Anyone can quickly advise on car insurance economic write off?

[DishingOutDone]

In a flap. We have an old run around, its got scraped in an accident, was my fault, other guy very calmly claiming against my insurance all well and good. Its not worth repairing our car as its 2006, we paid £1k for it (which I was well pleased with at the time). Its a really good runner, its due for MOT but I think it will be fine.

H has got wind of getting it written off - if we submit this £1k 2006 car for full repair of scratch from end to end they will simply say economic write off, here's some cash, we'll pinch the excess back first? My argument is that leaves us with no car and less £££s than we had to buy that one in the first place. We have no other money BTW.

I've read about buy back, so we allow the economic write off (Beyond Economical Repair?) take the cash then they are meant to allow us to buy it back - but at what cost? And I also understand that we would then need to pay for an assessment to say its roadworthy and can be re-insured? So we'd be without the car for a while and need to pay out more?

Lots of ? as I've read this on places like RAC website and Money Saving expert but it doesn't sound right. All H sees is cash .

This did happen to me many years ago (say 25+) but I think the rules were different then. What should I do?

If it's just a minor scrape it might be worth it. If it's major damage then you are probably best cutting your losses.

We had a car stolen and it had some minor interior damage. It was an old car and not worth much. We bought it back for about £100. We had it repaired by a relative. We had to have it re-MOT'd. We kept it for another 2 years.

If you submit it for repair and they say it's written off, you won't be able to remove the marker they will out against it so have your decision made before calling insurance.

It's going to be written off / a total loss based purely on the low value of it and the high cost of manufacturer parts and labour.
Your options will be to keep it and fix it yourselves, or claim.

IMPORTANT - Read your full t&cs carefully. Most insurers will pay you the value of your car minus excess and they will also deduct your remaining premium so you could end up with nothing / very little if you pay monthly.
If you pay annually you won't get a refund and may have to pay all over again, with increased premium due to the accident.

In your shoes I would go to a local mechanic, get them to check it's safe and decide from there.

My current car was written off a while ago (category N for non structural). I got paid by insurance, kept it, my mechanic friend fixed it and all I had to do was MOT it to prove it was roadworthy. But it was economical for me to do that as it wasn't my fault so no excess or policy decisions. I don't think it would be worth you claiming to be honest - I very much doubt your car is going to be valued at the £1000 you paid for it I'm afraid.

Not all insurance companies allow you to buy it back! Mine wouldn't when it had front end damage due to a car pulling out in front of me (so no fault claim on my part). They absolutely would not allow buy back but the amount it was costing to repair was almost identical to value so they gave us the money and let us repair it. So my car has never been classified as a write off

How long ago did u buy it? Have you looked up what it is now worth as they will only pay you market value

Thanks everyone. Market value is now £500.

They absolutely would not allow buy back but the amount it was costing to repair was almost identical to value so they gave us the money and let us repair it. So my car has never been classified as a write off

This is what H wants; how is that feasible because I thought once they said it was BER (Beyond economical repair) that was it and they didn't give you the car back - I didn't think they'd do that and then start listing your options? e.g, have the car back and repair it yourself, accept cash value etc - ?

PS Excess is £250 and I will have to pay that as it was my fault.

If it does end up being a write-off, don't accept their first offer if it is on the low side. Tell them that you've checked how much a replacement vehicle costs - the same make, model, mileage and year (Ebay is really good for checking this) and tell them that figure. Hopefully they will revise their offer upwards. It is best to negotiate this on the phone. That's what dh did when his old car was written off earlier this year. That was fire damage though, and was a complete ruin!

Buy back is percentage of the value the insurer puts
on the car for the claim. It can be around 25-40%

So if they value it as £500 buy back could be £125 to 200 ish

So if your excess is 250 they'll know that off so in effect you could end up with the car and between 50 or 125 quid ish.

Hardly worth the hassle.