Car insurance question.

[MummysHappyPills]

Recently involved in a very minor collision, my fault, no visible damage to my car, tiny scratch on their's. Other driver was very nice and said they would get a quote so we wouldn't have to go through insurance if I didn't want to. However quote is £200+, and whilst we could just about afford it, I do have no claims protection on my policy. My dad says that I would only have to pay excess if I made a claim for damage to MY car, and it does not apply to repairs to a third party's car. Is he right? I have read through my policy and it says very little and I can't tell one way or the other. Of course if I ring them, I will have to tell them about the accident, and I will rule out the possibility of just paying the other driver directly I presume, and the fact I have been involved in an "accident" I assume will put my premiums up regardless of whether I do make a claim or not?

My excess is £300, so if I have to pay excess for a third party repair I might as well just pay him myself....

Any advice would be appreciated.

Orchidee I would have happily informed my insurance company immediately but the other driver seemed to want to avoid it. Now the quote is a lot more than I expected I probably will tell them now anyway. The only reason i didn't is because i was once hit by someone when i had 3rd party only insurance and i called my insurance company and they said they weren't really interested and that I should just contact the party at fault's insurance company direct to make a claim against them. So I kind of assumed this guy would do the same if he chose to.
Thanks for your advice everyone.

Thank you all for your help everyone. I contacted my insurance co. and excess only applies to repairs to my own car. So on balance given that I have protected no claims, I am going to go through the insurance company. I feel a bit bad for him that it will probably cause delays for him, but that's life I suppose, I have had it happen to me before and had to go through insurance company etc. so it's swings and roundabouts really.

Thanks for all your input!

Glad your sorted,thats why you pay insurance and good that you dont have to pay out the hard cash.

hi i need advice i had a road accident and it was my mistake i bumped to the front car but the car had a minor scratch and the one i bumped to bumped to the front one i know its shocking i am in a state of shock i wonder how much my insurance is gonna be and this lady sons just came out of the car playing and she spoke in her language he started crying pretending he got hurt only to claim money as most of the people do as there are many fraud going on as usual the police and paramedic asked if we got hurt me and the kids we said we are all ok i need advice please

I know a bit about insurance (lawyer). You should be aware that, even if you do not claim on your policy, your answer to the question "have you had any accidents in the last 5 years" next time you renew should still be "yes". If you say no untruthfully, your insurance policy may be invalidated.

How will they know? Hard to say whether they would or not, but insurance companies all share info and if you make a "just curious" enquiry, it will still be logged.

Leaving that aside though, from a non-legal viewpoint if it is only £200 to pay I would pay it. You will end up paying far more than that on next year's premium. I claimed £600 on my home insurance policy last year and my premium this year (no other variables changed, same insurer) rose by £800.