The Future of Car Insurance - To Claim or Not To Claim?
With the cost of car insurance becoming more and more expensive the motoring community know that in order to qualify for cheap car insurance they need to keep that no claims bonus (NCB) intact.
With this in mind there seems to be an upturn in the trend to settle small accident claims without involving the car insurance companies but instead personal settlement between the parties involved. So what are the positives and the negatives of this type of settlement which cuts the car insurance companies out of the equation.
Positives
Keep NCB - The biggest positive involved with personal settlement is the fact that not claiming on your car insurance policy will mean that you're NCB will be unaffected.
Low car insurance premium - By keeping your NCB intact you can expect to benefit from cheaper car insurance the following year.
Time - Anyone that has had to make a claim on their car insurance policy knows that this process can take some time to complete. By using personal settlement there is the possibility of a very swift solution that means your car will be back on the road much sooner than settling through your motor insurance companies.
Negatives
Money - The biggest down side to personal settlement has to be the fact that you are having to put your hand into your own pocket to fork out for the repairs. Surely this is the exact reason that you pay your car insurance premium in the first place.
Control - the next problem is that you have no control over how much the repairs will cost. Your insurance company makes sure that they receive a number of quotes for the work that needs to be done but by personally settling the bill you have very little control over the other parties cost of repair and you leave you self open to advantage taking.
Back tracking - Another problem is the other party back tracking on their promise and informing their insurance company of the altercation. This often leaves the other driver in strife as they haven't informed their policy supplier.
Injury - Injuries that show up after a settlement has been made can cause problems especially if it leads to loss of earning. This means that you will not be able to claim on the personal injury section of your insurance policy because as the insurance policy suppliers are not aware that any accident took place.
Legal implications - There are also many legal implications involved with not involving the car insurance companies. This is because as part of most vehicle insurance policies you are required to notify you policy holders in the event of accident. By not doing so you could be nullifying your current policy.
Basically it may seem like a good idea at the time to settle personally with another party in the event of an accident. However as you can see the negatives greatly out-way the positives and you would be better off talking to your car insurance company about price increases in the event of accident or even protecting your NCB before you are put in a personal settlement situation.
