Someone hit your car and you're putting off the repair. You may not have to pay for it.

8 October 2026

Someone hit your car. It's drivable, so you keep driving it. The bumper's cracked, the mirror folds in and stays there, and every time you think about getting it fixed you think about what it'll cost you — and you leave it.

Here's the part most people don't know: it probably isn't yours to pay for.

Why everyone's putting off repairs right now

On 29 September the Reserve Bank put the cash rate up again, to 4.60%. A year ago it was 3.60%. That's a full extra percentage point on every variable mortgage in the country, in twelve months.

Something has to give, and for a lot of households it's the car. A cracked bumper doesn't stop you getting to work. It waits.

And why people don't claim

The other thing people do is decide not to claim at all. Not because they're not covered — because claiming feels like it'll cost them later.

That's not paranoia. Canstar says it plainly:

depending on your insurer, your premiums may increase after you make a claim, regardless of whether you were not at fault

So you do the maths, and you live with the dent.

The bit that changes the maths

If someone else hit you, you may not need to claim at all.

The person who damaged your car is the one responsible for putting it right. That's not an insurance product or a trick — it's the ordinary position, and it's what your own insurer relies on when it chases the other driver's insurer after paying you out. Legal Aid NSW puts it this way:

If you believe that the other driver was 'at-fault', you may try to recover from them the cost of repairing your vehicle and other losses, such as hire car expenses.

The catch is that "you may try to recover" means someone has to actually do it. Most people don't have the time, so they claim on their own policy instead and wear the excess.

What it looks like when we do it

If the accident wasn't your fault and we take it on:

• your car gets repaired, and we recover the cost from the at-fault driver's insurer
• you get a replacement car for as long as the repair takes
• there's no excess for you to find
• you don't make a claim on your own policy, so there's nothing for your insurer to re-rate you on

Our fee goes to the at-fault driver's insurer too, with the repair. Not to you.

Be careful with promises — including ours

Your policy wording is what governs your cover, and insurers set their own rules. On no-claim bonuses the general position is fairly consistent — Canstar again:

Insurers generally will not reduce your no-claim bonus/discount if you were not the at-fault driver and you provide your car insurer with the at-fault driver's details

But "generally" is doing a lot of work there, and your bonus and your premium are two different things. If you want to be certain about your own policy, read it, or ring your insurer and ask before you lodge anything.

What we can say is simpler. If you don't claim, there's no claim to affect anything.

If money is the reason your car is still damaged

Then this is worth ten minutes.

Before you book a repair you can't really afford, or decide to live with it for another six months, find out whether it was ever yours to pay for.