So I passed my test in July. I’ve driven hire cars and vans since then, though not loads.
Got my first car and insurance last week and lo and behold, crashed it. The crash was my fault, at low speed, I think a result of me going from barely any driving to driving hundreds of miles in the dark and the rain too quickly.
But what happens now? I call the insurers tomorrow and they pick up the vehicle to check damage or store – how long until the claim goes through the pipeline?
New driver, early 30s, crashed a week into my first insurance policy – does this affect my premium immediately or just next year? It was £1100 this year; am I looking at double next year or is it not that bad?
Also I am a named driver on someone else’s car insurance – do we need to tell them immediately? If so, will I have to pay a higher premium for that now? Will it affect the premium of the main driver if we just take my name off when renewal comes up?
I’m quite shaken up right now and very stressed and feel like I don’t know what happens here.
5 comments
Ring insurance. Explain everything and let them deal with it. It may be quick or maybe take weeks or months for them to settle a figure for you. You probably won’t get a courtesy car as its your fault but I could be wrong.
All depends on your level of cover. If your fully comp your insurer will take care of every thing financially, and will keep you up to date on what’s going on, they will most likely have it towed to your house or scrappers then send someone to assess damage to see if it’s a write off or worth fixing. You’ll then get a courtesy car or money depending on outcome.
if you are only third party fire and theft the insurers won’t be doing much at all if you were at fault. You will be liable for all costs except damage to other vehicles and property. You’ll have to pay for getting it towed away, storage etc so get it out of storage or scrapped ASAP as you will be charged a daily fee for where ever it’s being stored.
It will affect your premium, I’d expect at least 50% increase as a new driver this will happen as soon as you insure your next car. Probably not a popular opinion on Reddit as everyone is apparently a saint, but I wouldn’t inform the named driver policy until the renewal date. The premium for the named driver will be affected during renewal if you chose to stay on that policy because you will be considered a bigger risk. It doesn’t affect the other drivers no claims bonus or individual record.
Well there are two options.
If the damage to both cars is not that bad, the third party may be willing to let you pay for repairs. If they are reasonable, they will hunt around and get a good quote. If they are not reasonable, it will be thousands and therefore not worth doing.
If you go through the insurers, unless it’s a huge accident, they will likely not bother to send an assessor out. Likely they will ask for photographs of the car which in all likelyhood they will write off regardless of the damage if there’s any sort of age to the car. My neighbour had his three year old Nissan Qashqai written off on account of a bumper and a boot lid after someone helped themselves to his stopping power. The damage was really not that bad either. But really insurers just aren’t bothering to do the work these days if they can help it.
If that’s the case, you need to get on autotrader and find good examples of your car concentrating on age, mileage and general overall condition. Also bear in mind any recent repairs or anything that may add value to the car; insurers will always offer you far below market value for a write off, you have to use these adverts as examples in order to get a fair settlement.
As for the insurance itself, if the car is written off then the insurance itself will be cancelled and you will need to acquire a new policy when you replace the car. You can expect your premiums to go up. If you want to know by what, just get on confused dot com, get some quotes for either your own car or similar cars, or cars you are looking to buy.
The policy upon which you appear as a named driver will also need to be informed. If it’s massively expensive, then suggest that they remove you entirely.
It’s a blip, it’s no big deal. It just seems like a big urgent thing right now because you’re still reeling from the shock of it all. Driving is all about experience and it looks like you were just handed a bad hand with such a big journey and the driving conditions.
I had an accident a few years back despite driving near on 20 years that made me question my own capabilities too. It was a 50/50, basically someone decided they had right of way on a mini roundabout, as did I. I stopped to try to avoid an accident, third party was not paying attention and rammed into me. That was the end of that car, that was written off, but because it was 50/50 (roundabouts are generally always 50/50), my premiums did rise a little. I had a protected no claims bonus so that was a little lucky.
Accidents suck but they do happen. This isn’t the end of the world. Definitely get back behind the wheel when you are able to though. It’s all about experience. Maybe don’t take on such a huge journey for a bit, get more familiar with your local roads. And remember, since the pandemic, peoples’ driving quality has absolutely gone down! In a big way. I have seen more idiot moves since the pandemic than I have in my lifetime.
Sorry to hear about this. But it’s going to affect you insurance costs for years to come when you get your next car. You need a couple of years of no claims for your insurance to start costing less.
This accident is costing the insurance company, as what they are going to be paying you for your written off car, plus any repair costs to any other cars involved, is more than you’ve paid them for the insurance policy. All insurance companies also share their info, so you will now be on record as writing off a car in the first 6 months of having past your test. Therefore any insurance company will increase the cost of insurance to you in case you do it again.
Your insurance costs are going to be destroyed for a while. As a 10year driver with no previous accidents, mines trebled after I had a small bump and it was my fault. 3 years on, they’re still 3x higher.