The Process of Making a Claim With Your Current Insurer Following an Accident

One of the most frustrating things when involved in a car accident is the process of making a claim through your insurance company. All companies have their own policies on how they handle claims and although filing the claim can be straightforward, it can be a long wait before you hear anything afterwards. If you're lucky, your claim may be settled within a year, otherwise you can be left waiting up to 3 years before a decision is reached. If you have legal cover on your policy, your claim is most likely to be settled with less hassle and possibly sooner because of the extra support you get (sometimes legal cover is not included in your policy and for an extra £20 this can prevent unnecessary stress in the event of an accident).

What to do at the scene

Hust remember the following:

• Most importantly don't move your car
• Call the police
• Take down the other drivers details like: name, insurance, contact details, registration number, licence etc
• If you can take down names and numbers of any witnesses, that will be speed up the claim
• Take pictures of the accident

As soon as you get home call your insurance company to report the accident. It is advisable at this point to sit down and write down all the details of the accident as you may forget them later.

The claiming process

After you have called your insurers, they will take down the details of the other driver and log it in their database. You will be advised to write a statement of what happened and if possible to draw diagram as this always helps to under the situation better. If your vehicle is to be repaired, your insurers will advise you on your local garage and make the arrangements for you. If a courtesy car is included in your level of cover, this will be arranged by your insurers as soon as possible as well. You may be tempted to repair the vehicle yourself or hire a car so remember that if you are not at fault, the insurance company will claim the money from the guilty party afterwards. It is at this point that insurers will do security checks to make sure you haven't withheld information that would otherwise make your claim invalid.

If you co-operate with your car insurance company, your claim will be handled smoothly with no disputes. However if you go against their advice, you may be liable for cost of repair and car hire. At the beginning of your contract with your insurer, you have the option of adding legal cover but just remember it's not always needed and you can get free legal cover from companies that recover the money from the other side at no expense to you provided you were not at fault.

You don't have to claim in the first place though - if you have a very high excess, no matter what the damage your car has suffered, you will have to pay for it yourself (provided your compulsory and voluntary excess does not exceed the amount). So if you can avoid claiming, it's better to do so because losing your no claims bonus will prove expensive when you come to renew cover the following year. This said, when you purchase insurance cover, you enter a legally binding contract with your insurer where you have to report any accidents that you or your vehicle are involved in and failure to do so can result in your insurance cover being invalidated.