Damage to car- Claim on insurance or pay myself

Hi folks, just came across this site and have found it both interesting and helpful.

I had a tree branch fall on my car (on my property) and have got a quote of €2500 to fix it, I have about 10 years no claims on the car so am keen to loss it and am afraid my policy will sky rocket. The garage I got quote from gave me a cash price (for paying myself) and one for an insurance claim. My question is do you think is best for me to pay from my own pocket or how much per year do you think my insurance would go up if I claim?
Secondly, surly it is illegal for a garage to 'stick' the insurance company for more than necessary- after all we all pay higher premiums in the end that way!

Are they offering a different outcome if you pay rather than insurance - such as they will replace certain parts as necessary, if insurance paying ('cos you're entitled) or will bang out the damage if you pay ('cos you don;t want to pay too much & lose your NCB).

Firstly check with insurance if you will lose NCB as you don't always. They won;t care if you opt not to go with them, but you should let them know....just in case!

On a side note to do with health insurance....I heard on the radio last week that there were people who had no insurance were quoted LESS than if they had opted to go via private insurance (eg - an MRI was something like €400-450 for private but was quoted €350ish when they said they would be paying for it directly).
sorry - probably need to start a different thread....2mrw!!)

If it was a tree on your property any chance of claiming on the house insurance?

No, your house insurance won't cover the damage i'm afraid. What you need to look at when weighing up if its worth claiming is -Will you lose all or a portion of your no claim bonus? If so, what will your renewal premium be next year after the claim? What policy excess will you have to pay? This can be a large amount especially if the claim goes down as an own damage claim. Take all this into account before you decide to go ahead.
Regarding the difference in price between quotes, the garage will often estimate a different price to an insurer because they will send an assessor to estimate the claim and will usually reduce the price. The other reason of course could be that you are paying cash for the job and the repairer will not have to declare the payment to the revenue - but he would never do that would he


www.powerinsurances.ie

thanks a mill for the advise, i rang the insurance company today and they gave me excess figure and an idea of how much my renewal will go up by and it's not as bad as I thought so I'm going with that as getting the lump sum to pay cash at this time of year is not easy!!

I have my car on my company insurance, my son crashed it last week. The tax book has my name on it but its on the company insurance is this going to be a problem? We have fleet cover and he is named on it, worried sick....... I only got the car a month ago and the garage just put my name not the business name on the change of owner ship, I was ment to change it but just put it on the long finger.

yes could be a very big problem. A lot of insurers exclude employee vehicles from fleet policies! Check the policy wording carefully!