Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To just not be able to do this (accident claim)

128 replies

soyvanillalatte · 29/07/2016 10:04

Someone rear ended me at a red light this week. The car is being looked at for a quote and repair and I will be getting a rental car BUT the car may be written off and I could potentially end up out of pocket as there would be a gap between what I paid for it/what I would need for a replacement and the market value given by the assessors.

My Husband is on at me to claim for injury and says I am a fool not to as everyone does this and it is the way to make sure I can buy a "new" car if the my damaged one is written off, or indeed to just get some compensation for the inconvenience/accident. I am not injured and find the whole idea dishonest.

Am I being a fool? Is this something people do to make sure they get a payment from an insurance company?

Just to add some info: I find it incredibly hard to find suitable cars as I only drive an auto and the car I have is a 2004 but it has 10000 mileage so was about £1500 when I bought it a year ago.

OP posts:
Bubbles1986 · 29/07/2016 12:54

Soya I'm trying to pm you, can u pm me I have some advice for you that avoids you having to contemplate fraud

Original poster
soyvanillalatte · 29/07/2016 13:00

Thanks bubbles I just tried and not sure why it says not receiving pms at this time. I will try again in a bit

OP posts:
Bubbles1986 · 29/07/2016 13:07

Ah a glitch In the system. OK we will try later :-)

purplevase4 · 29/07/2016 13:14

What's the issue with your car being an automatic? Plenty of cheap automatics on the market - to the extent that my mum really struggled to sell hers (and she really looks after her cars).

Otherwise, I'm with everyone who's said it's fraud and in any event, will just cause you more stress.

HandbagCrazy · 29/07/2016 13:22

If you claim, you'll be added to a database that says you received a payment for injury. This will be checked in any future claims - so should you be genuinely injured in an accident in future, this could count against you.

Also, if you claim, you are directly effecting the premium of the "absolute gent" who hit you.

Claiming for a non existent injury is fraud. Legally and morally wrong.

In al likelihood you could lie and you'll get some money. In the same way as you could steal something from me and if I never caught you, you'd get away with it. Doesn't mean you should though.

Your husband and people like him is the reason premiums continue to go up and up.

Ps I work for an insurance company and situations like this are one of the most frustrating things I deal with - both with people who want to claim and I know they're lying and explaining to customers that yes, that un-injured lying person is claiming against you and our hands are tied Angry

VeryBitchyRestingFace · 29/07/2016 13:22

When did these new changes to insurance claims come in?

I was a passenger in a collision 4 years and made a successful claim. I was ambulanced to hospital at the time and off work for 2 weeks.

I saw the hospital doctor on the day of the accident, GP for a sick note, and a conversation with a consultant when the claim was going through. I don't recall the consultant even performing a clinical examination.

All this talk of PT appointments, consultant examinations, truth serum etc, seems quite removed from my experience just a few years ago. Confused

cansu · 29/07/2016 13:23

I have been involved in two rear end shunts that were not my fault. In one I had whiplash and pain in my arm which required physio and I did claim for. In the other I had mild symptoms that went away after a few days and I did not claim. I think it is important to be truthful really.

RichardBucket · 29/07/2016 13:23

I felt terrible making a genuine whiplash claim, because I was certain that the insurance people assumed I was making it up as "everyone" does it. I know I couldn't handle the guilt of actually lying about it...

Original poster
soyvanillalatte · 29/07/2016 13:26

purplevase it took me near on 6 months to find an auto here!

OP posts:
maitaimojito · 29/07/2016 13:27

My DM felt the same as you and didn't claim. She thought she was ok at the time of the accident but a few weeks later it became apparent that she was suffering from whiplash.

She's since spent thousands on physio as her back has never been right since. She wishes she had claimed but couldn't bring herself to do it.

If you're fine don't do it, but if you do think you might have sustained an injury you might want to get it checked out to see what the damage is likely to be.

Original poster
soyvanillalatte · 29/07/2016 13:28

And I'm not that fussy. It just has to be relatively small for me to be able to see over the bonnet and not a "scrapper".

OP posts:
Original poster
soyvanillalatte · 29/07/2016 13:32

The good news is, 2 days later, the rental co have found an auto for me but I can only have it for a few days and then need to swap for another.

OP posts:
PersianCatLady · 29/07/2016 13:37

Did you have gap insurance? I've got that so if I write my car off, I'll definitely get the outstanding finance back.
I doubt that you would be able to take out gap insurance on a £1500 second hand car.

As you already stated gap insurance is mostly used to cover people with cars on finance so that in the event they are written off, the outstanding finance is cleared. Otherwise could you imagine getting your car written off and then still having to make repayments on the finance?

PersianCatLady · 29/07/2016 13:39

If your husband is prepared for you to commit fraud so you don't lose out financially, why don't you suggest that instead he goes and steals you a new car so you don't lose out financially?

BikeGeek · 29/07/2016 13:57

Can you not pursue a claim without a personal injury?

Although my claim was a personal injury claims a lot of the settlement was to cover loss incurred as a result of the accident.

LurkingHusband · 29/07/2016 14:05

Otherwise could you imagine getting your car written off and then still having to make repayments on the finance?

The trouble is lots of people can't imagine.

There's a similar thing with phones bought on contract. Plenty of stories about people having to continue to pay 23 months for a stolen phone that wasn't insured ....

diddl · 29/07/2016 14:11

Sorry about my previous post Op, when you had put "out of pocket", I was thinking that you wouldn't be getting the correct trade in value.

Of course getting the correct price still doesn't mean that there's enough cash sitting around to make up the difference to buy againBlush

My daughter's car was hit by a lorry.

The insurance quote to fix came back as 3000Euro (more than we had paid for the car).

1000 of that was a respray!

We managed to get money, although I'm not sure how they worked it out & fix it ourselves-sourced parts ourselves rather than new iyswim & husband did what he could so saved labour costs.

OhGodWhatTheHellNow · 29/07/2016 14:26

I think the advice to ask the insurance company to find a vehicle for the money they are offering is sound, my dh did that when his car was written off (his own fault!) and they upped the offer.

Ironically, I had a tatty old bicycle stolen from a shed and claimed under the household insurance, I had bought it off a workmate for £50, got him to write me a receipt and everything, insurance company demanded the spec detail (OK, just wanted the £50) then insisted on replacing the bike with a new equivalent and presented me with a £900 Cannondale Shock.
Karma for not trying to soup up the claim.

KidProofTablet · 29/07/2016 14:35

You don't have to 'retrain' a friend or family member can show you how to drive a manual then you'll need to sit the test. It's really not a big deal. It's a useful skill to have.

carefreeeee · 29/07/2016 14:39

They always try to pay less than the car's worth but you don't have to accept what they offer you... get some proof of what it would cost to replace your car and bargain hard with the insurers.

PersianCatLady · 29/07/2016 14:42

The trouble is lots of people can't imagine.
I would hate to be like that though.

The phone thing you mentioned reminds me of when I worked in a mobile phone shop 20 years ago and as you said people would lose the phone and come in to ask us to stop charging them the monthly fees.
Time and again I had to explain that the reason we "gave" them a £300 phone for free was that they would be paying the monthly fees for the contract term.

Some of them eventually got it and some of them didn't!

PersianCatLady · 29/07/2016 14:44

a new equivalent and presented me with a £900 Cannondale
That is the benefit of "new for old" home insurance cover.

PenguindreamsofDraco · 29/07/2016 17:01

Fabulous01, you certainly can claim. If you know the registration number you can get the driver's insurance details from the MIB. You can then deal with them directly (including suing them directly if needs be). If there are no insurers, you can claim from the MIB. Easy peasy!

Original poster
soyvanillalatte · 29/07/2016 17:04

Do you know something terrible? I just had a lift from the man at the car rental company and was telling him about me not contemplating doing this and his response was that if I was the one to hit someone else, I could be guaranteed that they would be doing it!

Its rife!

OP posts:
Original poster
soyvanillalatte · 29/07/2016 17:05

With getting a manual license, I think I would have to do the theory and everything wouldn't I? (I didn't get my license in UK by the way).

OP posts:
Swipe left for the next trending thread