Not Trying to Claim Compo - Am I An Idiot?

over the christmas period clarkey and I were travelling together in my car. when stationary on a 60mph road, awaiting a gap in the traffic to turn right (indicators on, foot on brake, light lenses clean, new car with only miles on the clock) someone crashed into the back of us.

Despite these being a fair amount of skidding I'd estimate that we were hit at circa 30mph.

We were both fine after the incident. As I had heard the skid and looked in the RVM I was (stupidly) braced for the impact against the steering wheel. The worst injury sustained was my shoulders and arms from being braced against the wheel.

My neck was a little sore for a couple of days but not painful, and it literally was a couple of days before it had gone. This was almost two weeks ago now and neither of us have had any physical repercussions.

Lots of people, including my mum and step dad have said I should claim, it'll be the easiest couple of grand you ever make etc. however, like you, my moral compass doesn't allow for such shenanigans.

Good on you for not being a selfish **** an doing your bit to keep everyone's premiums down :)
 
Even though you don't plan to claim at the moment it's worth ensuring that your current aches and pains are at least assessed and recorded as being a result of the accident.

It's likely you'll be OK in a few days but it's possible that there may be lasting effects. If you're still suffering in a few months time and find yourself needing to claim then you're going to find it difficult if there's no record of any symptoms immediately after the accident.
 
Kudoz to you for not jumping on the whippy compo, but be aware you will financially suffer over the coming years through having a non fault accident on your file and the associated increased premiums. As it is nearly impossible to recover this cost from the at fault insurer I would take the personal injury claim now to mitigate against this.

That, and the higher the financial losses the insurance industry suffers, the more desire there will be to reform the shower of @@@@ we currently put up with ;)
 
I have to admit I would be tempted to the dark side and claim so that it covers any increased future insurance premiums for an accident that wasnt my fault.

You shouldnt really claim if your not injured, but why should you be out of pocket for the actions of some tw@t!
 
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kaiowas said:
Even though you don't plan to claim at the moment it's worth ensuring that your current aches and pains are at least assessed and recorded as being a result of the accident.

It's likely you'll be OK in a few days but it's possible that there may be lasting effects. If you're still suffering in a few months time and find yourself needing to claim then you're going to find it difficult if there's no record of any symptoms immediately after the accident.
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I'd agree with this.

[Devils Advocate] On a different note, is it really acceptable for someone to cause you pain, even for a couple of days, due to their negligence, and then not do anything about it? Sure it might only be mild, but maybe you've changed your plans as a result of the accident, say you've not taken part in a sporting activity etc. It's not necessarily cost you financially, but it's cost you in other ways. [/Devils Advocate]

Just another viewpoint to add to the cauldron.

Personally, I was in an accident in 2009, slightly sore neck for 2 days but then went away. Didn't feel the need to claim, like others on here. Do I regret that? Morally, no, but I have conflicting opinions about it. I've been on the other end of this previously when I was the cause of the accident and an injury claim was brought against me under dubious circumstances. I do wonder sometimes whether you should just take whatever's being offered. Life's short after all and nobody else is looking out for me. Sad eh? *sigh*
 
LSPIII said:
I'd agree with this.

[Devils Advocate] On a different note, is it really acceptable for someone to cause you pain, even for a couple of days, due to their negligence, and then not do anything about it? Sure it might only be mild, but maybe you've changed your plans as a result of the accident, say you've not taken part in a sporting activity etc. It's not necessarily cost you financially, but it's cost you in other ways. [/Devils Advocate]
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Someone doesnt wash their hands after blowing their nose. They shake your hand and you end up with a stinking cold. You suffer for a few days but are no worse off for it after a few days.

You suffered physically because of someone else's negligence, but nobody considers claiming compensation for a sniffle. I fail to see why a sore neck for a few days is any different
 
iaind said:
Someone doesnt wash their hands after blowing their nose. They shake your hand and you end up with a stinking cold. You suffer for a few days but are no worse off for it after a few days.

You suffered physically because of someone else's negligence, but nobody considers claiming compensation for a sniffle. I fail to see why a sore neck for a few days is any different
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I've got a great idea for a new type of insurance :D
 
had a crash in our brand new car (we'd had it a total of 15 days!) when some ***** did a u-turn out of a bus stop without looking.

Opened the side of my car like a tin opener. Luckily no injuries...that was a year ago and I still get calls from "claims handlers" asking if i'd like to persue a claim for injury. if either my wife or I had been hurt then sure, would have gone for it but we were both perfectly fine.

I had so many calls I started asking where they were getting my details as I had been very specific with my insurance company about not sharing details. Apparantly its the insurance firm of the guy that drove into me that has been giving out details....just bizarre.
 
Meths said:
I'm not trying to justify myself and was just curious as to how people viewed this after being genuinely shocked at the amount of people telling me to make out the injury was worse than it is and get as much compensation as possible.

If I had been significantly hurt I'd be taking them for all I could get. :D
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Im not suggesting it because of the presense/non-presense of an injury

Im suggesting that you were overpaying your insurance before your accident, because of something the insurance companies accept and encourage and now after your accident you are going to be further out of pocket

When the insurance companies change this practice and premiums come down then my advice will change, but in 10 years of driving I've been completely accident and claim free yet experienced TWICE the car insurance industry applying a flat 30% increase to policies

The problem here is that insurance companies take a flat slice of the total pot from the premiums they collect (by way of having to pay out a minimum percentage of claims) so the terms on the policy are adjusted back and forth in theirs or the customers favour to get them as close as possible to paying out the amount of claims necessary without them paying out too much and loosing profit. However this practice of encouraging people to maximise their claims means that the amount they pay out in claims can be significantly higher

Im not sure of the specifics, but say they had to pay out 70% of claims and they have 1 million of payouts, the maximum they can have collected for that is 1.43million, hence premiums are calculated as such and they take the 0.43million

If they artificially inflate the average payout, and then as a result they end up paying out 2million, they can raise premiums so the total they collect is 2.86million and they take 0.86million in profit

When those 2x 30% increases occured, it was not because accidents had jumped by 30%, cars had not gotten 30% more dangerous, sure some of it could be accounted for them increasing in price but most of the increase is due to them inflating the payouts

Yes it is circular
yes by claiming the most you can get you are perpetuating the situation
yes that means that If i continue to not have an accident I will have been just paying extra for you being greedy
-however-
you have already been hit in the pocket for it
you not claiming it is not going to change the industry practice
you not claiming it is only going to leave that money to land in their pockets and they will get rewarded for it
 
About a year ago, was knocked off my bicycle and landed very hard flat on my bottom. I phoned up the driver's insurance and claimed directly for the bicycle damage, and I did the same saying everything seemed ok injury wise, just minor cuts and shock. Then a few days later I got an almighty pain on my bottom thanks to the fall

I phoned back and explained that I had to take few days off work, and as someone mentioned they were very keen to throw money at me for it. I only wanted to see if I could get them to pay for a physio/checks etc in case it was going to be a problem for my cycling, but they gave me a 4 figure sum and sorted out a checkup, even though it wasn't serious!

Probably so that I don't go through 3rd parties etc.
 
iaind said:
My car was broken into a while ago, and just enquiring apparently got raised as a claim. I never ended up claiming but my premiums have still gone up. That's not my fault, but I completely understand that it means I'm statistically more likely to claim again so I don't whine about it.
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Really ? Wow who would have thunk it :rolleyes: Someone who parks their car in an area where thieves operate is deemed a risk for further potential incidents, I mean who wouldnt see that coming, very big of you to not whine about it.

As mentioned in the other thread, when Fox clarified that certain people although being non fault could have potentially prevented a claim with a bit of thought, that is understandable. I can see perfectly why in those instances where a non fault claim could increase premiums.

On the other hand people were trying to understand the mechanism for an non fault accident, where by the accident is by "complete chance" with respect to the non guilty party and how that in itself is supposed to increase the chance of another accident. The two are not related but insurance companies group these things together because they dont take cases by isolation which I guess is fair enough.

It is not too dissimilar to that all young men are grouped together as a liability despite many of those young men will be perfectly sensible drivers and never have an accident.
 
I didn't claim after an accident last year where the other party was deemed at fault. I am still recieving daily calls from companies trying to hassle me into making a claim.

"But Sir the money has been set aside as part of the payout"
"You dont have to be in physical pain to have suffered"
etc

Part of me thinks it would have been easier to just make a claim then suffer the best part of a years worth of daily hassle by these ambulance chasers. And no its not the same company i get calls from callcentres all over the UK.
 
iaind said:
No.

"Everyone else is claiming" is exactly why insurance premiums are so high.
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Nope

They are so high because people like who crashed into OP continue to get away with crashing into people via careless driving

Insurers greed comes into it too. Just look at the profits made... They make enough money charging 17 yr olds 2k to insure a banger for a year to easily pay out any compensation claims
 
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Looks like everyone is at it except me.

Got my hire car yesterday which was meant to be the equivalent of a Vauxhall Astra and turned out to be an Insignia SRI.

The I got an estimated completion date for the work to my car of the 24th January so phoned the garage to see what they were doing to it. It sounds like they're rebuilding the back of the car and replacing items that I know from my own inspection aren't even slightly damaged.
 
Yep - I've said before that the worst part of the insurance system is the fact that garages, hire car companies etc are allowed to get away with hugely inflated bills when going through insurance

What sort of thing are they replacing unnecessarily?
 
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