"Bump in the car"

I told my husband about the accident and he confirmed what you all said, so that's what I did. Told my insurers, and got an incident number from the police. Now I go to pieces whenever I drive into the city and feel sick the whole time, so am having to rely on friends to take me to visit him.
I'm fine driving round my own town, and it has a really complicated one-way system.
I have one son who is saying ''pull yourself together" and a daughter 200 miles away who will drive me silly if she comes to stay.
I wish I could stop feeling sick and shaking though.
This sounds so selfish when my husband is so ill.
Sorry.

And don’t get me started on cautious, hesitant drivers on slip roads………

I wholeheartedly agree that over cautious drivers are as dangerous as those who drive too fast.
One of my friends sits and sits at roundabouts. I cannot work out what she is waiting for. She lets multiple safe opportunities to enter the roundabout pass. One of these days some unfortunate driver will rear end her. The irony is that she thinks she is an excellent driver!!

Agreed Mt61 I could easily have "rear-ended" a small car at a series of roundabouts two days ago.

Slammed on breaks when already partly on the roundabout and moving forward (roundabout 1).
Got onto roundabout 2 and suddenly paused to let someone onto the roundabout from their left (part way round).
Slammed breaks on instead of joining the flow (again) at roundabout 3.
Luckily I was alert and didn't need to follow them after that!

Going to say some over cautious drivers are just as bad as those drivers that drive like they have stolen their vehicles 🙄

Some

Just be honest & tell the insurance, tell them he cut across you. His insurance will be in touch with your insurance anyway, they may think you are in the wrong for not disclosing the accident.
It sounds like his car may need a respray on his bumper, that won’t be cheap- how do you know he’s not going to blame you.
My car was bumped just before Christmas, car drove off- I reported straight away to my insurance- I would have had to pay but went back to that area day after, & trolled all the shops for cctv, which luckily I got footage & copied it to my phone. The person just denied it, so my insurance sent out an engineer to check the other persons car, & found it to have had a quick repair, they had to admit it. I claimed my excess back. Got my renewal late Feb, my premium had actually come down- renewed with another company for an even lower premium. You can take the chance but honesty is best policy. 🤞

polnan

I have reported my "only for information" incident.. renewal due soon, we shall see.. they had already loaded my premium, I realise now. listening to you hear. that it is soley due to being over 80 and I think we are the far more careful drivers...

It’s not down to being 80. Its because 80+ year olds are more likely to be involved in accidents and cost insurers more.

That’s how insurance works.

I was rear ended at a roundabout. There was just paint damage on my rear bumper. The young man did not want to go through the insurance. We exchanged numbers and for a while I heard nothing, in the stress of the moment I did not take his numberplate. There was no CCTV. I chased him and in the end he got some quotes they were astronomical. So, I found a place that would respray for half the price. I got it done and he did pay me. I am glad we didn't go through the insurance as I am sure my premium would be astronomical. I haven't had an accident since 2008 - another rear ending at a roundabout! "Oh, I thought you were going to go" ... Obviously I am too careful a driver.

We reported a car park incident leading to paint marks on our car which could be cleaned away (we were reversed into) as ‘information only’ ’ to our insurers. The other driver had been very verbally abusive and left me shaking which was also noted. The insurer was very supportive, there was no damage to premiums as no claims made

Regarding reaching 80, the most competitive quote we found increased premiums by 30%. It’s an expensive birthday if driving a car.

I have reported my "only for information" incident.. renewal due soon, we shall see.. they had already loaded my premium, I realise now. listening to you hear. that it is soley due to being over 80 and I think we are the far more careful drivers...

A few years back, I got lost in thick fog in Nottingham, and ended up stuck on their tram lines. (Yes, the whole system was shut for about an hour and a half while I got rescued!) I wasn't sure about reporting this incident to my insurance company, but my kind rescuers thought it might be a good idea as I could be liable for costs to the system. I telephoned my insurers, and, after recovering from their initial amusement over my predicament, they noted it "for information", but reassured me that unless I actually made a claim, my premiums would not be affected. Ironically, until this year, my premiums have steadily reduced as I have shopped around.

If his insurance company haven’t been in touch could be he knows he was at fault and doesn’t want to get involved with legal rangling’s that may cost him so leave it. Always make sure you have your phone with you if only for photographs and evidence.

You're brave I'm 68 and won't drive at night anymore. Personally I would wait and see.

Silverbrooks

Who advised you not to report?

RosieandherMaw is correct.

You should report any accident, even a minor one, to your insurer, even if you don't plan to make a claim. It’s usually a policy requirement and failure to report could invalidate the policy. If that were to happen you would find it very difficult, perhaps impossible, to get insurance elsewhere.

You say the other driver has been in contact with his insurers, which is what he should do, but that doesn’t mean he has made a claim.

If it turns out he hasn’t claimed, assuming there has been no lasting damage to his car either, then you have both just done as required but no costs are involved.

Did you not exchange phone numbers so you could ask him to text you a photo of any damage to his car?

In a way you have kind of admitted that you may have been at fault as you were driving at night in an unfamiliar city and possibly under stress as your husband is in hospital. Even though you don’t think it was your fault, if he does make a claim and it comes down to one person’s word against the other, it’s possible that you could be held responsible.

I think you need to get clear in your mind what exactly happened and how it was that he managed to scrape your wing. For example: What was the position of your car in relation to the road? Was your car protruding from a junction? Where you over a white line? Did he cut off a corner?

Speak to your insurers.

I’m not altogether sure this is the case now. Insurance companies seem to take a more flexible view of minor incidents that don’t require a claim. Claims are an expensive process for them, and I think they’re fairly pragmatic. Of course, if anyone is ever injured then that’s an absolute yes to reporting.
If you don’t have photos, it will just become a ‘he said/she said’ and each insurance company will take the responsibility for their share.
Well done you for your prompt response, which clearly minimize the damage. Another one chalked up to the oldies!

Tell your insurance company and say that you don't wish to make a claim as there was no real damage to your car. They will then have it on record if he decides to claim and blame you.
When you are asked on your insurance form if you have ever had an accident, the moment you put down £0 as the cost of it, you probably won't face a surcharge.

I agree that you should inform your insurance company. I have been hit on two occasions, the first wouldn’t give me details so I used the legal assistance for my policy and the other driver eventually paid up. The second I was not even in the car when the car was hit. The driver said she did not want to report it and offered to pay for the repair. I’m glad I refused her offer which was only about 10% of the final bill. Also my premiums did not increase.

He shoukd have told you who he was insured with. If you are able as you say, able to wipe off any marks I wouldn't inform insurance company. Goodness, folk have quite expensive damage caused by others (and themselves) and just get it repaired. Sometimes the parties agree to do so with the guilty party paying for the damage repair. Gone are tge days when every little bump and scratch are reported, probably due to the insurance financial impact on both parties that lasts for years.

gosh, I bumped another car, very slightly going into a supermarket carpark, I left a note on the windscreen and paid the money for the bumper to be cleaned off.. I never ever had an accident, caused by me! do I have to report that? yes, well over 80... and yes, I had noticed how my premiums had increased but didn`t query it... rip off insurers?

I would advise you to let your insurance company know as it’s normally part of your policy t&c’s that you tell them of any incident which may result in a claim. Otherwise if they find out they could cancel your policy which them makes it very difficult to get a new insurer to cover you, due your policy being cancelled. I worked in car insurance for 25 years and saw this situation happen weekly.

I don’t have an opinion either way about your little bump but why not carry your mobile with you ? Apart from it being useful on this occasion what about if you have a breakdown or become ill ? It seems really silly to me that anyone at any time when the leave the house doesn’t have their mobile phone with them. Why have one ? I think you should have your phone with you in the house too, in case of a fall or feeling fully in the bathroom and in the garden.
It just seems like common sense.

Look it up n your policy and on the Internet.

If you fail to report and provide details and he decides to make a claim, the Insurance Company can declare your policy invalid and you can be held personally responsible for any claim he makes.

You can’t rely on anything he said at the time. Claims can surface months later.

More alarmingly your Insurance Company can declare your policy invalid for any future accidents if you have failed to declare this one.

Please read your policy.before you decide to do nothing.

In which case if he claims it will be a 50/50 divvy up.
Hopefully he won’t try and claim.In your place with no harm done I would do nothing for now.Good luck and hope your DH will be out of hospital soon.💐

I informed the police and got an incident number.
I tried to report it to my insurers but the form they emailed me is for a claim, not a report, so I have done nothing.
I'm getting lots of advice to do nothing, not even report it. As Coconutty says ....... "Unfortunately if you don’t report it it can cause issues, but if you do report it even if deemed not be to your fault your premiums will rise" ..... damned if I do and damned if I don't.
I really believe it was his fault, but no-one took pictures or did measurements so nothing can be proved one way or the other.

Grankle

I would definitely report it to your insurance company, I would also contact the police to inform them.
My brother in law failed to report an accident and was heavily penalised. A passer by took his registration number and passed the details to the owner of the car. Subsequently, his insurance went through the roof.

You don't need to involve the police unless someone has been injured