Herself reversed gently into some bloke's little jalopy (make unknown, but smallish, she said) in a flustered moment yesterday and made a small dent in its front wing 'the size of a small plate'. They exchanged coordinates. Today the bloke rang up and said a body shop had quoted 250 quid for the repair.
I sought advice from my broker, who was cagey but seemed to think that it would work out cheaper for us to just give the guy the money and not involve insurance. She is on my policy as a named driver. Since adding her name actually reduced the premium, I wouldn't want her to start getting a bad reputation in insurance circles.
Personally I like cars that are used to look used, and don't give much of a damn about little scrapes. I feel a bit sorry for those who take traffic nerfs to heart. They haven't got the idea at all and are incapable of getting it. Silly sods.
Does anyone have anything useful to say?
|
Yes...never go to bed on an argument.
Pay up and never mention it again!
Pat
|
>> never go to bed on an argument.
We haven't argued about it at all Pat. I might wish she had been more precise about some details, but I didn't expect her to be. As for the bump, my sympathies are all with her, even though she must have failed to heed the reversing sensor... she said there were a lot of cars waiting to pass and so got a bit rushed, poor darling.
What I am anxious about is the possibility of the guy taking the money and then going to the insurance anyway. She said he seemed an honest person but it's hard to tell with this sort of thing. We could insist on seeing the repair bill but chances are it would be bigger than the estimate... My instinct is to bung the guy the 250 and get a proper receipt 'in full and final discharge of etc etc'.
|
|
Not mentioning any names "someone" reversed there Volvo into someone else's scooter and knocked it over...the other someone did not make a meal of it.....nothing more was said.
|
>>scooter and knocked it over...
Having a bit of trouble keeping that thing upright aren't you? Telling you something that...
;-)
|
|
The "someone else" wasn't even on the bleedin' thing.
|
Its those small wheels......
Notice how he sneaks in the blame with a crafty speeling mistake.......very freudian slip that
Last edited by: Zero on Thu 10 Oct 13 at 18:05
|
|
Cheap. Pay. Make sure that he isn't the type to take the £250 then let slip the dogs of whiplash and claims management.
|
>> Personally I like cars that are used to look used, and don't give much of
>> a damn about little scrapes.
...and I'm the total opposite. I like my cars to look immaculate..and they are.
|
>> I like my cars to look immaculate..and they are.
Tsk. Ponce.
:o}
|
>> Tsk. Ponce.
I'll take that. I am poncey about my cars.
|
>> My instinct is to bung the guy the 250 and get a proper receipt 'in full and final discharge of etc etc'.
I would agree. Just make sure you word the receipt properly so that he can't come back for something else at a later date.
|
>> I'll take that. I am poncey about my cars.
Actually quite a lot of people are. I don't really think it's a sign of moral turpitude. Some of my best friends... but I've got used to not seeming quite respectable. Keeps people guessing.
We won't post the cheque, we'll go and see the guy and get a receipt. He lives on one of our routes.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Thu 10 Oct 13 at 17:24
|
I am in the same situation from my incident a few weeks ago. The third party is going to let me know the how much the damage will cost to repair. The problem is there is the damage to my car too, but if I claim both cars on my insurance if I have another fault incident I would loose my no claim protection bonus.
Unlike your wife though I don't have the excuse of being female, and I should therefore know better than to panic and reverse into a car :D Sorry Pat :p.
Last edited by: RattleandSmoke on Thu 10 Oct 13 at 17:39
|
>>t if I claim both cars on my insurance if I have another fault incident
I'm not sure you're clear on this or perhaps I just haven't entirely understood your note;
To all intents and purposes a claim is a claim and only 1 claim, whether you are claiming for just your vehicle or your vehicle and that of another.
You should simply be considering the total cost of the claim vs. the total increase in your insurance costs over typically 3 years if you do not claim (factoring in any excess).
Last edited by: No FM2R on Thu 10 Oct 13 at 17:41
|
I am allowed two fault claims before I loose my new claims protection, so if I have two more fault incidents I will loose all my no claim discounts. However in reality I would have to be very unlucky for that to happen.
From playing about with the quote websites, this incident has put an extra £150-200 onto my insurance premium if I put a claim plus the £250 excess however it is also yellow card towards loosing my no claims. I currently pay for protection but I can only have one fault accident in 18 months, so another one I have lost my no claims discount.
|
You should not stress about NCD protection.
If you have no protection then in the event of an accident your 60% discount will reduce to, say, 40% so your premium goes up.
If you do have protection then in the event of an accident your base premium is increased by, say, 30% and then the gross premium reduced by your full bonus figure of 60%.
i.e. it makes not a damn bit of difference.
It matters not a jot what your bonus is, it matters only what the final net premium is.
e.g. I'd rather have a 30% discount on £100 than a 75% discount on £500.
|
>> It matters not a jot what your bonus is, it matters only what the final
>> net premium is.
>>
>> e.g. I'd rather have a 30% discount on £100 than a 75% discount on £500.
>>
Yep, fully agree. I've always viewed protected NCB in the same vain as PPI insurance
|
I was in exactly the same position back in May and a thread ran about it: www.car4play.com/forum/post/index.htm?t=14001&m=316830&v=e
I found it very useful.
|
I will see what the damage is to the other persons car anyway, hoping to find out in the next few days the problem is I sort of stuck down this route now unless the repair bill high. If it comes to say £100 then I can't really say no actually I want to go down the insurance route after all.
|
There's a mark, some pale paint, on the lower rear fillet of our car. No dent, just a smear of pale paint. So I suspect she's marked the cosmetic 'bumper' of the other car and the quote is for the whole damn ridiculous panel.
I so hate this crap. Brings out the worst in everyone including me.
|
>> I so hate this crap. Brings out the worst in everyone including me.
I understand AC. A small scrape wouldn't matter to me at all, but then my cars are usually fairly old and lost most of their value anyway.
Unfortunately you can't choose who you reverse into.
|
My wife has astonishing eyesight. She can spot a single crumb on a work surface at 20 paces. A fold in a curtain which is microscopically different to the ones in the opposite curtain. ( if I've dared to move said items ) A cushion which has not been appropriately plumped ( visually indistinguishable to me from one which has )
So why, when faced with the seemingly simple task of keeping an 18" alloy wheel a couple of inches away from a 6" kerb does she...
|
>> So why, when faced with the seemingly simple task of keeping an 18" alloy wheel
>> a couple of inches away from a 6" kerb does she...
>
Or how can she not see the tip of a door mirror less three feet away from her face...
|
|
Indeed, although in mitigation, said mirror(s) were, allegedly, unexpected around a bend, moving, in the dark, and on her side of the road while attached to oncoming vehicles. Kerbs however, tend, in the main, to be immobile and usually where one might reasonably expect them to be.
|
We decided not to go and see the guy after all. Pressure of other things. But in the course of the discussions, when I called to say we would just post the cheque, his wife answered the phone. He came on sounding shaky after rather a long wait, and said his wife had slipped on some wet concrete while coming out to call him and broken her arm. Poor lady.
Today we received a small formal receipt. I'd have liked to see the damage to the other car though. Ours didn't have any.
|
>> He came on sounding shaky after rather
>> a long wait, and said his wife had slipped on some wet concrete while coming
>> out to call him and broken her arm. Poor lady.
Ever seen National Lampoon's European Vacation? This bloke is turning into Eric Idle's character, you pair are the Griswalds.
|
>> you pair are the Griswalds.
Who are you calling a 'pair'?
Respectable duos are known as 'couples'. 'Pairs' are invariably up to no good. This is a standard rule of journalism.
|
You don't get much work done for 250 quid these days.
Someone managed to park their white van in the back of SWMBO's Zafira last week, ended up with his front end on top of the Zafira's towbar. Garage quoting 2800 quid to repair, so that'll be a write off :-(,. So, almost exactly a year after the previous Zafira cremated itself in North Cornwall, I'll be looking for a replacement ..again.... OK in theory I could try claim the full repair cost directly off white van man, but frankly I don't have the time and energy, and SWMBO involved her insurance from day1 so would get messy.
At least nobody hurt and apparently it was quite funny watching white van man trying to make a quick getaway with his front wheels lifted of the ground due to the towbar height. Nobody hurt at least :-)
|
a quiet aaargh - Pat
