Motor insurance quote; how do I know whether accident was my fault?

neil9327

I am getting quotes for motor insurance for a new car I'm buying, and am asked whether I've had any accidents in the past 3 years. Yes I had one accident when I crashed my car, mine was the only car involved, there was no third party damage, and (as I was insured third party fire/theft) I had made no claim on my insurance.
But the quote is asking whether I was to blame, partly to blame, or not to blame for the accident.
Now I don't know the answer to this question. I'm not a driving accident expert. My insurance company never told me whether they thought I was to blame. And there was no police involvement so I can't ask them.

So how do I know what to put on the online quote?

And it does make a difference to the premium too, what I put.

On the one hand I want to save money and get the low quote. But on the other hand I don't want them to get out of paying if I make a claim, because they say I can't prove that I was not to blame (which I can't).

What do you think?

Cheers,

Running_On_Empty

Yes, it was your fault.
No other vehicle involved, how could it be anyone else's fault?

Gavin83

Personally I wouldn't say anything. How would they actually find out you were in an accident? Besides is a crash involving no other car actually an accident?

Hammyman

neil9327 wrote: »

Yes I had one accident when I crashed my car, mine was the only car involved, there was no third party damage, and (as I was insured third party fire/theft) I had made no claim on my insurance.
But the quote is asking whether I was to blame, partly to blame, or not to blame for the accident.
Now I don't know the answer to this question. I'm not a driving accident expert.
What do you think?

Cheers,

Who was at the controls? You. Therefore you were to blame. Do you honestly need to be told this?

neilmcl

neil9327 wrote: »

I am getting quotes for motor insurance for a new car I'm buying, and am asked whether I've had any accidents in the past 3 years. Yes I had one accident when I crashed my car, mine was the only car involved, there was no third party damage, and (as I was insured third party fire/theft) I had made no claim on my insurance.
But the quote is asking whether I was to blame, partly to blame, or not to blame for the accident.
Now I don't know the answer to this question. I'm not a driving accident expert. My insurance company never told me whether they thought I was to blame. And there was no police involvement so I can't ask them.

So how do I know what to put on the online quote?

And it does make a difference to the premium too, what I put.

On the one hand I want to save money and get the low quote. But on the other hand I don't want them to get out of paying if I make a claim, because they say I can't prove that I was not to blame (which I can't).

What do you think?

Cheers,

And the award for the bleedin obvious goes too... :rotfl:

Gavin83

I strongly suggest you don't say anything. I'd presume your quite young and haven't been driving long, you could be looking at quite a big difference in quotes for this, possibly even up to £1000+

neil9327

Running_On_Empty wrote: »

Yes, it was your fault.
No other vehicle involved, how could it be anyone else's fault?

It could be someone elses fault say for example the council's fault if they failed to fix a pot hole and my car hit it and crashed.
Another example might be a lorry that was leaking oil, and my car following it slipped on the oil and crashed.
Or my car was driving over a bridge and the bridge collapsed due to flooding (like in Cumbria last winter) then that is not my fault (yes I know the police closed the bridges on that occasion but they didn't close them straight away).

So how can I tell if an accident is my fault, or not?

neil9327

Gavin83 wrote: »

I strongly suggest you don't say anything. I'd presume your quite young and haven't been driving long, you could be looking at quite a big difference in quotes for this, possibly even up to £1000+

No I'm not young, I'm 43.

The trouble with not saying anything is that part of the terms and conditions of my insurance (and probably everyone elses insurances) is that if you have an accident you are required to report it. So if you fail to report it and you then have another accident, and a third party tries to claim on it, they will refuse to pay out with the excuse that I didn't report it. That means the third party could come after me for the money, and if that is for £200 grand for example that would wipe out my life savings.

Hammyman

LOL, I love the straw grasping. Cars don't crash from hitting potholes, lorries don't leak enough oil to cause that and if they did you'd see it and there's not been any reports of bridges collapsing lately.

Give it up. You've had a claim. You've lost your NCB. Learn to drive and then you will get cheaper insurance.

Hammyman

neil9327 wrote: »

No I'm not young, I'm 43.

The trouble with not saying anything is that part of the terms and conditions of my insurance (and probably everyone elses insurances) is that if you have an accident you are required to report it. So if you fail to report it and you then have another accident, and a third party tries to claim on it, they will refuse to pay out with the excuse that I didn't report it. That means the third party could come after me for the money, and if that is for £200 grand for example that would wipe out my life savings.

Err, no. The law changed some years ago.

neil9327

Hammyman wrote: »

Err, no. The law changed some years ago.

Explain please?