same insurance group - you are not lieing wehn you say no claim made...

[tali122]

even if you paid for it yourself you are legally obliged to tell your insurance company -as your risk has theoretically increased

[Buenchico]

Even if there was absolutely no damage to your car (so that there was nothing to pay), you've still made a claim against your insurance. That's clear from your statement that the car you scratched is going to be taken care of by your insurance company.

Englandfan seems to be advising you to break the law. Insurance firms never just ask 'Have you made a claim against insurance provided by this company?'. They always ask about all motor insurance claims for the past few years. Failure to declare such a claim is an imprisonable offence under the Theft Act. Any insurance obtained by such a statement would be invalid. If you were subsequently involved in an accident which resulted in someone receiving serious injuries, it would be you, and not the insurance company, who would be responsible for paying their compensation claim (which could be over a million pounds).

Chris

[Hammer]

Technically, Buenchico is correct as usual.

However, it is fairly common practice that for small bumps and scrapes, insurance companies are not involved and the person at fault offers to pay for all repairs. Both parties win as they don't have any claims on their record and the repairs may be cheaper then the excess anyway.

This is naughty though and the insurance companies wouldn't be impressed.

It looks like you're too late for this as you've already notified your insurance company and they are paying for the repairs to the other car. You might as well let them pay for the repairs to yours now as well - it will still only count as one claim and you'll have to pay the �350 to them either way.

[kkogu]

Thanks a lot for all your answers...
I indeed offered to pay for the scratch but the other driver was not comfortable with it, even after getting quotes for the repairs.

She even demanded my insurance details and said that she still needed to inform her insurance company about the scratch and that she intends to do some repair work to her car.
It was when she came up with this idea and stuck to it I got p---sed off and decided to go with the insurance. Now that I know that even though I choose to do my car from my pocket it would still be a full claim. I might as well go ahead and let them repair both cars and suffer the higher premium next time aorund. I am moving to a relatively low risk town so I believe that my premium would non-the-less be cheaper than it is now....in London!