My premium is protected, but only for one claim per year, which is obviously not great when it's only January.
Can I get the damage fixed and then put in the claim if it's worth it?
My car needs some accident damage fixed (self inflicted), and I suspect it may cost not much more than the deductible or even slightly less (here's hoping).
We had to get permission from our insurance to go ahead with the repairs, before doing it. But they told us, that if the cost was less than the excess, we could just pay for it ourselves & not do it off the insurance. It turned out to cost 3 x the excess, so glad we consulted insurance first.
In my experience, the repair costs always exceed the deductible, even for the tiniest scratch
You have to show the Insurance to the damage assessor before going ahead if you want them to pay. But nothing stops you for going to Car Body shop to ask for an estimate, then decide whether to ask Insurance to look at it.
Thanks, pretty much what I thought. Will get a quote first then decide.
My fairly recent experience of this is this that I damaged a door on my car when carelessly reversing into my garage.
I went to the dealer where I bought the car , a 5 year old Polo, and they said the door would have to be replaced and estimated Fr. 1'600.
So I decided, on that basis, that it was worth claiming on my insurance policy.
The insurance company made an appointment for me to take it to specialist car body shop in the area. When I got there, the guy spent about 10 seconds looking at the damage and about 5 minutes typing stuff into his tablet PC, then told me the repair would be a about Fr. 1'300. The existing door could simply be repaired.
He then asked about my bonus and excess, which I could not exactly answer because I was more or less resigned to making a claim against the policy, and did not look at the detail too much. So he immediately phoned up my insurance company. He had quite a long friendly sounding conversation, then while still in conversation with the insurance company, told me that he had another alternative. My policy excess was Fr. 1'000. The estimate of Fr. 1'300, which he had just given me, included a respray of the other door on the same side to match the paintwork after the repair. If , however, I could live with the risk of a slight colour mismatch, and did not require the respray of the adjacent door, he could reduce the cost to a few francs under Fr. 1000. So I accepted that, and he told the insurance guy there and then that the claim would be cancelled. Well clearly, since the estimated repair costs were now under the policy excess.
When the bill finally came, incidentally, it was just over Fr. 900.
I was amazed at how 'flexible' the pricing was, but guess the firm gets some sort of kudos from the insurance company for effectively turning away a claim.
me.anon, the approach for an insurance claim differs from a situation where you pay yourself:
If it's an insurance case it's about removing the damage, cost is somewhat secondary as it's already been paid for by your premium. However if you pay by yourself cost usually is usually an issue. Thus he mentioned the possibility of not respraying the other door.
I think it was rather good service as you probably wouldn't have known any different had he not adjusted the offer to the changed parameters and advised you accordingly.
OP, they probably would call you anyway if it's better for you to pay by yourself, but you can simply tell the insurance you want to know the cost once it's definitive before they make any payments.
Generally there's no harm in making the claim with the insurance company. They will calculate the total cost, take into account the deductible, the no-claims bonus and let you know whether it's worth pursuing the claim or paying yourself.
That's refreshing to hear.
In UK, you can end up being penalised for enquiring about a claim, even if you don't make it. They deem you an increased risk.
If you ask for a quote for cash its usually about half the price of an insurance job.
So the car was repaired and the bill is 286 CHF over my franchise (and lower than their estimate, which is nice).
Question is - how long do I have before I have to finish the claim with the insurance?
Once I claim I lose my no-claims protection for rest of the year, which is annoying in February for a relatively low amount. Murphy's law says there'll be some larger damage to the car on the way back from the postbox
Can I pay the garage and sit on the insurance claim for a while (December? ) just in case?