Car Insurance - Claiming and Then Cancelling

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nzkiwiman

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#288729 19-Jul-2021 13:43

On Friday as I was trying to escape a car park, I managed to kerb the underside of my front bumper on one of the concrete dividers. The subsequent language was not suitable for those under 18 considering I had the car for 9 days and had used this car park for the last 10 years over various cars without incident.

As soon as I got home I put in a claim on my insurance, but have had thoughts over the weekend that this probably wasn't a good idea and could have possibility got it fixed for not much more than my excess ($500).

Seeing as this is a new experience (claiming on my insurance), has anyone ever claimed then cancelled the claim - and is that still counted as claim that increases premiums the next year?

With AMP if that helps.

Batman

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#2746627 19-Jul-2021 13:59

i have and no it doesn't go on record as a claim for me, (but it will be recorded, as they do) but you can ask them politely

Batman

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#2746630 19-Jul-2021 14:02

you really have nothing to lose as you've already lodged the claim. but i think you'll be fine as long as money hasn't changed hands.

wlgspotter

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#2746632 19-Jul-2021 14:04

Ouch sorry to hear about the new car - I feel for you - always worried about doing something similar on our new car when we got it in Feb.

Anyway, I don't recall I had ever done a claim and cancelled it outright, however, from conversations with my insurer (AMI) I always had the understanding that when you lodge a claim it is kind of a "pre approval" - to fully complete the clam money has to be paid out for the repair - either the insurance paid directly to you or you've sent the car to a panel beater and got them to repair under that claim. Only then would it officially register as a claim and hit you in the no-claims bonus area.

I could be wrong, and I guess different insurance companies may do it differently, but that was what I understood it to be.

I guess you could get in touch with them and as about it in your case?

Good luck!

lurker

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#2746646 19-Jul-2021 14:34

Some policies allow you to make x number of claims before it affects the No Claims benefits

wlgspotter

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#2746653 19-Jul-2021 14:43

lurker:

Some policies allow you to make x number of claims before it affects the No Claims benefits

Actually that's very true - forgot about that one! My AMI policies do have something called FreeBmax which offers this. However, FreeBMax is tied to the car and not the person, and is generally only available after 12 months without any claims. Therefore, for our new car, we have to wait until after Feb (i.e. March 2022) before we would get to enjoy FreeBmax for that car. No sure about other insurance companies though.

Edit: Fixed some typos and grammar

trig42

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#2746656 19-Jul-2021 14:46

Have you had a quote to repair?

I think you'll find it'll be a bit more than $500. Anything involving bumpers = $$$ (IME anyway :( )

If the bumper is cracked, or can't be polished out, it could be a new one.

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#2746661 19-Jul-2021 15:02

i just save up all my tiny bits and wait for a big crash then all the tiny bits will be fixed

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Bung

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#2746663 19-Jul-2021 15:03

How much damage is there? If this car is lower than your previous cars and you have a habit of driving over things it is likely that you'll do it again soon.

Senecio

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#2746736 19-Jul-2021 16:10

trig42:

Have you had a quote to repair?

I think you'll find it'll be a bit more than $500. Anything involving bumpers = $$$ (IME anyway :( )

If the bumper is cracked, or can't be polished out, it could be a new one.

This... Auto body repairers won't get out of bed for $500. Even if they could do the job for $500 they will still quote significantly higher. They have more than enough work so don't want the small jobs so they quote high. You'll either accept it and go through insurance so its worth their while or you'll walk away. They're not too concerned if they don't win your business.

nzkiwiman

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#2746916 20-Jul-2021 07:46

Thanks all for the replies; I dropped the car of this morning and I guess I shall just wait for them to get in touch - I left a note in the car asking about not going through insurance (and also to let them know that the front of the car has PPF installed)

Bung

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#2746956 20-Jul-2021 09:12

Now that I've noticed the car model from another thread I see that it has caught out many others. It has created opportunities for add-on protection eg https://www.scrapearmor.com/products/scrape-armor-bumper-protection-tesla-model-3-formed-3-piece-kit

Probably would only help if you were slowly approaching a kerb. I notice with my car that the parking sensors seem to ignore things low to the ground. A front camera would certainly help squeeze into my garage.

ghettomaster

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#2746983 20-Jul-2021 10:19

I’ve lodged a claim against my contents insurance which I ended up cancelling. It doesn’t count but sometimes the insurance company representatives see it as a claim before looking closer and seeing it was cancelled.

I also had an experience recently with a small crash that was borderline for a claim.
I reversed into a nice bmw. No problem, the owner was there so I gave him my details and said I was insured. He got his claim in and his insurance company contacted me asking if I’d lodged a claim. I said I hadn’t because I wasn’t sure if it would be worth it. His insurance company said bumpers are normally a couple of grand, I said that’s fine I’ll wait for the invoice from the panel beater and lodge a claim if I need to. Sure enough, the bill was a few hundred bucks so I just paid it. Didn’t bother claiming on my own car as it was old.

nzkiwiman

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#2747466 21-Jul-2021 09:06

I picked up the car yesterday after they advised me it had been fixed; turns out when they said fixed they actually meant completed the appraisal and have sent the details to the insurance company for approval.

I had thought that 3 hours to repair the damage had been a pretty quick turn around and was so horribly confused when I got home and saw nothing had been fixed on the car.

While I was clearing up the misunderstanding, I asked about not using insurance - when they advised it would cost roughly $1500 to repair, I decided to go with insurance and just deal with the increased premiums next year.