Got into an accident this morning. Is it too late?
This is my first year of driving and I’m a student (23) with a black box with Hastings direct.
Tried taking a right turn at a junction where there was quite a lot of traffic in the first lane crossed so my visibility was poor, didn’t see this car coming and the sides of our front bumpers collided. The other party had only bought the car a few days ago from the Honda dealership.
I had never dealt with anything like this and the other individual involved didn’t speak very good English so we waited until his brother arrived at the scene to help mediate and translate.
I explained the situation and said it was basically my fault and thought that it would be best settled privately in fear of insurance premiums sky rocketing.
We ended up going to the Honda garage to get his car checked structural damage and there was none but there was minor cosmetic damage to his bumper which had a minor crack at the bottom but we were told it had to be replaced.
We go to a body shop and I decided to pay for the work for £900 (pre-painted bumper from Honda + labour) and they had booked it to be done June 3rd.
Now I realised that I made a mistake and should have just settled through insurance. My black box score is 98 and it didn’t even pick up the collision. Is it too late? I have the guy’s name and registration plate but no phone number or policy number.
I’d like some general advice on what the next best step would be:
- Whether the insurance claim would majorly increase my premium and if my high black box score even makes a difference?
- If at this point, with work being paid for but no where near started, it’s still worth going through insurance?
- Should I at least inform them of the incident?