To think that we pay £££ for car insurance that we are afraid to use?

[WinterWillow]

I had a minor bump on the weekend which caused some cosmetic damage to my vehicle. No one else involved and only myself to blame.

My first thought was I will pay to get this repaired myself, I had a couple of quotes between £350-£450. Not an extortionate amount and probably about right for the damage caused.

My excess on my insurance is £190 and having discussed this with my husband we have now decided to go through our insurance.

We (all of us) pay sometimes ridiculous amounts for insurance that we are too afraid to use, mainly because it is an absolute nightmare and they almost always try and make the situation worse! You also know that you will be punished next year in the form of price increase and also for the next 5 years!

Why do I (we) feel so inclined to not use our insurance companies, we pay enough for them :(

Had to rant as I feel super silly for even having the accident and my anxiety is making me feel that all sorts of bad things are going to happen as a result :(

You might be afraid to use it, I wouldnt.

Depending on the age of the car, I'm not sure I'd even bother having it fixed if it's just minor cosmetic damage and you plan to sell fairly soon.

But I understand what you mean. Chances are that claiming will bump up your insurance by far more than the £200 ish that you'll claim for this incident.

But we don't really have insurance for minor bumps and scrapes, more in case we cause an accident where someone else is seriously injured and the compensation claim runs into 5/6/7 figures.

= if you don't plan to sell fairly soon.

Most people would leave minor cosmetic damage and not have it fixed at all.

@Pinktinker @BarbaraofSeville

I wouldn't say it's minor cosmetic damage, basically I caught the drivers side of the car on a high-rise curb. There is some significant scratches at the bottom of the door which are down to bare metal and will rust. The car is a 65 plate and we don't plan to sell soon as it is a great car.

I have terrible anxiety and I just end up thinking of the worst possible scenarios :(

If it's just scratches, even down to the metal, I'd just touch it up with paint stick you can get from Halfords.

I've got lots of stone chips that have gone down to the metal but not claimed on insurance for them

@helloDearHusband it's quite significant and definitely needs repairing. There is a dent in the door which is quite significant as well as a dent to the alloy.

Nope, I don't pay a great deal for my car insurance.
I renewed my policy yesterday £87 for the year.

No i wouldnt claim for £160

Cost you far more than that over the next few years

You might find you can get the damage fixed slightly cheaper if you pay for it yourself rather than do it as an insurance job, simply because it's easier for the garage for you to pay straight away, rather than them have to deal with the insurance company.

On balance, from what you've said, I'd pay for the repair myself, especially if I can get it done for around £350 instead of £450.

If you have a no claims bonus, absolutely forget it.

It's a £400 repair - not huge - and probably less than what you'd pay in terms of higher excess.

As an aside, pay a good amount for repair. The less you pay, the worse the job - the harder it'll be to (eventually) sell.

I wouldn't claim for cosmetic damage on my insurance... But our cars are older, both purchased as used. Mine is 10 years old, my DH's is 14. For a brand new car I might consider it if the damage is significant. But for my cars, I'm not sure it's worth the premiums increase. I've usually touched up small dings and scrapes myself with a touch up paint kit.
A lorry side swiped my old corsa on the motorway a few years ago. It was still driveable but would've been an insurance write off. I didn't claim, I just sucked it up to bad luck and got another car.
As a previous poster said, it's more for claims that are big accidents that involve injury that I would use it for.

But I know where you're coming from. We pay so much for insurance and a lot of us are too scared to use it in case of losing our no claims bonus. All a bit of a racket really.

I was thinking exactly the same thing yesterday. I have fully comp insurance with 17 years no claims (protected). I had a prang a few years ago when I damaged the door and the wing, no other cars involved. I phoned my insurance company but they said they would write my car off due to its age, and give me £800. I’d spent a lot of money on my car and knew engine wise it was perfect, so to me it was worth a lot more than that. I ended up paying to get the damage fixed myself, for £600. Still driving the same car over 3 years later.

I would just pay for repair myself
Even with protected no claims your excess and likely premium increase will make you worse off
I will only definitely claim on any kind of insurance for losses over £1000
Between £500 and £1000 weigh up best option
Less than £500 suck it up
Insurance companies have us all over a barrel I’m afraid

yes it's an expensive business owning a car! though my dh was in an accident and the insurers legal team is helping us with a 5 figure settlement.