Insurance trick

Chrisbdh

I was in a car accident last week, the driver has admitted full liability. I informed my insurance provider and also informed them I recently obtained a speeding penalty. They immediately increased my premium by £140 and my excess increased from £250 to £750. Is this legal? I know for a fact if I had that speeding penalty when I obtained the policy, the premuim would probably have been about £20 more, if that. Can they do this?

dunstonh

Is this legal?

If that is what they would have put in place had you declared it when you should have done then yes it is.

"Accidental" non disclosure rules, as set by the FOS, state that the company is allowed to adjust the policy and backdate the terms to what they would have offered had it been declared correctly.

You tend to find one speeding ticket, or even two doesnt make much difference to insurers pricing. Its when you get more than that the premiums or terms start get heavy. Especially when you are younger. How old are you and how many points do you have?

I know for a fact if I had that speeding penalty when I obtained the policy, the premuim would probably have been about £20 more,

If you can prove that fact with that insurer then you have a case. Perhaps test it by getting a requote giving the correct details and see what happens.

I_know_my_ABC_and_my_CMYK

I think you are now supposed to inform your insurance company of any points on your license etc or it can invalidate your insurance. Easy done.

Quote

OP - Points for speeding only usually become material when the policy is due for renewal, and wouldn't change your excess during the policy year, unless you already have points on your license. Do you?

soolin

Quote wrote: »

OP - Points for speeding only usually become material when the policy is due for renewal, and wouldn't change your excess during the policy year, unless you already have points on your license. Do you?

I would check that as my policy says in the small print that I must inform my insurers of any changes to my circumstances as soon as they occur, including any penalty notices for traffic offences or fines. (I don't have the exact wording in front of me) it then goes on to say that this might not affect my premium in any way but that failure to declare *may* invalidate my insurance. The way I read that on my policy is that I must tell them everything, apart from parking tickets!