How do claims on fleet policies affect personal car insurance?

EmRayMarRhys

Unfortunately I had a crash in the Motability car in August. I drove into the rear of someone.

Total bill for my car alone was £3027. Hopefully I'll get the car back tomorrow. I reckon the car I hit was a write off (purely because it was over 10 years old) and the Merc I shoved that into probably suffered minimal damage. I suppose you're looking at up to £6k in total?

Motability Insurance is all part of the hire contract and covered by RSA on a fleet policy.

So, my domestic car insurance is up for renewal on 5th Oct. My current insurers already know and didn't add anything to my premium.

I want to get quotes from other insurers online though, so do I put it down under 'claims' or not, as it's not actually a claim on the policy I'm renewing iygwim? Is this bit for claims under this policy or claims under any policy?

If the claim is not on the policy to be renewed do you mention it? I realise incorrect facts on the policy can mean they won't pay out and it's fraud.

Just confused, please help

iamana1ias

EmRayMarRhys wrote: »

Unfortunately I had a crash in the Motability car in August. I drove into the rear of someone.

...................

I want to get quotes from other insurers online though, so do I put it down under 'claims' or not, as it's not actually a claim on the policy I'm renewing iygwim? Is this bit for claims under this policy or claims under any policy?

If the claim is not on the policy to be renewed do you mention it? I realise incorrect facts on the policy can mean they won't pay out and it's fraud.

Just confused, please help

The question is "any accidents or claims". You had an accident which resulted in a claim so yes, you must declare it. Insurers are looking at your driving history. The fact that you drive too close to the back of other vehicles to be able to stop safely is something they need to know about.

EmRayMarRhys

Thanks for that.
In 14 years of driving this is the first at fault accident I have ever had.
I was approaching a roundabout, got momentarily distracted looking in the mirror, looked back and there was nothing I could do. Tried to stop but just couldn't.

Do you really think I would deliberately drive into someone with my kids in the car?

Oh and the impact was less than 25mph, under braking.

Not everyone drives like an idiot. ACCIDENTS do happen.

Thank you for the information, as I say my current insurers know about the accident. I'll get my quotes over the phone this year as it's not straightforward.

lisyloo

Hiya Em,

If you look at the others posters posts, you will find that they aren't terribly constructive, so try not to take it too personally.

I'm not sure about the advice given, as I'm sure I've seen on here that company car claims don't affect your personal premium and from memory that advice came from some of the regulars on this boards many of whom work in the industry or have done in the past.
Your situation is slightly different because it's not a comapny car.

I am inclined to think it won't add to our premium (as with your exiting insurer) but I can't say that for definite so my advice would be to mention it to the insurers.
This does mean of course that you will have to ring round which is more time consuming, but you can still use comparison sites as a guide to see who is most competitive for you and then phone up the best ones.
I generally do that anyway. Use the search engine to get an idea then do the quotes direct to make sure all the information is correct (sometimes search engines don't pass it on directly).

Another tip - use a false phone number and email on search sites, otherwise you'll get lots of phone calls and spam. All other details should be correct for the quote. You can even put in their own phone number so they can cold call themselves.

But I'm sure I've seen on here that comapny car claims dont count on personal car insurance (but can't find it on a search).

withabix

lisyloo wrote: »

But I'm sure I've seen on here that comapny car claims dont count on personal car insurance (but can't find it on a search).

No, you must declare ANY accidents where you were the driver/person in charge of vehicle.

Quentin

lisyloo wrote: »

But I'm sure I've seen on here that comapny car claims dont count on personal car insurance (but can't find it on a search).

No.

When answering the questions regarding driving history you should declare all incidents irrespective of who was the policyholder of the vehicle involved.

lisyloo

Ok, thanks for the info.
I will try to search for the post I'm thinking of as I'm certain it exists although the context may be different.

From memory I have a feeling a light was broken and the driver claimed it was nothing to do with him, but his company put in a claim anyway with him as the driver.
I believe he was told he didn't have to declare it.

(I'm struggling to find it because terms like comapny car and broken light are not specific enough).

Quentin

Just goes to show you not to believe anything you read on here.

If the car you drive (irrespective of who insures it) is damaged by an unidentified third party, although it's "nothing to do with you", the incident still goes down on your history.

huckster

Lisyloo

I think the thread you are on about, was where a hire car was damaged and the OP didn't know about it. There was a difference of opinion about whether they had to declare a hire car claim, when they applied for personal car Insurance. The majority of contributors thought that they should declare and that it would be up to the Insurers, whether to note or not. I think the same applies to fleet claims. I am not sure all Insurers would note these, but perhaps safer to disclose, rather than not and for this to be used against them later.

EmRayMarRhys

Thanks all. I'm seriously not attempting to conceal anything here, just confused as to what was relevant.

EmRayMarRhys

huckster, I don't appear to be able to thank you for some reason, the button is there, but thanks