Had a car accident, could really use your help guys!!

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  spackbace on 18/06/2015 - 15:17

  +1

  Your excess is $2.5k, but what is the other insurance company quoting as the repair cost?
  They should be able to tell you as she would've/should've got repair quotes by now

  Should I call her and convince her to cancel the claim, and ask her to fix her car somewhere else? What should I do?

  Unfortunately (for you) I doubt it. Whole reason she is paying for full comprehensive insurance is so she gets proper repairs in the event of an accident.

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  bonezAU on 18/06/2015 - 15:17

  +1

  Yeah, I would call and try to negotiate with her, explain your situation re the 2.5k excess and ask her to obtain 3 quotes and you will pay to get it fixed.
  Expensive lesson to learn, I hope you are a listed driver on your dad's policy now.

  • 

    tomleonhart on 18/06/2015 - 15:25

    +6

    The only problem is, why would she wants to run around to obtain 3 quotes when she can just lodge a claim at no cost to her ?

    • 

      bonezAU on 18/06/2015 - 15:26

      That's where the negotiation part comes into play. It's worth a try, sure she can say no and insist it's done through insurance, but some people are understanding.

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  fad on 18/06/2015 - 15:28

  +3

  The tow bar is connected to alot of structural metal. Its designed to tow 500kg+. So it might not be just a bent tow bar.

  You could however offer to pay for the repairs, and ask her to get some quotes.

  However the insurance companies will offer lifetime warranty on the repairs. Also she will need to claim to receive the hire car, if she has one on her policy. You could offer all the above, I doubt it would be cheaper than $2500.

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  johndowy on 18/06/2015 - 15:29

  +3

  What might look like minimal damage on the outside might not be that simple to repair. It's your fault so I suggest you just take it as one of those life lessons and pay up.

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  l005e on 18/06/2015 - 15:35

  +1

  Not much you can do - set up a payment plan with the insurance company and tell them your a student so u can only afford $5-10pw

  Hope you got a HD for that test!

  • 

    aussiesaurus on 18/06/2015 - 17:15

    That's an option I didn't know about! Thank you!! I did well hopefully i got the HD haha. Thank you once again :)

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  keverns on 18/06/2015 - 15:44

  +4

  first option - i would try negotiating with her.

  second option - to speak to her insurance company and ask for the total damage cost. if under pay directly to them, and explain your excess problem if over… you'd just have to pay $2500 and live with it.

  regardless whether if someone just made a dint or bent something that doesn't look significant, i would still want my car fixed or checked out. Doesn't matter if it was a brand new car or a 15 year old car. im sure everyone else would think the same.

  lastly fix up your insurance. list yourself or get 3rd party on top of your dads insurance so that you can drive it. just weigh out the cost which is more beneficial.

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  cho0kie on 18/06/2015 - 15:48

  +1

  You're gonna have to pay up, I doubt that she would want to go outside of the system, most people I know I wouldn't. When ever I've or anyone I know has had an accident we have just do it thru insurance less stress.

  Funnily enough I went to uni at latrobe and well when my bestie had an accident in her mum's car, we agreed with the other driver that she would say it was her mum driving the car at the time. so instead of the non-listed under 25 year excess, I think they paid $500 and still kept their rating one.

  • 

    aussiesaurus on 18/06/2015 - 17:14

    Thanks for your response. Which insurance company were you with? AAMI is very careful with fraud. Thanks :)

    • 

      cho0kie on 19/06/2015 - 09:07

      I could not be sure like i said it wasn't me who had the accident. But I just know in this case both drivers agreed to say it was her mum driving

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  the-mal on 18/06/2015 - 15:50

  +16

  Okay, here's how to play it (I've worked in lots of different insurance companies, I know their processes inside out):

  Today I received a call from her insurance company, but I was in the shower so I said I'd call them back and shut the phone.

  Call her insurer back. She's lodged the claim, it's too late to undo that. They'll tell you how much it'll cost to repair. Usually they'll have their assessors check out the damage and give you a $$ figure. They'll usually tell you if you pay that figure it'll be settled but if you wait for it to go to the repairers and they find more damage the figure could go up.

  Pay the figure if it's under ~$3.5k (and by the sounds of it it should be way under that).

  The days of insurers getting inflated quotes from repairers is over. Insurers want to recoup their losses with minimal fuss and use their size to bargain the repair costs down for you. It will be a fair price.

  My car however is under my dad's name in his AAMI Comprehensive insurance policy and my name is NOT listed as a driver.

  Silly silly, but no use crying over spilt milk. DO NOT ring AAMI. DO NOT tell them about this. DO NOT tell her insurer you are insured with AAMI. If this news gets back to AAMI, whether you claim or not, your dads premiums will go up for many years to come.

  Think of the calculations like this. If the Excess is $2.5k and lets say your dads premiums go up $300 a year for 3 years (obviously not that simple, but it's in the ballpark) - you're better off paying the cost outright and not telling your insurer UNLESS it goes over the excess PLUS the estimated increase in premiums (so prob around $3.5k).

  If the damage is as small as you're saying I'd say the repair bill will be under $2k. But you'll only know when you give them a call back. Don't avoid them, they're not going away. Just don't tell your insurer anything and do tell their insurer that you're not insured (otherwise they'll inform your insurer).

  • 

    [Deactivated] on 18/06/2015 - 16:02

    +2

    +1, listen to this guy.

  • 

    [Deactivated] on 18/06/2015 - 16:05

    Unless she is insured with AAMI, then either way they already know.

  • 

    aussiesaurus on 18/06/2015 - 17:13

    This is fantastic advice. Thank you so much for this well-written response. I called back the repairer and they said it would cost $1200 to remove the damaged tow bar and install a new one. I haven't spoken to the other party yet but I'm expecting a call from her tonight. Once again thank you for this invaluable information :)

    • 

      Davo1111 on 18/06/2015 - 17:37

      +1

      Repairer or insurance company? How did you get this information?

    • 

      Randxyz123 on 18/06/2015 - 19:57

      -1

      HELP. ME.

      Calm down. You had an accident s*** happens… You will learn from your mistakes and get on with your life. Before you anything else make sure you are covered on your dad's insurance. (Or get your own)

      Before we go any further

      Her damaged tow bar doesn't NEED 2.5k to be fixed.

      Unless you have worked in a panel beating workshop it is impossible to tell this. It is very easy to do 10K worth of damage to a car (especially a new one) even through a minor fender bender. If it was a newer car you could have easily done over 2K worth of damage.

      $1200 sounds expensive but it is probably about right. The tow bar is probably most of that and the rest is fitting. Anyway accept the price and ask to go on a payment plan if you need that and as long as the insurance company get their money they'll be happy.

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  Davo1111 on 18/06/2015 - 16:14

  +3

  They send you a bill to fix the damaged vehicle, you have the option of paying it out of pocket OR giving that bill to your insurance company (where you will owe the excess). As the excess is high, you MAY want to pay out of pocket. We don't know yet.

  In simple terms

  IF BILL < EXCESS

  THEN pay BILL

  ELSE: pay EXCESS.

  (this doesn't take into account possible rate hike from excess)

  Your insurance policy will specifically mention not admitting fault (even if you guys share the same provider). Just call up the insurance company and ask how much the repair bill is going to be, then go from there. They will post you a letter with description of charges.

  EDIT: getting the repair done outside the insurance company may not be cheaper. I had an incident and the quote from a private repairer was double what the insurance company ended up charging.

• 

  aussiesaurus on 18/06/2015 - 17:18

  Thank you all for your responses. Much appreciated :) didn't expect this many people to help out to be honest. I have taken all your advice to mind and will post updates here about the status of this issue. Thank you all once again. By all means KEEP POSTING your ideas. I need all the advice i can get :)

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  Ughhh on 18/06/2015 - 19:21

  After sorting this out, you need to get your car insured with your name listed, or find a policy that covers any drivers (even if not listed, eg SGIC)

  • 

    SlickMick on 19/06/2015 - 15:10

    unfortunately, the reason he wasn't listed on dad's policy is probably because the risk would have put the premium through the roof. Now with an accident, I can't imagine dad wanting him on the policy.

    Insurance is tough for new drivers. Don't worry, in time it all comes good (if you turn out to be a good driver).

    • 

      momov3 on 19/06/2015 - 15:30

      OP will never have a Rating on to his name if he is insured under the Dad's name. How can he accummulate a rating? Unless he takes up cover in his/her name, it will still start with Rating 6 (although by then he/she is over 25 yrs old and does not have so many excesses). One reason why my kids are encouraged to cover under their own names, the rating improves every year they are claim free.

      • 

        SlickMick on 19/06/2015 - 16:15

        Yeah, AAMI allowed our daughter to gain rating 1 through being insured on our policy (in her name). They also gave her free driver training.

        But I wouldn't want to add her after she had a bingle.

        Maybe OP could pay the difference the premium goes up by??

      • 

        momov3 on 19/06/2015 - 16:25

        @SlickMick: Hey could you explain that? How is it possible to be insured in her parents' policy 'under her name'? Do you mean that adding her name as other driver still qualified her for improved rating every year? What if you added a child's name to the cover, but the child never did drive the car much anyway, do they still allocate a better rating to the child when the child starts a new policy in his/her name ? It sounds too good.

      • 

        SlickMick on 20/06/2015 - 11:57

        @momov3:
        I thought you were saying you did the same. Yes, I think AAMI has a very good attitude towards young drivers. For every year they are nominated on your policy, they move up (down??) the no claim bonus rating. (And give them a free defensive driving course normally costing hundreds of dollars. (It makes good business sense to me - make them better drivers and they'll claim less for the rest of their life.))

        Rewarding kids for not having an accident while insured on parent's policy makes sense to me too. If you don't drive much, and don't have accidents when you do, that's a good driver to me, and AAMI.
        Same as my wife not driving much. If she wasn't already rating 1, her rating would improve every year despite her car just sitting in garage.

      • 

        FutureTech on 20/06/2015 - 20:36

        @momov3: actually I think nowadays if you hold a license for more than a year you might be able to get no claim bonus. Last time I obtained a quote from alianz and when they asked me what's my no claim bonus rating I answered "none/not sure" however the system prompted "based on the information you provide we will offer you no claim bonus level X" don't remember the actual number but it was like a 30% discount if I remember correctly. I have had my license for only 2 years and did not have any accident.

      • 

        momov3 on 20/06/2015 - 21:15

        @maolin95: When you say you had your license for 2 years, do you mean full license, that is ,one that is no more the green Ps, in other words you were driving for 2 years without any P whatsoever?

      • 

        FutureTech on 20/06/2015 - 22:02

        @momov3: they asked me "when was the first time you got your license" and I put down the date I got my red P because it's called provisional license and the one before that is called "learner's permit" thus not a "license" per se.

    • 

      Ughhh on 19/06/2015 - 16:25

      I'm not sure if each state is different with insurance policies, but with SGIC, policy owner aka mirher/father does not need to put their child or any one on their policy as the driver. Thus you could drive my car and the car would still be insured without extra excess fees.

      • 

        momov3 on 19/06/2015 - 16:46

        In VIC, this only happens whilst the child is a L plater learning to drive in his parents' cars.

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  backpaqer on 19/06/2015 - 08:03

  We just had quotes done. Insurance quote was $2900. But if it wasn't under insurance it would cost us $1500. Think there's a rort going on out there?

  • 

    Davo1111 on 19/06/2015 - 11:42

    I had the opposite occur to me. So we cancel each other out.

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  mattyman on 19/06/2015 - 09:11

  You don't need to go through your dad's insurance company. Just pay the damages with cash if it's less than $2500. If it's more go through insurance.

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  arceye on 19/06/2015 - 11:46

  No offence to yourself but some twenty years ago I had a bloke hit me from behind causing a great deal of damage to both cars but still drivable and he was a panel beater himself. I only had fire and theft insurance on my car and him no insurance. Him being a panel beater he knew how to play the game and for 9mths he was one step ahead of me at every turn even when I got solicitor's involved which seemed only to slow the process down more. This guys wife worked for the rta and for some reason that nobody wanted to address I had my licence cancelled twice in the many months that I was trying to get the money out of him to fix my car and on both occasions I only found out that I didn't have a licence because the cops had stopped me to see if my bent car was still road worthy and the only way I got out of hefty fines was to appeal in writing to the police about his wife working for the rta. In the end I expected a lesser offer from him then the original quote just to get some money out of him and to put the whole thing behind me only to take the car into get fixed and the repairer telling me that because of the additional rust damage caused to my car because of the length of time that had passed and living on the coast. All up I had to come up with an additional $6k to fix my car for something that wasn't my fault to start with. So advice to you would be bite the bullet and cop it on the chin and do what you have to do to fix the situation that you caused.

  • 

    [Deactivated] on 19/06/2015 - 13:39

    +1

    His wife worked for the RTA and cancelled your license? Get off the wacky tobaccy mate.

  • 

    SlickMick on 19/06/2015 - 15:13

    wow

  • 

    momov3 on 19/06/2015 - 15:37

    Sounds doosey to me that wife has a right to cancel your license unless you did not renew registration. If not for that reason, surely what was committed was a crime and it should have been formally reported. Your situation is very different from OPs in that OP is insured under father's name although not listed as driver. It's up to the other party to decide whether to allow him/her to privately pay for costs, and if the other party refuses, it's within their rights too. After all that's why we all have cover, it's to get as little hassle as possible during a bingle. But in your case, both parties were not insured and you were very unfortunate it happened that the guilty party was a dishonest jerk who did not take blame for hitting you at the rear.