Motor To Claim or not to Claim?

First time poster, long time reader.

I ran into someone last week at a junction. Completely my fault. Circa €1,200 damage to my car and €2,500 to the other persons.

My car is only worth about €3.5k. I’ve 2 years no claims on my policy. I’m 31 and driving for over 10 years with no accidents (was a name driver before getting my own policy two years ago) If I move a few things around could probably come up with the almost €4k necessary to pay for the damage.

Should I claim or pay for out of my own pocket – or claim and pay back the insurance company?

Any advice would be very welcome. Thanks

At 31 and with only 2 year ncb I would claim.

Crunch said:

Should I claim or pay for out of my own pocket –

Click to expand...

I would let the insurance company deal with any claims and with the other party.

Same advice ... claim and let insurance company deal with it.

€4k will go a long way to paying your increased premia for the next few years.

You should be able to refund the insurance company up until the end of the insurance period... which might allow you to see how claiming would affect you premium, and to choose based on that. You might want to check this with the insurance.

If the other party is agreeable you may be able to have his car fixed cheaper than the insurance company, in which case you may prefer to pay yourself.

I would have thought that you are better off claiming, it should cost less that way. Your insurance might be 600 Euro say, which includes a 40% discount (total guesses)... which would mean your full premium would be 1,000... so it'd only cost an extra 400 in year 1, and after a year or two you'll have built up a no-claims again...

I'd have thought it's only worth re-imbursing the insurance company for claims of 1,000 or so.