Car Insurance Accident Advice

[Sith Happens]

As @Chester40 and @Boycie say try not to get wound up about it.

Its what Insurance is for. You could check if you have legal expenses insurance and contact them for their opinion as well.

Its always difficult when blame is disputed and if there are no independent witnesses it makes it harder.

The one thing I would say about Injuries is they are rarely evident at the time of the incident, especially whiplash. In fact if someone claims whiplash at the scene i would say that's less believable than finding out about it a couple of days later.

Sadly even with Protected bonus a price increase at Renewal could be likely as insurers will load for adverse driving experience, in fact a even a non fault claim settled in your favour will often result in a premium increase.

Insurance and claims are generally a very frustrating process for customers as it often leaves them with a feeling of an unfair outcome, especially if you pay more for something thats not your fault.

Just try not to worry, tell them the facts as you know them and then let it take its course.

[rynny]

2 hours ago, McRamFan said:

The key word here is that they hit you.  Regardless of you changing lane, they should be aware of the traffic, especially on a traffic island where road markings are, at best, not always clear.  It is down to them to explain how they ended up hitting you. 

Stick to the facts, you used your mirors, signalled, etc, and they HIT YOU, their fault.  Even if they come out with saying they have dash cam, it will still show them hitting you.

Doesn't always work, I had someone hit the side of me as I was turning, they were behind me and decided that they wanted to overtake me. Didn't pay any attention to my indicator, or what I was doing. Changed their story from they got out the car to what they told their insurance, saying I had opposite indicator on and thought I was turning left even though there was no left turn, to I was parked up with my left indicator on and just pulled out on them. Ended up being 50/50 as there were no witnesses and our story's were so different, they could not determine who was at fault.

[Van der MoodHoover]

3 hours ago, Boycie said:

Good advice, it’s too easy to get wound up with what you deem spurious personal injury claims. Let the insurance deal with it, my missus had a low speed shunt at a junction, no damage to ours, non apparent to theirs, get a claim for sprained wrist and loads of body repairs. Yeah right.

Only positive is as we aren’t claiming for any damage to ours, and we have protected no claims, we don’t pay anything or have any increase next year. (So they say)

This is handy as you will still be able to shop around at next renewal and claim that you have your full x years of no claims bonus.

As others have said,  as premiums increase generally your bonus is a percentage off a larger number so your price may still go up.

I've just renewed with protected ncd  (which I invoked a couple of years ago when I shunted someone). Renewal premium had gone up 15%, so I googled around and got same cover,  protected etc for 50% less. The current insurer confirmed to the new one that I had 9 years ncd  (companies can check these). 

 

So no need to panic - protecting yourncd is very wise and only adds about 15-20 quid to the premium.