Damaged my car

[ginlover19]

Hi all,

First time posting here and looking for some advice and reassurance that all will be okay. Hopefully I am posting it in the correct place?

I lost control of my car in the wet weather and hit a grass verge/hedge area and damaged my car. It went up the verge but didnt get stuck it came out.

The passenger front wing of the car is damaged (plastic crumpled underneath the car) and the door wont open properly. Also there is damage to the front bumper. I was able to drive it the short distance home.

I am hoping it is not as bad as it looks. I feel so embarrassed and stupid but know it could have been so much worse as I am not injured and it didnt involve another vehicle or damage to property.

I was hoping to not claim on insurance and have a garage looking at it who specialise in accident repairs. I knew it wouldn't be cheap and was thinking £1500 - £2000 and I would be okay (ish) with paying for that if it didnt mean my insurance would go up. But the garage are thinking it might be more as parts are more expensive than they thought :(

I've had my peugeot 3 years and it is a 13 plate which was in excellent condition and only about 66,000 mileage.

What happens if I do go through insurance? I assume it would be an at fault claim. When it asks you (when filling out insurance quotes) if you have been involved in an accidents will I now have to say yes? Even if only I was involved? My dad thinks no one else was involved so that means it wasnt an accident? But I will still have made a claim so...

I just want it all to go away and have my car back. I'm also worried if I go through insurance they will say it's too much money to repair and it will be written off.

Any advice or reassurance please? Anyone been in a similar situation? I've never had this happen to me before- never been in an accident with other vehicles or anything like that so feel clueless.

Sorry for the long post if you have managed to get this far.

[rainbowconfetti]

You are not saving any money by forking out thousands to fix it yourself. The very reason you have insurance is so you don't have to pay for things like this. Your dad is wrong. Of course it is an accident. And it will be 'fault' because you are claiming on your own insurance and no other parties involved. They may well write the car off, but at the point of the crash things changed and you can't simply 'have your car back' this is going to cost you somewhere, be it insurance excess or whatever, but you did crash, so..

Also how did you lose control? Going too fast? On a corner? Aqua planing? It's important you know exactly what happened in case there is any chance something medical causes loss of control

[savethebeestoday]

I hit a post, went through insurance and got it fixed. The damage was about £2k and excess £350.
My insurance maybe went up about £40 a year the next year?

If they write the car off you get the option of accepting the car value and they take the car away, or keep the car (if it’s still drivable) and they give you a lesser amount. You’d have to log on future insurance it had been in an accident though, so not sure how this would effect your premiums.

Go through insurance, it’s what it’s there for.

[RB68]

Go through the insurance honestly - you will have to declare it anyway even if you don't claim so will go up with or without the claim

[coconuttelegraph]

I've been a driver a long time and I didn't know you could claim for your own accidental damage on your own insurance

Every day's a school day on MN

[prh47bridge]

I didn't know you could claim for your own accidental damage on your own insurance

You can provided you have comprehensive insurance. That is the main difference between comprehensive insurance and other types. With comprehensive insurance you are covered for damage to your car even if you are at fault or where fault cannot be proved.

[Redglitter]

I dont get this reluctance to claim on Insurance. Why on earth would you even consider paying a 4 figure sum yourself to avoid your premiums going up. Unless you're 18 and only just passed your test it makes no sense.

I've had to claim on my Insurance before and the increase the following year was hardly anything.

This is exactly why you're paying insurance. Claim it