Don't EVER notify your car insurance of an 'incident' if you don;t intend to claim!!!

Sorry to be slightly off topic here but what i have just read has made me wonder about my house insurance. I have been with my insurer (just contents as rented property) for some years and have never made a claim but the last few years every time my renewal comes in its goes up and up.

About 4 years ago or somewhere there i phoned them to say i had lost my gold watch ( took me a few days to admit to partner, while still trying to find it as he brought me it and was not too happy). They took details and as it was under £500 claim (cost £250) they did it all over the phone and said i would receive a letter in the post to take to the jewellery shop and pick out a new one. We still kept looking for it, then a few days later the letter arrived to pick up a new one but my partner found my watch inside the guide rails that your front seat slides back and forth on in the car. I was sooo pleased.

Anyway, i phoned them up to say i wouldnt need to go and get a new one and told them the claim could be cancelled (in case some of you are thinking it, some people have said i was silly and should have gone and got it anyway, but it was the right and honest thing to do and makes me feel better anyway).

Im now wondering if theres some sort of marker on my account because of this incident. Ive just had a thought, i dont know how it works at the shops end but could they have put a claim in for the watch anyway as if i had collected it?

Well, my daughter who is 18 and passed her test Dec and now driving has just had a repair done to her rear bumper after being parked in Tesco car park and getting reversed into!!!

I did phone Tesco just to let them know (even though we wouldnt be claiming from them, but just so they had it on record) but at the time that department was closed and so i was going to ring back but didnt get round to it. So after reading this im pleased i didnt but on the other hand im now thinking are we doing wrong by not informing them and when renewal comes up if we say she hasnt had any claims (although dont see this will be relevant as we will be renewing with the same and so they would know) are we withholding info and if found out (as i know insurance companies are linked up) that she claimed off someone for new bumper which got paid through their insurance is she likely to not get insured? What could possibly happen?

I'd agree from personal experience wholeheartedly with fimonkey and with the title of this post. I'd say this with regards to insurance companies: NEVER actually lie to them but also NEVER EVER volunteer any information that they have no chance of finding out.

We all know that insurance companies are not there to help us out when things go wrong - that's what friends are for. Insurance companies are there to make as much money as they can out of us and shell out as little as they can.

A car reversed into my sons car; the other drivers insurance paid out, the damage repaired, and that was that (or so we thought)

When he renewed insurance with another company it would not accept 'No' for have you made any claims. I ended up speaking to them on his behalf and it transpired that although the incident was recorded as 'no fault' for him the fact that he had made a claim against ANY insurer loaded his policy by £100; this was really harsh as he is already a young male driver.

I was recently reversed into, at high speed, by a stolen car being chased by a police car. Being the honest citizen I am, I informed my insurers about the incident and told them i will be putting in a claim to the Motor Insurance Beurau.
Earlier this week I rang my insurance company to get quotes for a replacement car I'm looking to buy at the weekend and they said my 'no fault claim' may increase my premiums! I didn't believe that could happen but, reading this thread, it can.

What's the point in being honest nowadays?