Supermarket Prang - Third Party Claiming inflated costs
Discussion
Hi All,
After a bit of advice, wife had a supermarket prang, each side blaming the other. Superficial damage to both cars, could feel no dents in 3rd party car, various scratches around rear wheel arch and rear door. Similar scratches to my wife's car.
3rd party said they will need to claim as it's hire car given to them as their own car had been, in their words, T-Boned a week earlier!
We didn't bother claiming anything our side and just informed our insurers and supplied photos.
I suspect it will go 50/50 as it's she said - he said.
I'm now hearing 3rd party are putting in costs for £3,200! I was gobsmacked.
Is there anything we can do to say these are incredibly inflated costs, is it any wonder insurance premiums are so high, if such extortionate claims are being. Suspect there are dodgy things going on behind the scenes but we are none the wiser.
Any thoughts as to what is going on here? and whether we can do anything about it?
I've half a mind to put in claims in for my wife's car if they are going to play these silly games.
This is going to massively affect my wife's car insurance at renewal, no doubt, she will have to put the cost of the claim down on her insurance.
After a bit of advice, wife had a supermarket prang, each side blaming the other. Superficial damage to both cars, could feel no dents in 3rd party car, various scratches around rear wheel arch and rear door. Similar scratches to my wife's car.
3rd party said they will need to claim as it's hire car given to them as their own car had been, in their words, T-Boned a week earlier!
We didn't bother claiming anything our side and just informed our insurers and supplied photos.
I suspect it will go 50/50 as it's she said - he said.
I'm now hearing 3rd party are putting in costs for £3,200! I was gobsmacked.
Is there anything we can do to say these are incredibly inflated costs, is it any wonder insurance premiums are so high, if such extortionate claims are being. Suspect there are dodgy things going on behind the scenes but we are none the wiser.
Any thoughts as to what is going on here? and whether we can do anything about it?
I've half a mind to put in claims in for my wife's car if they are going to play these silly games.
This is going to massively affect my wife's car insurance at renewal, no doubt, she will have to put the cost of the claim down on her insurance.
swiftguy said:
Because there were no dents just scratches around the rear wheel arch and rear door - very superficial.
Would you say that is £3,200 worth of damage?
There was more damage to my car
Could be greedily calculated courtesy car and lost rental perhaps.Would you say that is £3,200 worth of damage?
There was more damage to my car
Years ago I had a sub 5mph bumper kiss, other car clearly already had scraped up car, scratches all over and across the one side which my pristine bumper allegedly did, months later my insurance fraud department called me to confirm a few things, including lack of damage to mine, as they claimed costs to repair the whole side of the car, a curtesy car for four weeks, and lost earning of several thousand pounds as a hairdresser due to wrist pain, even though when occurred they opened the empty boot and said they where in restaurant work.
Edited by NFT on Monday 5th February 20:29
swiftguy said:
This is going to massively affect my wife's car insurance at renewal, no doubt, she will have to put the cost of the claim down on her insurance.
It probably isn't and she probably won't.If you get quotes through insurers websites you will find that most insurers don't actually ask about the size of claims at all. Which makes sense - the fact that you've driven into the back of someone is the important thing, how big the claim ends up being depends on whether you pranged a Ferrari or a beaten up old Ford, which is largely a matter of luck rather than driving skill. Plus if it's a genuinely big claim (eg a complex personal injury) you won't be able to give an accurate answer anyway, because claims like that take years to finalise.
Of course the price comparison sites will ask for the amount of the claim because they have to cater the few insurers that do want the information, but the majority of insurers on the site will just ignore the answer. A few will use it, but how many of those will actually factor it into the premium, how many will just decline to quote for anyone with a claim bigger than (say) £100K, and how many won't use it at all and are just gathering the data for research purposes I don't know.
(When I had a minor pang a couple of years ago my insurer didn't tell me how much it had cost to repair. I put three different guesses into the comparison sites and found that they all have me exactly the same prices, at least for the insurers I was considering. So I just went with the highest of the three guesses.)
Just give your insurance company as much information as you can and let them worry about it. They don't pay out three grand for fun, so if they think that the amount is inflated they will push back against it. The effect on you will be negligible either way.
Edited by Aretnap on Tuesday 6th February 06:17
Edited by Aretnap on Tuesday 6th February 06:20
A few years ago on a trip to the UK I rented a car from Enterprise as I do every year. It was a Hyundai Tucson and I managed to put a small scrape on the rear wing going down a narrow lane leading to a beach in Cornwall. When I turned the car in we went round it with the Enterprise rep and both looked at the damage and it was noted.
I always rent my cars using my AmEx card as they cover insurance for free. When I got back to the US I got a bill from Enterprise for GBP 3,200! I emailed them back and told them that they were taking the piss and that I had photos of what was a very small scrape. I forwarded it straight to AmEx and told them not to pay it. Next day I got an email back from Enterprise saying that there had been an error and the cost was actually GBP 600! I forwarded that to AmEx and they paid it.
I always rent my cars using my AmEx card as they cover insurance for free. When I got back to the US I got a bill from Enterprise for GBP 3,200! I emailed them back and told them that they were taking the piss and that I had photos of what was a very small scrape. I forwarded it straight to AmEx and told them not to pay it. Next day I got an email back from Enterprise saying that there had been an error and the cost was actually GBP 600! I forwarded that to AmEx and they paid it.
swiftguy said:
Hi All,
After a bit of advice, wife had a supermarket prang, each side blaming the other. Superficial damage to both cars, could feel no dents in 3rd party car, various scratches around rear wheel arch and rear door. Similar scratches to my wife's car.
3rd party said they will need to claim as it's hire car given to them as their own car had been, in their words, T-Boned a week earlier!
We didn't bother claiming anything our side and just informed our insurers and supplied photos.
I suspect it will go 50/50 as it's she said - he said.
I'm now hearing 3rd party are putting in costs for £3,200! I was gobsmacked.
Is there anything we can do to say these are incredibly inflated costs, is it any wonder insurance premiums are so high, if such extortionate claims are being. Suspect there are dodgy things going on behind the scenes but we are none the wiser.
Any thoughts as to what is going on here? and whether we can do anything about it?
I've half a mind to put in claims in for my wife's car if they are going to play these silly games.
This is going to massively affect my wife's car insurance at renewal, no doubt, she will have to put the cost of the claim down on her insurance.
If it's 50:50 doesn't each InsCo pay their own client's costs? What I mean is that, unless your wife is held to be liable it won't be her Insurance Company that pays for the other party's costs?After a bit of advice, wife had a supermarket prang, each side blaming the other. Superficial damage to both cars, could feel no dents in 3rd party car, various scratches around rear wheel arch and rear door. Similar scratches to my wife's car.
3rd party said they will need to claim as it's hire car given to them as their own car had been, in their words, T-Boned a week earlier!
We didn't bother claiming anything our side and just informed our insurers and supplied photos.
I suspect it will go 50/50 as it's she said - he said.
I'm now hearing 3rd party are putting in costs for £3,200! I was gobsmacked.
Is there anything we can do to say these are incredibly inflated costs, is it any wonder insurance premiums are so high, if such extortionate claims are being. Suspect there are dodgy things going on behind the scenes but we are none the wiser.
Any thoughts as to what is going on here? and whether we can do anything about it?
I've half a mind to put in claims in for my wife's car if they are going to play these silly games.
This is going to massively affect my wife's car insurance at renewal, no doubt, she will have to put the cost of the claim down on her insurance.
It may not affect the individual's next renewal, but this sort of ripoff helps explain why insurance is so expensive.
I bet that scratch doesn't get repaired and the cash will be pocketed. Even if it is repaired, I bet they wouldn't have bothered had there not been an insurer on the hook.
We all pay for this!
I bet that scratch doesn't get repaired and the cash will be pocketed. Even if it is repaired, I bet they wouldn't have bothered had there not been an insurer on the hook.
We all pay for this!
mac96 said:
It may not affect the individual's next renewal, but this sort of ripoff helps explain why insurance is so expensive.
I bet that scratch doesn't get repaired and the cash will be pocketed. Even if it is repaired, I bet they wouldn't have bothered had there not been an insurer on the hook.
We all pay for this!
Indeed, reminds me of an old couple that reverse swung out a space into & scrape their new plated car down the side on a bollard, even smashing the window that was down in the shear force of continuing to try back through it, inspect it, decide to repair economically, then decide to claim on insurance because it wouldn't cost them anything if he insures & drives it on renewal.I bet that scratch doesn't get repaired and the cash will be pocketed. Even if it is repaired, I bet they wouldn't have bothered had there not been an insurer on the hook.
We all pay for this!
My daughter had an incident where she clipped wing mirrors with someone going the other way. No damage to her car, and a damaged cover on the wing mirror for the other guy. He got a quote for £79 plus VAT for the wing mirror.
I suggested going halves he said no I will claim on insurance so he did. Daughter’s insurer eventually told us he was seeking costs of over £7k and her insurer was suggesting going 50/50.
They weren’t interested in the fact he originally had a quote for £79 plus VAT. From our side no excess to pay as no damage to daughters car just no “no claims” on current years premium.
No idea if it’s even settled yet it wasn’t last time we checked even though the incident was a year earlier.
However bet it’s cost him a lot more than £79!
I suggested going halves he said no I will claim on insurance so he did. Daughter’s insurer eventually told us he was seeking costs of over £7k and her insurer was suggesting going 50/50.
They weren’t interested in the fact he originally had a quote for £79 plus VAT. From our side no excess to pay as no damage to daughters car just no “no claims” on current years premium.
No idea if it’s even settled yet it wasn’t last time we checked even though the incident was a year earlier.
However bet it’s cost him a lot more than £79!
guitarcarfanatic said:
Surely it’s cost your daughter a lot more in increased premium associated with having a claim (fault or no fault)?
Yes because it always always always increases the premium.Not.
Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. It hasn't for me - both with fault and non-fault claim.
Chrisgr31 said:
My daughter had an incident where she clipped wing mirrors with someone going the other way. No damage to her car, and a damaged cover on the wing mirror for the other guy. He got a quote for £79 plus VAT for the wing mirror.
I suggested going halves he said no I will claim on insurance so he did. Daughter’s insurer eventually told us he was seeking costs of over £7k and her insurer was suggesting going 50/50.
They weren’t interested in the fact he originally had a quote for £79 plus VAT. From our side no excess to pay as no damage to daughters car just no “no claims” on current years premium.
No idea if it’s even settled yet it wasn’t last time we checked even though the incident was a year earlier.
However bet it’s cost him a lot more than £79!
Good lord, what the heck has he even wanted to claim for, its a bit of plastic, 20 mins or less to replace, less if swapping mirror unit out, doesn't even effect drivability or need a hire car.I suggested going halves he said no I will claim on insurance so he did. Daughter’s insurer eventually told us he was seeking costs of over £7k and her insurer was suggesting going 50/50.
They weren’t interested in the fact he originally had a quote for £79 plus VAT. From our side no excess to pay as no damage to daughters car just no “no claims” on current years premium.
No idea if it’s even settled yet it wasn’t last time we checked even though the incident was a year earlier.
However bet it’s cost him a lot more than £79!
Countdown said:
If it's 50:50 doesn't each InsCo pay their own client's costs? What I mean is that, unless your wife is held to be liable it won't be her Insurance Company that pays for the other party's costs?
No, that's not how it works. You're thinking of knock for knock agreements, which haven't been a thing in UK car insurance for over 30 years, and had nothing to do with liability when they did exist.Under a 50:50 settlement each party can claim 50% of their costs from the other party's insurer.
The difference is illustrated by imagining you are driving a Ford Focus and you collide with a Ferrari, writig both cars off. Under an old style knock for knck agreement your insurer would be paying for a Ford Focus. Under a 50/50 settlement they would be paying for half a Focus, and half a Ferrari (and they'd still be on the hook for half a Ferrari even if you decided not to claim at all).
Countdown said:
swiftguy said:
Hi All,
After a bit of advice, wife had a supermarket prang, each side blaming the other. Superficial damage to both cars, could feel no dents in 3rd party car, various scratches around rear wheel arch and rear door. Similar scratches to my wife's car.
3rd party said they will need to claim as it's hire car given to them as their own car had been, in their words, T-Boned a week earlier!
We didn't bother claiming anything our side and just informed our insurers and supplied photos.
I suspect it will go 50/50 as it's she said - he said.
I'm now hearing 3rd party are putting in costs for £3,200! I was gobsmacked.
Is there anything we can do to say these are incredibly inflated costs, is it any wonder insurance premiums are so high, if such extortionate claims are being. Suspect there are dodgy things going on behind the scenes but we are none the wiser.
Any thoughts as to what is going on here? and whether we can do anything about it?
I've half a mind to put in claims in for my wife's car if they are going to play these silly games.
This is going to massively affect my wife's car insurance at renewal, no doubt, she will have to put the cost of the claim down on her insurance.
If it's 50:50 doesn't each InsCo pay their own client's costs? What I mean is that, unless your wife is held to be liable it won't be her Insurance Company that pays for the other party's costs?After a bit of advice, wife had a supermarket prang, each side blaming the other. Superficial damage to both cars, could feel no dents in 3rd party car, various scratches around rear wheel arch and rear door. Similar scratches to my wife's car.
3rd party said they will need to claim as it's hire car given to them as their own car had been, in their words, T-Boned a week earlier!
We didn't bother claiming anything our side and just informed our insurers and supplied photos.
I suspect it will go 50/50 as it's she said - he said.
I'm now hearing 3rd party are putting in costs for £3,200! I was gobsmacked.
Is there anything we can do to say these are incredibly inflated costs, is it any wonder insurance premiums are so high, if such extortionate claims are being. Suspect there are dodgy things going on behind the scenes but we are none the wiser.
Any thoughts as to what is going on here? and whether we can do anything about it?
I've half a mind to put in claims in for my wife's car if they are going to play these silly games.
This is going to massively affect my wife's car insurance at renewal, no doubt, she will have to put the cost of the claim down on her insurance.
If liability is agreed at 50:50, the OP’s wife’s insurer will pay half of the the ire party claim and the third party insurer will pay half of the OP’s wife’s claim (if one of presented). So presently, if the third party is presenting a claim and liability is agreed 50:50, the OP’s wife’s insurer will only pay half of that claim. The other half will just be paid for by the third party insurer as they will have to absorb it as their insured was half to blame for the incident.
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