Non fault company car accident - Does this affect my personal car insurance?

davidmase988

Me and the wife were in bed one night, her company car was parked on the main road outside the house (As specified in the company car insurance).

About 6am, we heard a loud bang, a little old lady driving home from a night shift decided to fall asleep at the wheel and went straight into ours. Loud bang and seeing our car half way down the street we got up and ran out the house to find her ok and wide awake (Surprisingly)!.

Just renewed car insurance on personal car and they have said that as there was a claim on the wife's name (Company Car), our insurance had gone from a quote of £800 to £1200 on the personal car. We have 10 years protected no claims on our personal car.

Can the company car insurance affect our own personal (protected no claims) insurance quote when it wasn't even our fault?

1. I find this annoying as why should I be affected personally because of the company car!

2. We have protected no claims on personal car!

3. Should I go into my wife's bosses office and give him a piece of my mind for not having the right insurance in place? (Obviously won't do that but is it worth speaking to them or looking at some sort of grievance against them?).

4. Can insurers do this when it wasn't our fault? I have seen no benefit from having our car smashed into, so why should I be penalised personally?

Thanks for anyones help!

So frustrated!
David

dunstonh

Can the company car insurance affect our own personal (protected no claims) insurance quote when it wasn't even our fault?

yes. Statistically people with no fault claims are likely to suffer another claimable event in the short term and therefore collectively are a greater risk.

2. We have protected no claims on personal car!

which protects the level of discount applied to the gross premium. It does not protect the gross premium from change.

mikey72

dunstonh wrote: »

yes. Statistically people with no fault claims are likely to suffer another claimable event in the short term and therefore collectively are a greater risk.


which protects the level of discount applied to the gross premium. It does not protect the gross premium from change.

Whereas a cynic could suggest it's a way of increasing revenue on a random event that is based purely on chance and could equally have happened to anyone.
But as these statistics are purely in house, and not available to the public, we'll just have to agree to take the insurance companies word for it.

dunstonh

Whereas a cynic could suggest it's a way of increasing revenue on a random event that is based purely on chance and could equally have happened to anyone.

Possibly. Or it could be that a significant number of people put their cars in positions that make them more likely to suffer an accident. Not saying the OP has but just highlighting that you are talking about statistics and we know how stats can lead to anomalies or that just because 64% (random figure pulled out of air) may be more likely to claim doesnt mean you are in that 64%. You could be in the 36%. Its the overall odds they are pricing it on and then sharing that risk over the majority.

davidmase988

Well its never happened in the previous 8 years!?

dunstonh

davidmase988 wrote: »

Well its never happened in the previous 8 years!?

I would hope that a little old lady driving home from a night shift deciding to fall asleep at the wheel and going straight into your car is not something you suffer with often.

davidmase988

I would hope not! Just gutted I am now left with yet further increased premiums.

I hear insurance companies have all increased their charges as they now all know what each other are charging too! Therefore no one offering low insurance quotes!

And in regards to the quote previous to you, they do have statistics and figures but the bodies that collate these are also owned by the insurance companies and are not independant, even though thats what they'd have you think. I believe the Insurance Fraud Bureau is on of them!!

So annoyed with these companies! They'd have us all think it was claims being made too, but the fact is, there are no more people claiming now than there were over 10 years ago! Uuuurrrrggghhhh!!! :mad:

dunstonh

I hear insurance companies have all increased their charges as they now all know what each other are charging too! Therefore no one offering low insurance quotes!

They havent all increased their charges. What has happened is that low risk areas and low risk individuals are seeing similar or even lower premiums than last year. Higher risk ones have jumped by often very large amounts. The world has gone risk averse.

hey'd have us all think it was claims being made too, but the fact is, there are no more people claiming now than there were over 10 years ago!

Car insurance has been loss making for a long time or break even at best. However, they were able to invest the premiums and make money or sell bolt ons to the insurance (such as breakdown cover) and earn on those. The recession not only saw equities loss money but also fixed interest securities and even cash (remember companies dont get FSCS protection. So, insurance companies lost money on banks that failed). So, the cross subsidy element vanished. That has been a major reason for increases. So, factor that in with less willingness to cover risk as cheaply and you get rises to anyone who hasnt got clean record (clean as in claims free, points free living outside of cities/towns)