insurance claim that didn't involve me.

thismodernlove

I've been insured with eCar since December last year (just after I passed my test) and have never had an accident or needed to claim for anything.

In October I got a phone call from another insurance provider saying that my car had been involved in a crash in England. I told them that it wasn't as I live in Scotland and haven't been out of the country and my car has always been in my possession. The person said that this was what they had assumed and that everything would be fine.

Now I probably should have chased this up with eCar, but I didn't as I assumed it was all ok like the person said on the call.

Two weeks ago eCar wrote to me letting me know that my insurance was due for renewal and that I had 1 claim on my policy which was listed as:

Accident - No Fault - Costs Recovered By Insurer

I phoned eCar who told me that:
a) The claim was dropped as mis-identity
b) I didn't have to tell new insurers I had a claim
c) They have honoured my no claims discount
d) Even though it wasn't me involved, they can't remove the claim from my record but it doesn't matter that it's there anyway...

I'm about to renew my insurance with another company just now (needs to be done by the 3rd) and thought to check my online eCar policy only to find that they have listed me as having 0 years no claims discount!!

I'm obviously going to phone tomorrow to find out what has happened but can anyone who knows about these things or has been in this situation give me some advice?

Can they remove the claim from my name all together? Will it actually go against me when I go elsewhere for my insurance? Can they take away my no claims for doing this?

:doh:

Quote

Only they can answer your questions. Don't worry about it.

Email them - as it costs £1 a minute to call them.

thismodernlove

I know that it's best to contact them (as I said I am doing that tomorrow when they open) but I was wondering if anyone had any similar experiences regarding getting a claim removed to put my mind at ease.

paulsad

0 years NCB maybe because you haven't got to December yet?

Quote

thismodernlove wrote: »

... put my mind at ease.

I did that already. I said not to worry.

lisyloo

Sounds fine.
I think Paul is correct.
You won't get the NCB until you complete the year.
You can put 1 year on your quotes and provided you don't have a claim before the year's up then it will be fine.

Check your paper renewal notice.
Does it correctly state you have one years NCB?
Keep it you will need this as proof.
I always take a photocopy or scna it before sending it off in the post to new insurer, just in case it's lost.

jaylu

Looking at the site Ecar appears to act as a broker who sells the policy and deals with the website but the actual insurance is underwritten by either Southern Rock or Aviva. These are the people who would be doing the handling of any claim and ideally the claims department of one of these companies will probably be the ones you are best speaking to to get to the bottom of this. They are the horse's mouth of your policy so to speak. Check your documents for the small print to find out which one of these insurers underwrites your policy.

I don't know what the communication setup deal is between the Ecar and the insurer - Ecar may have a 'claims department' but it most likely just functions as a middleman and passes things on to the actual insurer. The insurer and Ecar may insist on you communicating only through Ecar but it is worth a try. The difficulty with this is that you are then reliant on Ecar's customer service skills.

I wouldn't ring just any car claims department in Aviva or Southern Rock (though you can certainly give it a go) since they are big companies and will possibly have a host of different claims departments each dealing with different companies who probably mostly aren't really aware of each other and may even have not heard of Ecar. Though you may be lucky and get a knowledgeable member of staff or the whole system within the company may be more efficient than I'm guessing it is. Different areas of claims tend to have different dedicated tel numbers. You could try calling or emailing Ecar instead and ask to be put through to the insurers' claims department or to have their direct tel or email.

jaylu

It could be that everyone is quite clear and happy that it was all a mistake, but no-one has got round to clicking the relevant buttons on the computer to correct the error. A staff member didn't take time (or forgot or whatever) to correct the system so it is still there. A simple typo causing a ton of stress to somebody. There's a lot of it about!

adamc260

If its non involvement the claim needs to be removed... for the simple fact that it will be loaded onto CUE (Claims underwriting exchange) where other insurers can view details of any previous accidents. Now they say 'oh it wont matter and its marked as non fault' but non fault claims are loaded sometimes more heavily than fault ones. Demand they remove it if you were not involved else that marks your name for up to 5 years.

thismodernlove

adamc260 wrote: »

If its non involvement the claim needs to be removed... for the simple fact that it will be loaded onto CUE (Claims underwriting exchange) where other insurers can view details of any previous accidents. Now they say 'oh it wont matter and its marked as non fault' but non fault claims are loaded sometimes more heavily than fault ones. Demand they remove it if you were not involved else that marks your name for up to 5 years.

Thank you, this helps.

About to call Eldon (people who handle claims for eCar) and find out what's happening. Call will be free on my mobile tariff.