How to Make a Car Insurance Claim

Making a car insurance claim with Saga

If you need to make a claim, please call our claims assistance number on 0800 001 5424, so we can deal with your claim as soon as possible. If another party was involved in the accident/incident, regardless of fault, there’s no need for you to deal with them (or their insurer) – give them our details and let us deal with everything for you.

If you can, please try to obtain the contact and insurance details of any other involved parties.

The speed with which you report the claim helps us to protect your interests so please call us as soon as you safely can. You can report your claim to us 24/7.

If you need to make a claim to repair or replace damaged glass call us on 0800 092 3304, so we can deal with your glass claim as soon as possible.

Electric vehicle battery recharge

If your electric car is immobile because it’s run out of charge while you’re driving in the UK and you don’t have any valid breakdown cover, call the RAC on 0333 070 2741.

They'll send someone out to give your car a boost so you can get to the nearest electric vehicle charge point. Or they can arrange for you, your passengers and your car to be taken to the nearest electric vehicle charge point, or to your home, whichever is closer.

Excess

An excess is the amount of money you pay towards your claim. Your excess amount, which was agreed with you when arranging your insurance policy, is stated in your policy schedule.

For non-fault incidents, where someone else is known to be liable for the damage to your car, you may be able to claim your excess back from the other party.

Fire, theft and vandalism

If your car is damaged by fire, theft or vandalism, you should report the incident to the police as soon as you can. They should provide you with an incident or crime number, which you should give to us as soon as you have it.

When you have done this, we will arrange to repair your car or pay you the market value, depending on the nature of the incident and the damage that has been caused.

Hire car

If you’re involved in an incident and your car is taken to one of our approved repairers, we will provide you with a car to keep you mobile, either through our network of garages or by arranging a car through another supplier. We aim to keep you on the road.

If your car is stolen or declared a total loss, we can only provide a replacement if you have elected to take the additional replacement car cover. Of course, we will aim to get your claim settled as soon as possible.

Liability

To settle the liability aspect of your claim we will make contact with the third party insurer on your behalf. We may request more information from you as your claim progresses, but we will aim to reach a decision with the other insurer about who was at fault as soon as possible based on all the evidence we have been provided with.

Personal belongings

If you have lost personal belongings in the incident, you can send details of what has been lost to us; including a description of each item, its age, value and, where possible, any evidence to support your claim, such as receipts.

We will aim to settle your claim as soon as possible taking into account your insurance policy limits.

Personal injury

If you were injured in the incident and it wasn’t your fault, you have the right to claim for your injuries from the at fault party. If you have legal cover we will instruct our preferred solicitors to assist you. They will contact you to discuss the injury and offer assistance where possible to make sure you are taken care of. If you don’t have legal cover, we can either provide details of our Business Partners who are able to assist, or provide you with details on how to find an appropriate solicitor through the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

Repairs

We will monitor the progress of your repair for you and will keep you updated while your car is being fixed. We’ll be in contact as soon as your car is ready to be returned to you. Also, when you use one of our approved garages the work completed is guaranteed and won’t affect any warranty that you may have.

Total loss

If your car can’t be repaired or is stolen and not recovered, we will pay you the market value to allow you to replace it. We calculate the market value by consulting specialist engineers, who use all the relevant information about your car to give us its true value.

If your car is less than two years old, however, you may qualify for our ‘New Vehicle Benefit’, which means we will source a brand new car, of the same type and specification where possible, to replace your old one.