I had a bump on my car, do I need to declare it to the insurance company?

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I had a bump yesterday. My car insurance is due to renew in 4 days. Do I declare the bump or wait until the other driver tries to make a claim against me? I am 20 years old and the other guy was middle aged, driving an Insignia, on a tight country road.

I have a year's no claims bonus and will obviously lose this if the guy has a successful claim against me. He was really aggressive. I have reported to the police and my current insurer.

7 Replies

anonymous_2 Level 1

Do I need to report an accident if I have bumped into a bollard where no other person or vehicle was involved?

[Migrated from previous topic 12559 dated 23 Sep 2013]

kishlaya Level 1

Not unless you've damaged it. Hope you were not drunk btw :)

[Migrated from previous post 2140 dated 07 Oct 2013]

debbie Level 1

I had a bump whilst insured on my partners insurance, do I have to declare it when looking for my own policy?

My partner insured my car with me as a named driver and I had a bump. I now need to get my own insurance as we have separated, do I need to disclose this when obtaining quotes?

[Migrated from previous topic 12229 dated 04 May 2011]

gices Level 6

Did you make a claim when you got that bump? If yes, then you would need to declare it.

Even if you have reported it to your previous insurer, it goes on file. So the moment you make that call to inform them, this information is recorded on your policy and whether you decided to make a claim or not does not really matter. That's why many people choose not to inform their insurers when they can afford to make the repairs themselves, otherwise they are faced with higher renewals.

[Migrated from previous post 1658 dated 05 May 2011]

fickle Level 1

You only have to declare accidents and offences for insurance purposes, so I wouldn't worry about the bump :)

[Migrated from previous post 1707 dated 12 Jul 2011]

fickle Level 1

Ellie123: How did you get along with this? Did the other guy make a claim against you or did you go with your insurer for repairs to your own car?

gices Level 6

If you've already reported this to your current insurer, then you might as well make a claim because you will find that many insurers consider reporting an incident as making a claim. It happens all the time and many people now do not report incidents as a result of this. The insurers tell you to report everything but once you do, you find yourself worse off.