I backed into a ditch yesterday (hidden by tall grass) and I dented the underside of my plastic fender. It's nothing major, but the car is new, and I'd prefer to get it fixed. In Canada, no one would think of claiming such a small repair for fear of increasing insurance premiums. Should I claim it, or just pay for the repair myself? How much, if any, does making a claim affect the following year's insurance premiums?

Thanks,

John

They do have a no claims system in LOS but it would be down to your policy to see how you think your premium would be affected.

I have an Isuzu 4 cab and my insurance is about 18k and I suspect that next year it will go down.

I would get an estimate to have it fixed and tell them that it will be your bill, not the insurance guys. You may be surprised at how low the quote to repair it is.

I would not claim.

Most definitely claims experience is factored into your premium and I believe the insurance companies share claims experience with each other.

My premiums definitely went up do to a minor collision with a wall, shopped the new higher price with other carriers and they quoted the same. Premium wen down the following year. My guess is you pay for your minor accidents through increased premiums and when they are paid, the premium goes back down to the original rate less the depreciation due to the vehicle aging.

If you are currently enjoying a no-claims bonus from the insurer, your premium will go up to standard tariff rates at renewal. Technically you would stand to lose the no-claim bonus for a few years, not just the first year after your claim. You can call you insurance company, agent or broker to find out just how much your premium would go up if you lost your no-claim bonus and how many years you would have to be accident-free before it would be applied again. Then you can decide if you should pay this one out of your own pocket.

There is actually very little price competition between motor insurers. They all are required to use the Department of Insurance's published motor insurance tariff rates.

Claim it, that's why you have insurance!!!!

While for sure a serious claim would influence any discount next year, they ARE sensible about it and if you pay them for example 20K for insurance and they end up losing 3K on a minor touch-up job then they're very aware they just made 17K from you, a cool 17K they will want again next year. So that means having to give you a discount.

It's a bit of a negotiation each year, but we claim EVERYTHING and our position is to leave it up to the insurance guy if he wants our business the next year and usually it turns out that he does, so we get the discount. So far all our claims have been fairly minor.

most insurance companies have their own garage...repair cost are minimal for them.

I cannot say this is country wide but I had a recent experience as follows (translated from the Thai so ....):

We had some vandal damage to a number of panels on our truck, not unsightly particularly but didn't look good. We asked the insurance representative about the loss of our 'no claims' and he said there would be no problem if the repair did not exceed the premium. However, he advised us that our premium was due six weeks later so we should wait until after then to claim as they did not have much money in the coffers at the time. TiT!

PS: We changed insurance companies when the premium was due.

I'd claim. I've found first class insurance to do 'exactly what it says on the tin' - quite a refeshing change from insurance back in the west.

The problem is that we don't know what they would put it up to and then, after you have claimed, you are not in a position to change your mind.

My policy has a zero excess but I think next year I'll check the difference if I take an excess. If no real difference then I know that it isn't worth bothering and I should just claim if I have a problem. Already scratched on both sides from carparks (I was not there) and motorbikes at lights (coming the other way). Suppose I could get that fixed when I have to claim.