I've just been hit by a third party and having just seen someone elses thread about swiftcover and their problems I wanted to get advice on the best way to proceed.

The other driver reversed into my car while I was stationary and thus far has accepted liability, I've got their name, address and policy details and having contacted Swiftcover (my insurers) they've advised I can either go through them and then try to reclaim the costs from the third party or I can go through the third parties insurance company - Zurich.

Having seen previous threads it looks like if I go through Swiftcover I have to pay the excess which will be claimed back - is this correct? Swiftcover actually suggested I could go through third parties company but another thread said this invalidates my claim with Swiftcover - urgh!

If anyone has any helpful advice I'd appreciate it as Zurich (third parties insurer) are currently shut until Monday so I can't call them to see how they'll handle it.

bump

I'm assuming you have comprehensive insurance.

You are correct, you have to chose between your insurers and the TP. That is it in its simplest form, but as we will see it is not quite that straight forward.

You first need to verify whether your insurers only need a recovery of your excess to record this as a no-fault accident (and hence no NCB impact).

If yes, then this might indicate going on your own (if you can afford the repairs up front). But a better option will be to claim on your insurance and then pursue the TP for the excess and all other uninsured losses - but you must advise your own insurers that you are doing this.

If no, and your insurers want a full recovery then depending on the amount at stake you can either take the go alone option to preserve your NCB, or claim from your insurance and run a joint claim with your insurers against TP.

You need to take an aggressive lead on this. Do you have uninsured loss recovery as part of your insurance policy? If so use it that's what it is for.

The go-it-alone option also has the risk that you might lose! That is the real "ugh" no matter how remote it may seem.