chipped windscreen

I tried one once, it was hopeless IMO. If you're bothered about the excess and a claim, ask a windscreen co how much to fix.

It's also one of the underhand tricks that the insurance companies play when you get a renewal quote and the cost appears to be close to what you paid the previous year. The excess amounts have suddenly jumped by hundreds. You have to read the smaller print carefully.

A couple of years ago I had a policy with £25 excess on glass. The renewal quote included £500 excess for glass (plus a large excess for other claims). Effectively the insurance company were taking a zero risk on some types of claims. Changing insurance companies and the excesses fell back to what I had been paying for previously.

I had a small chip and scuff mark on my windscreen last year. The scuff mark more annoying than the chip as it was just above my eyeline. I bought a repair kit (not from toolstaton but similar), read the instructions, and decided it looked like a lot of trouble with an uncertain result. glassdoctors.co.uk did a very good job for ~£75 (as I recall) which, given the likely result had I DIYed seemed most reasonable.

since autoglass cannot always get it right it must be vaguely difficult to make a good job of it, I would just leave it till it causes an MoT failure and then get a new screen, many cars are only about 130 quid.

They're expensive. Most policies that I've seen only charge £10 excess for a repair and £75 for a full replacement. It doesn't usually count as a claim for your no-claims or against next years premium either.

SteveW

Hi, It seems the consensus is that it is a difficult job, so I'll leave it to the professionals when needed. I used to have an excess for window replacement but chip repair was free. You are right, £25 excess for chips is trivial but it seems wrong when you used to get it for nothing!