Car damage? Should you claim this, or is it smarter not to?
Accidents can happen unexpectedly
“I was parking my car at the supermarket and all of a sudden I hit a small post that I didn’t see. So annoying! Fortunately, I have great insurance. But is it really a good idea to claim all damages with my insurance company? Does this mean I will lose my no-claim discount right away?”
These are very good questions which unfortunately don’t always have a simple answer. Sometimes it’s smarter to claim your damages, and sometimes it’s smarter to pay for the damages yourself, or to buy off the damages. In this article, we will try to explain this topic in a bit more detail.
Try to protect your no-claim discount
ENNIA lets you build up your no-claim discount to as much as 80%. After 5 claim-free years, you will already have built up a 50% discount, and then the discount will slowly increase to 80%.
Suppose you have built up your no-claim discount to 50%. As an example, this means that your annual premium would only be f 1,000 ($ 550) instead of f 2,000 ($ 1100) if you didn’t have this discount.
If you were to claim f 500 ($ 275) in damages right now, it’s great that you wouldn’t have to pay this out of pocket, but your 50% no-claim discount, which saves you f 1,000 ($ 550), would suddenly disappear. It would take you 6 claim-free years before you will have rebuilt this discount. If you would have paid for the damages on your own, and then have built up 7 claim-free years, your discount would have increased to 55%, after 9 claim-free years it would have increased to 60%, etc.
The table below clearly shows why it is probably smarter to pay for small damages out of pocket, if you already have 6 claim-free years for example. Look at the differences in the premium payments:
Complicated? We are here to help
We can help you calculate if it is smarter to claim your damages, or to pay for the damages yourself. We want to make sure your premium stays as low as possible. Did you already file a damage claim, but would it have been smarter to pay for the damages yourself? You can pay off the damages within 3 months after filing the claim. This would allow you to keep your no-claim discount.
Questions? Make an appointment now. We are here to help you.