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

[soyvanillalatte]

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.

My car was written off when he was hit by a mobile library van. Got the faux concerned phone call about personal injury claim - and when I pointed out I had been sitting in my kitchen when the car was hit, and it had been parked and empty, they couldn't get off the phone quick enough.

I could be guaranteed that they would be doing it!
I think that is slightly over stating it and even if it isn't it still doesn't make it right.

As others have said, if you got caught taking injury, u could be taken to court, and even put in prison. You'd get a criminal record, and likely lose your job (if you work, if not, you might struggle to get one in future after that). If you have kids, you'd have to explain all those things, and explain why it was ok for you to try to lie to make some money, but wouldn't be ok if they lie to you...
Appreciate you don't plan to do it, but your DH may want to think how the 2 of you will deal with all these possible consequences!

I rear ended someone last year and guess what? She didn't claim for whiplash. Not everyone does it.
If you're worried about a discrepancy between what you're offered to settle the claim and what you can actually buy with it, get yourself on Autotrader and search for comparable cars. If you find that the exact same make, model, year and similar mileage are vastly different, you would have a case to ask for more money as you should be able to replace like with like. Of course, they'll try to make out that your car was an utter knacker (Direct Line made out that my mum's pristine Almeira was in poor condition to drive the price down), so try to get photos of bodywork to back you up.

Can you talk to the insurer about buying back the salvage and then getting the repairs done at a garage yourself? Might be the best way to get what you need and not loose too much. Also when they offer you £700 you can negotiate. Get examples of equivalent vehicles from auto trader (at least 3 or so) to negotiate the payment up. If the third party insurer won't help you then call you own and get them to pay you and claim back.

OP - What sort of car and year are you looking for?

It pisses me off that so many people falsely claim for whiplash. I've had it myself following a relatively minor accident on the bus last year and it's a horrible, miserable injury that I wouldn't wish on anybody. When I explained to people that I had whiplash I got knowing looks from so many people who seemed to think that I was saying it for the money. I still have some discomfort at night time and early morning even 8 months later. And FYI to some previous posters, at the time of the accident I got off feeling absolutely fine and dandy and carried on to work. It wasn't until the next day that I started to feel pain and terrible stiffness, so people who seem apparently fine at the scene of an accident then 'suddenly develop' whiplash aren't necessarily fraudsters.

Laughing my head off at the idea it's hard to get away with and you'd undergo an extensive medical exam...there are often no "positive signs" of injury with whiplash - just injured person report that it hurts, so ppl go to the medical expert, who are as crooked as anyone else for max 15 mins, say they're injured and the doctor plucks a prognosis period out of the air, and jobs a goodun, £3k PI claim. Whiplash based fraud is rife. cynical,moi?!

Also makes me laugh the suggestion that the proliferation of whiplash claims is the reason for ever climbing premiums - recent changes in the courts process (OK from 2010) have completely slashed the amounts being paid out by insurers, even though total numbers of claims have risen, and have premiums fallen? Have they hell

OP have you checked who's providing that hire car and how? It's from an accident a management company rather than the defendant's insurer you could end up with a whole world of hassle...

SovietKitsch It is via the other party's insurer - a large rental company.

Persiancatlady I don't mind about years as long as the mileage isn't too bad and as long as it looks "in good nick" as I use the car for work. I am after an auto, small car that I can see over the bonnet of, seat that raises etc. I have a spatial perception problem, although not enough to affect my license, so need to be able to feel I can get an idea of the car. That's why it took me so long to find something suitable. I find I really need to feel comfortable that I can see properly and get really nervous driving new cars. The car I have was converted from a disabled vehicle.

I have been on Autotrader and for a search with the following options it returned 68 cars, so it is not impossible to replace your car for under £1,000 -
Used
£0 - £1,000
2004 - 2016
10,000 - 60,000 miles
Automatic

The problem is that when you want an automatic you dramatically reduce the number of cars available. I have just done the same search again but with a manual gearbox and it returned 682 cars. So there are 10 times as many manuals as autos.

After looking at the searches I am pleasantly surprised at the number of results returned though, for autos I thought I might have struggled to find 10 cars.

Excellent. Thanks. I think the number will reduce again for the area but I'm hopeful.

Three within 30 miles of my postcode and all with mileage around 60-70K but these things come in and out so will keep looking

Three within 30 miles of my postcode
OK well that's good, don't forget you can always change the options slightly to increase the results.

Also people put new adverts on there all the time.

You might also want to try your local newspaper ours does a motoring and car sales pull-out on Fridays, maybe yours does something similar?

What's the condition like of the car? I know someone who had fault accident but loved his car and generally runs them into the ground. He purchased it back as an insurance right off for s silly fraction of the price. He then had a few panels replaced and t cutted some scratches out. It doesn't look like a shiny new car, but he's not bothered. He's happy with it. Would that be an option?

I have claimed for an injury due to a car accident where someone hit me. I'd just finished some treatment and physio for an arthritis flare up (and been signed off from the extra treatment; and done so intensively due to having a holiday coming up) and the accident resulted in everything flaring up again and meaning more medication, more physio and some time out of work to go to appointments plus being more restricted on holiday than panned (though the latter was a minor issue and not mentioned on the reports.)

It's not straight forward. I needed medical reports from where I had sought treatment the day after the accident, plus I then needed to go to see a consultant, arranged by the insurance companies, to discuss treatment and I going issues etc and they needed full access to my records.

I received about £2-3k but it took a while to arrive. That was medical. My car was covered under their car is insurance.

Fwiw I wouldn't have gone ahead and it hadn't crossed my mind. But my physio and rheumatologist were the ones who told me to the following day.

I would only ever go through it all for a genuine injury though.

Well your insurance company won't ever trust you again and your premiums will be ramped up forever.
Tenerife neck, as it is called is weirdly common in the UK but not in the rest of Europe.
Making the Brits look like a bunch of corrupt liers.
Don'tdo it unless you are actually Injured.
I was bumped v hard once and got whiplash and it lasted for 1 week then was gone. Whiplash is a thug but I don't believe it is anywhere near as bad as people make out.

As it was a substantial impact, I would advise you to get checked out by a doctor (not nurse practitioner) because you could have sustained an injury that might come back and haunt you one day. If you have a record it will help if, in the future you needed to make a genuine claim.

To the OP it really is worth going a bit further for your new car if you can. When we looked for DD car, I sent DH 120 miles away as it felt like the right cat I found on Autotrader, him and a car savvy mate drove there, agreed it was a fabulous little car, ran a finance check from the iPad, rang me and I arranged a days temp insurance and taxed the car online and DHs mate drove it home. Couldn't get anything that ticked all the boxes any closer.

Sorry for your accident though, insurance and accidents are do stressful.

No don't do it.

I had whiplash and a shoulder injury following an accident 9yrs ago. It was a relatively 'minor' accident but I was looking right at the time. I had problems for 7 years. I did claim but the amount of people that gave me a nudge and implied I was on the make when I told then, made me sick. It seems so many people do.

There is a proposed change to the law - not sure if it has gone through yet - to deal with the number of people who claim to have whiplash style injuries. Going forward, insurers will only cover the costs of your medical treatment or expenses and not give additional compensation - so you would get your private physio paid, loss of earnings for GP appointments and any other direct costs but not anything for "pain or suffering". This is purely because so many people are on the fiddle.

Don't do it.

I got a payout for whiplash after being in a car crash on the M3. In standstill traffic, and we were hit from behind by someone at about 50mph.

Yeh, ok I got £7k, but the process I had to go through was long and arduous and took about a year- I missed a lot of work and all sorts. I was receiving physio and on pain meds for a year and a half after the crash too.

The most they'll offer you is £500-£1000 "fuck off" money, not worth your self esteem tbh.

Kennington what a ridiculous thing to say. Sure, your whiplash might not have been too bad, but what gives you the right to assume that your experience holds for everyone else? Whiplash effects will depend on all sorts of factors, including speed of impact, number of impacts, position of head and body at time, length of the person's neck, muscle and stability of the person's neck, underlying health issues, the list goes on...

In my case whiplash with a number of risk factors as above, meant that I, previously fairly healthy very sporty person, am sitting at the computer, in pain, on three different types of pain relief and a hot oak pack round my neck, typing this, whilst my family goes out on a trip I cannot accompany them on. I am unable to work full time, I have previously lost a job over this, I have to do rehab work every single week, I cannot do the sports I used to love. It happened ten fucking years ago.

I claimed for whiplash, but I actually had it (and suspected cracked ribs) and was signed off work for 6 weeks due to the fact I worked a manual job. Claiming for something you haven't had is wrong.