Should we settle privately after a rear-end crash involving a young driver?

[Lollipopsicle]

Hope there's some insurance experts on here who might be able to help.

We were rear-ended by a van earlier this week in a queue of traffic. We stopped and a really lovely young guy got out of the van and apologised (it was obviously his fault), gave his name and telephone number, we took photos, all good. Anyway, he then begged us to not take it through insurance, as he was 18 years old - obviously his first job - and the insurance had already cost £7k and he said it would likely double if he claimed and would probably lose his job. I have to stress that we're not here to ruin his life and, having had 2 sons years ago who had accidents at a very young age (one at fault, one not), I'm feeling particularly maternal and want to do the right thing as much as I can. As I said, lovely lad, very smart, first job and kudos to him. We told him to leave it with us for a few days to get quotes and we'd get back to him and he was so grateful.

So, we have had two estimates now. One from a workshop local to my DH'S workplace, where they were able to assess the damage to a degree, and my DH has sent a lot of photos to the workshop attached to the Hyundai dealership. Both have come back with figures in the £3,500-4,000 range. I'm also going to get a third quote from a local body workshop very close to where our main address is when we get there tomorrow. I expect it will be a similar price, but thought it only fair to get 3 quotes so this young lad can see we've tried, but I also think he will still be surprised that it's come in as much as that. I don't know, because we haven't had that conversation. Anyway, it's very clear that he wants to pay rather than have his insurance increase hugely.

My question is, is it likely that his insurance really would double to £14,000, or would they just slap something like a £2,000 increase on next time? I'm just trying to figure out if it would actually be worth both parties going through our insurance companies? It doesn't matter to us who pays because we weren't at fault, but I'm trying to work out whether it's worth him personally settling if his insurance premium isn't going to increase that much?

I really do feel bad for him - we both do. There's been no question of him trying to duck out of his responsibilities. However, if we do have to go through insurance, I also have evidence of him apologising in a recorded telephone call (he knew it was being recorded), plus he's texted me and thanked me for trying to get this sorted between us.

Can anyone offer any professional advice on what the insurance company is likely to do come renewal time?

This is a good question. Either OP has misunderstood or he's not telling the truth.

Either way, it's much easier and simpler to go though the insurance.

I'd be raging if some 17 year old rear-ended me. What was he doing - playing on his phone?

So he gets priced off the road. Good.

I would do this but I suspect most people on here will advise you not to.

He's 18 and lots of people drive into the back of other people.

A 40-something year old woman with two kids in the car did it to me last year.

It's a common accident and whilst it obviously shouldn't happen, I personally wasn't 'raging', I was sympathetic because she was devastated.

These things happen,

i would always err on the side of going through insurance. only problem is though when i was involved in a very similar situation, my insurers immediately wrote off my car due to its age without even seeing it, whereas i've wondered since whether settling outside would have meant we could have kept our otherwise ultra-reliable family workhorse on the road for many more years to come

We bought our car back from the insurance company They gave us 10k as the payout and we bought it back for 2k (something like that anyway) and got it fixed for that reason. The price they will sell it to you for is what they expect to get for it at auction where people buy for spares and stuff.

As nice as he may be, I'd be surprised if you didn't run into issues when it comes to actually getting the £4K out of him. Unless he's from a very wealthy (and generous) family, he simply won't have it, and that's where the problems will start.

You do really need to go through insurance if you want to be guaranteed to get paid.

I would be VERY careful here.

If I were even going to countenance what you are thinking, I would want the money in my account within days of getting the final estimate.

It is a lot of money and that leads people, even seemingly nice people, to behave less than nicely. What if you run into excuses and prevarication?

It will be very difficult to go through insurance later. I suspect you have an obligation on your insurance to report accidents in a timely manner.

To be honest, no, insurance all the way for me when you're being quoted that sort of damage, it's a lot. Worry is though is you've left it too long to report.

Having gone through my insurance when someone did the same to me (woman, I would estimate in her sixties) and then found my own premiums had increased 😡 I'd be very tempted to sort it privately through a reputable garage.

If you read the small print, you will both see that insurance companies base their premiums on the fact of the incident regardless of who pays. You would not be well advised to not tell your insurance company and then it will get back to his. And then he might or might not have paid you back and still have premiums adjusted.

ok to feel maternal but not a good idea to try and keep an accident from your insurance company. Really bad idea. Sorry

Yes sadly his insurance is likely to go through the roof. I think it’s admirable of you to offer to settle privately, I would do the same as the parent of young men.

Our insurance assessor agreed to get our old but sound car repaired using second hand parts rather than write it off. We did buy back another car that they wouldn't repair on insurance.

Yes I would settle privately if it’s possible.
perhaps you could ask him for evidence of how he will fund it?

Just give him both options and see what he says

Not really fair all these people saying how will he pay - they don't know for sure

If he wants to do it privately but won't give you the money then just go through insurance

I'd give him the opportunity to pay first. He might not realise how much it will cost to repair, so will need to go through insurance after all.

And yes. Your premium will also increase, despite having NCD. My DF's car was written off by another driver when it was parked up and he wasn't in it. It still affected his premium. He was told he was more likely to be involved in an accident than someone who hadn't been in one.

The real question is can he actually afford to pay the money out to get it fixed if it’s £3-4k? Of he can then I’d be fine with just getting it fixed.

I don’t think he will even be able to get insured quite likely with an accident in the first year. My own nephew couldn’t find anything under £20k when he passed his test. I don’t know why it was only a corsa he had but maybe a lot of accidents in his postcode area with young drivers. He had to do monthly temp policies for the first 2 years and they were about £700 per month. So I don’t think he is lying.

Amazed how many people in here would invalidate their insurance…

You need to go through the insurance companies. That's what you pay for!
If you don't, there is an element of fraud being committed on both sides. Also, if there are any issues later on, it may invalidate your insurance, not be able to claim further.
Whilst he's only young, you are 'on trial' in a way whilst you build up miles of driving experience and years of clean insurance. You have no idea if his driving licence is clean etc
He's lucky it isn't any worse!
I think you're insurance may go up the following year, if the claim hasn't been completely settled by the other side before your renewal date comes up. It should then be refunded when everything is sorted.

It's a fair question though. How will a young 18 yo lad pay £4k. I would feel the same as op but had a near miss with a similar incident years ago so i'm also cynical. I reversed into a neighbours car, they wanted to settle privately, dh said no. Found out later they'd complained to our insurance company as they were refusing to fix all the damage the neighbours claimed we'd done (hit them at about 4mph). Can you imagine if we'd agreed to settle privately then they started this with us? It was a good job we did go through the insurance, and these were people we'd known for years.

sorry to say this - but it doesn't quite work as you might be hoping...

Insurance is all based on stats and the companies have vast databases of claims and all the associated details - so they know all the factors that tell them they are more likely to have a claim - and clearly some of these are a stronger influence (e.g. age and sex of the driver), but there are many factors in the complex calculations - type of vehicle / time of day / time of year / weather / location / etc. all play a role - the type of job makes a difference to the size of claims - if you are a professional musician, you might have loss of earnings from even a minor accident whereas a gardener might be less in that statistical category.

So, non-fault you might assume would not affect your premium - but it does, for example the logic will say that if you are in a location where you have been rear-ended then you are more likely to have that happen in the future - a clear example would be that if you live in London, you have a higher chance of a rear-end accident than if you live on the Isle of Lewis etc. So even though it is not your fault for this incident, the stats show that because you have been involved, you are more likely to be involved another time...

and protected no-claims does not mean that your premium will not go up...
Simple example

• Insurance is £500 p/a
• No-claims is a marketing gimmick - it gives you a discount, so if you have e.g. 10+ years of no-claims, then you might have a 40% discount
• So your insurance is now £300 p/a
• You pay £15 to protect your no-claims
• You are in an accident

what happens next?

• your no-claims is protected, so the 40% discount remains at your time of next renewal, BUT your underlying premium increases because of the no-fault claim
• so your insurance increases from £500 p/a to £700 p/a
• you still have your protected 40% discount which gives you £280 discount
• £700 - £280 = £420
• So in reality, your insurance will go up by £120.

hopefully that helps explain the insurance company logic - your risk has been seen to increase and so your premium will increase...

I used to write the black box logic for insurance underwriting for one of the biggest insurance companies in the world...

@akkakk I was just going to try and say that, but you've explained it so much better than I could have! That was what our insurers said to us, that statistically I was more likely to be involved in another crash so that's why it goes up even if it does feel unfair. I had protected no claims too

I mean they were completely right, I am very unlucky and have had a further 2 people crash into me since then and a deer launch into my bonnet but I won't go into that

Go through your insurance, especially for a repair costing that much. Whether he's a nice young lad is irrelevant, you have no relationship or obligation to him.

I was once rear-ended and it took 8 months for the repair to be carried out correctly, and that was through the insurer's recommended garage. There were problems with parts, the quality of the respray, it was awful. The insurers' inspector had to go out and see the car twice because I refused to take it back until it was satisfactory. Imagine all that when you're doing it privately. Plus I had a courtesy car all that time, would have been a nightmare otherwise.

A young male driver who has already caused damage in the thousands? He should face the consequences. What if the next 'mistake' is a child on a zebra crossing? He could already be charged with driving without due care and attention. You're not doing him (or other road users) any favours by trying to help him out, OP

Presumably there is damage to his own vehicle too. His insurance will go up, but probably not as much as the repair of two vehicles. He will still have a clean driving licence. I suppose you share the quotes and remind him car insurance is an option.