Daughter's had a wee bump , claim or not ??

Who or what did she bump into?

A bump involving anyone else or not?

If yes, then shes going to be paying anyway.

If its self induced, no one around, no one saw it... delete post, never happened, life lesson learnt.

If the car is a write off and she has had a 'bump' that implies damage elsewhere ie to another vehicle or infrastructure that you will have to pay to repair as well.

Plus the fact that if the car is written off, did she sustain any medical problems ? Some people have issues that only become apparent much later on. (as opposed to people who quite clearly are in it for the money)

Is there any merit in not claiming to keep next years premiums down or not ?

Would that be fraud as when they ask you if she has been involved in an accident she has been. Interesting point though if not claimed, but the fact is she is more of a risk for them to insure.

Snotrag +1

Having made a home insurance claim (only one in 20 years) for theft from the garage and seen how much the premium has increased - its a nightmare.

Can only imagine what it will be like for a young driver

i get what FD is saying about admitting to an accident/claim but I gave up thinking there is anything such as karma recently....

No one else involved , rolled car and police aware so logged as RTA.

Lucky she walk away without any injury.

rolling the car is a wee bump! 😂

Glad she's ok but this:

rolling the car is a wee bump! 😂

😀

go onto one of the comparison sites and put in details very similar to that of your daughter, with and without the bump and see what change that makes to the premium?

Okay wont be exact, but will  give an indication of the potential change to policy cost

Her policy would likely require her to declare any RTAs, not doing so would invalidate the policy, I imagine that would trigger a premium increase anyway so you probably may as well claim... Obviously they'd need to find out about it (if you didn't notify them of the RTA) to use it as a reason to deny a future claim but by then you're probably committing fraud by not declaring at next renewal so not a great route to go down.

• Not trying to defraud anyone was just wondering if we admitted RTA but didn't claim as by the time we get money there won't be much left.

A "wee bump" is putting a dent in the bumper, IMHO.

If it's written off then you're going to have to declare it in future insurance claims so you may as well get what you can. You might not get very much anyway - don't forget that the insurance company keeps the premium and the excess.

Looks like she is going to find it pretty bad either way so might as well claim.

Not trying to defraud anyone was just wondering if we admitted RTA but didn’t claim as by the time we get money there won’t be much left.

Is the 3rd party not making a claim against the policy?

I reckon if you tell them your premium will go up regardless of whether you claim or not, fact is it sounds like she caused an accident.

Again the important bit is did she crash in to someone else/someone elses property etc etc

Or did she just write the car off going through a stream?

You can declare the incident but not claim for any damage to your vehicle, it probably affects how they assess her in terms of risk, but at the same time not having had to pay out on the policy in her name is a plus point from the insurance companies POV, they've still made money off of her and if there's no claim made she retains any NCD correct?

Irrespective of whether you claim or not I'll bet penny to a pound you have to notify them of accidents as part of the policy and certainly at renewal time. They use stats to calculate risk and premium and statistically people who have accidents have more accidents, hence a bigger risk.

Failure to declare would be fraudulent, and invalidate any policy if found out. And if the premium rises because of declaring an accident imagine what happens as a young driver having to declare that you've been refused / had a policy cancelled for fraudulently not declaring the 'bump'

If you don't claim for it you can I think keep the NCD, but that doesn't change the risk of a future accident in their eyes.

Tongue in cheek about the wee bump bit.
Yeah its her fault.
Interesting they keep premium, not going to be much if any money left.
Can she transfer onto another car? as she has only just taken it out

Can she transfer onto another car? as she has only just taken it out

Are you asking if the current policy can be used to transfer to a new policy?

Well I wrote a car off recently and at the point the car was declared a write off the policy was closed/void by the insurance company.

Which does beg the question, how do you know its a write off? Normally the insurance company like to make that decision

On the basis she has written it off in a fairly major RTA and the police have been involved, I’m not sure I’d want to risk not telling the insurance company about it one way or another. Just in case they might have some way of checking records - which could invalidate a future policy just when you need it.

Glad she’s ok - I can’t imagine rolling a car is too much fun.

I’d check the excess amount and work out realistically what you’d get claiming. If she’s only been driving a few years and a claim would massively bump up costs then I’d be inclined just to swallow the cost of a replacement car if you can afford it.

I'd change the policy to the new car, inform them, but not claim. You still have no claims on your history (and a NCB) - but you do have an accident history.

might be worth checking the farmer/highways agency or whatever you rolled into doesn't want any money for cleaning up/damage to hedges etc.

Lots of good advice and insight
Thanks guys

If you've decided to inform the insurer anyway, which is wise, you can also talk to them about what happens if you do or don't claim.

It's not that it is wise to declare to her insurer, you have to inform the insurer of an accident even if you do not wish to claim.

Would that be fraud as when they ask you if she has been involved in an accident she has been

It would invalidate the policy if you don’t disclose an accident when asked to do so.

The life lesson is that if you roll a car, it gets ****ing expensive.

Its only worth 2k tops and now only three straight panels no bumper front lights and rad gone I don't see it being worth repairing.
We were going to have to tell insurer anyway just wondering the pros and cons of not claiming . On the advice above she will now chat to the insurer and see her options.
Thanks again everyone for helping with her wee bump.
Singletrack the voice of reason.

Probably worth some further reading/googling regarding possibility of declaring a incident you don't want to claim on as the car is 'tatty' and then paying an admin fee to transfer insurance to a new car.

If the policy is fairly new and a payout means the policy ends with full premium due, that's an additional cost as you'll need a new policy for the replacement car, so your insurance cost for the year has doubled.

And if it's being paid monthly I presume they will deduct the rest of the premium from the payout so you may receive buttons.

Isn’t the answer that if she doesn’t claim she gets a black mark for the RTA but can in theory still accumulate no claims.

The OP isn’t suggesting not declaring the accident. But some suggested it as an option. Imagine next year you drive into a really expensive new car. You insurance keen not to pay out £80k do a few checks. A few clicks might show that you owned a car that is no longer being taxed or the police have a log of you in an RTA. Just a touch more digging and they’ve saved £80k

A few clicks might show that you owned a car that is no longer being taxed or the police have a log of you in an RTA

That depends on whether the police record incidents on the insurance claims database. I suspect not but a quick Google will probably answer that

Presumably if the Police were involved, she's on their records somewhere.

If that gets picked up in the event of another accident, it could get messy. If the next time she ploughs through a bus queue of Silicon Valley execs leaving them all needing 24/7 care, you can bet the insurer will not be happy about an undisclosed previous accident.

This is the question they ask when you go to get a quote:

"Have any drivers had any motor accidents or claims in the last 5 years?This includes any incidents, losses, thefts or claims involving a vehicle regardless of fault or whether you claimed or not."

Whether you claim or not, if you report a written off car it's going to get expensive. Were plod involved? Any cameras or witnesses around?    What happened?

Just a touch more digging and they’ve saved £80k

It's more serious than that. The insurer may still have to pay out the 80k to a third party, but if they can prove fraud or that they wouldn't have covered you in the first place, then they will recover that from you. Plus they'll probably cancel the policy. Plus you have to disclose the cancellation in future.

It's got to be disclosed. But I don't think it's written off until someone says it is. So I'd be thinking to disclose on a notification only basis, get shot of it to scrapper/ebay, buy new car, swap on policy.