I crashed my car and wrote it off, is it worth claiming on my car insurance?

Question

I was driving down the road and the rear tyre blew out which sent me accross the road into a tree then catapulted me into another tree into a ditch. The car is a write off! luckily i only have very bad whip lash and bruises. The car is only worth book price of £500 max, i have 4 years no claims. Is it worth claiming on the insurance or not I do have Fully comprehensive. Can i get anything for personal injury as i am unable to work at the moment. Not to mention i need to purchase a new car. Any help much appreciated.

Answer 1

OK: First of all you'll have to report the incident to your insurance company (policy terms).
Then figure the costs. Assume the car is valued at £500.

Deduct the excess on your policy - which will be at least £100 and probably a lot more. That is the amount you will be paid out.

Then work out how much extra you will have to pay in insurance premiums. To do that you will need to know the bonus scale but below I give the calculation on a standard 30 -40 - 50 - 60 policy and assume you will not have another claim. I assume a base premium of £1000 - you will be able to work out figures yourself.

Date : No Accident : Accident : Cost
2006: ...£400.00..... : £400.00 : NIL
2007: ...£600.00 .... : £400.00 : £200.00
2008: ...£500.00 .... : £400.00 : £100.00
2009: ...£400.00 .... : £400.00 : NIL

Total extra cost (assuming NIL inflation and no other changes in cover) : £300 - or 75% of your annual premium.

As insurance brokers we do not often recommend very cheap cars to be insured comprehensively - for this very reason - unless the difference between Comp and TPFT is not much.

You may elect to have a protected bonus however if you work out the figures you will see that there is not much difference over a three year period whether or not you have a protected bonus policy (especially if a higher excess is imposed)

With regard to your personal injury, your insurance policy pnly pays out if you are lucky enough to be killed whilst driving - so no benefit there, sorry to say.

Answer 2

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RE I crashed my car and wrote it off, is it worth claiming on my car insurance?

I was driving down the road and the rear tyre blew out which sent me accross the road into a tree then catapulted me into another tree into a ditch. The car is a write off! luckily i only have very bad whip lash and bruises. The car is only worth book price of £500 max, i have 4 years no claims. Is it worth claiming on the insurance or not I do have Fully comprehensive. Can i get anything for personal injury as i am unable to work at the moment. Not to mention i need to purchase a new car. Any help much appreciated.

Answer 3

Unfortunately, these sort of things are part and parcel of being a motorist. As they were youths, and it's a mini-moto I assume they weren't insured. Therefore, if you have comprehensive insurance, you can claim on that, but you would have to pay the excess and would lose some or all of your no claims discount, so the price of your insurance would go up. Contrary to what people have said, when it goes to court, the parents would not be found to be liable. The buck stops directly with the rider. As he's a youth, he's likely to have little or no income, it's unlikely that he can pay for a new car. His payments may compensate you as a goodwill gesture, but I doubt it. The courts can make him pay you compensation, but if he has no money, it would be a case of paying something each week until the fine is paid off and it can literally be pennies. The Motor Insurance Bureau can recover the cost of the damage in certain circumstances, but again, they would just take the driver to court and attempt to sue, so they will have no more success if the driver cannot afford to pay. The only benefit to you would be that as a victim, the MIB would provide free legal representation. Sorry, but it looks as though you will lose out whichever way.

Answer 4

I don't think I would bother because the car is worth only £500 and by the time the insurance have assessed the claim, you would be lucky to get £150.
If the tyre was new and recently fitted, you may have a claim against the manufacturer. If not, your insurance may say you invalidated your insurance by not maintaining your car.
If the insurance company can get out of paying, they will

Answer 5

Just ask the insurance company. Do you have No Claims Protection? If not get it next time You will proberbly not get the £500 for it but look in one of the Car Price Guides and you will have an idea of what you may get. Look at the lower price not the higher one.You can argue for a higher one later

Answer 6

For a car worth £500, I would only claim if my No Claims Bonus were protected. That said if your policy allows you to claim for personal injury as well it might be worthwhile either way.

Answer 7

don't know about personal injury,all insurance policies are different.
For a long time I just had 3rd party because I only had old sheds and it wouldn't have been worth losing full no claims.So apart from your loss of earnings issue,I doubt whether it's worth a claim

Answer 8

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Answer 9

if your no claims were protected then why not, you some times can claim expenses on fully comp. speak to your insurance and ask them, they cannot force you to claim but they will advice. Good luck.

Answer 10

worth seeing a lawyer