Fender Bender what now?

[pinball wizard]

Do you realise whether you plan to claim or not, the accident still remains on your "record" at your insurance company when they calculate your future premiums based on "accident-free years" ?

And if you don't tell them, and they find out (which a panelbeater can spot easily) they can legally terminate your cover and refute any future claim. If your cover is terminated due to non-disclosure, you will have difficulty getting cover with any other insurer.

 

[Lupus]

Insurance excesses can be huge.

My granddaughter just wrote off my little Ford KA and very luckily just had a couple of bumps and a scratch.

Excess was R9000. First excess R3000, under 25 R2000, less than 2 years licence R2000, after 9pm and no other vehicle involved R2000.

I was insured for retail value which insurance stated as R38700. Quick check on Autotrader showed lots of KAs at over R45K but basically they then quote some "guide" which they probably generate anyway which keeps the payout down.

At the end of the day I would be happy to get only R1 as my granddaughter, according to the assessor who looked at the KA, said she could easily have been killed.

But I dealt through my broker the whole time and she was fantastic because of some complications that needed to be ironed out. So my personal advice to anybody is just get a good broker, maybe costs you a little more a month than going direct to insurance company, but is well worth it and try and get a smaller one than one of the big companies, they take a more personal interest in you.

Actually going through a broker ends up saving money, especially from what I've seen. Also if you're over a certain age you could get your first excess down.