Insewerants

[kingandy]

After I crashed my car back in November, the nice lady at the insurance place advised that I could check how much the payout was and maybe pay it off, so as to qualify for a "no claims" bonus (though not a "no accidents" one). She agreed that this would only be worth it if if the payout was less than the reduction I'd get from paying it off, obviously. Since the other car was barely scratched, I thought it would be worth ringing up to check ... renewal is due soon, so I gave them a ring today.

Eight hundred pounds. Eight hundred.

I blame big business; the car in question was a courtesy car from a Renault garage, so I don't blame the nice old people driving it, but rather the garage who I'm sure said "Pah! It's on the insurance, we may as well get the whole rear half of the car replaced, why cut corners?"

I think I shall be taking my business elsewhere. The AA offered me a discount on account of being a member, we'll have to see what they can offer me.

Comments

[kneeshooter]

You can't just think of the one-year cost reduction - if you make a claim it's normally two years you lose. I used a spreadsheet to calculate my long-term misery in a similar circumstance.

And I have never had a good quote from the AA.

And I hate cars.

And I hate insurance companies more. "Legalised theft" as Rob WINOLJ says.

[kingandy]

Did I perhaps not italic eight hundred enough? I don't have that much cash spare, not if I want to buy a house ... and anyway, it's practically equivalent to my yearly premium.

I'll take your experience with the AA into consideration when I get a quote from them, cheers.

[renniek.livejournal.com]

It will probably be down to the repairing garage.

Generally, on an insurance claim, the insurance company decide which garage is repairing the damaged vehicle. For insurance jobs, because the repairs have to be guaranteed to a high standard and because the garage can get away with doing a lot of expensive work and getting the cash for it without any argument, garages almost always replace anything that is damaged with brand new parts. This is why cars are so often written-off by insurance companies - not because it would actually cost more than the car is worth to get it roadworthy again, but because it would cost more than the car is worth to get anything that's damaged replaced with new parts.

[kingandy]

That's about what I figured. It's really annoying though, looking at the back end of their car post-impact there was only a handful of scratches and a license-plate illumination light hanging out on its wire. They mush have replaced the whole bodywork...

[renniek.livejournal.com]

BTW, my cheapest quote this year was from KwikSave, nattydreadi's was from Admiral and westerind's was from Churchill, so they might all be worth looking at. Good luck!

[samharber.livejournal.com]

Elephant were quite good to me considering I had 2 cars burnt out in a year.

[paradoxrealm]

Mine was from Liverpool Victoria.
£877 Fully comp. Not bad when you consider Under 25 driver with no no-claims...

[stsquad.livejournal.com]

You don't even want to know the pain that is my insurance...

[samharber.livejournal.com]

Still probably less than I pay for 3FT

I'm Sorry

[anne-l-davies.livejournal.com]

I'm paying 450 pounds for protected fully comp, IN LONDON (and a vaguely dodgy area at that), through KwikFit, who are a broker. I have no idea who my insurance company actually are.