why am i being penalised?

serski

Ive spent half the day looking for car insurance quotes after my car has just recently been written off...thru no fault of my own! I did a fully comp quote for a corsa, declaring the accident, cheapest quote £557.41. I thought this was a bit excessive for a 40yr old mum, ive held my clean licence for 21 yrs, so decided to redo the quote and not declare the accident, the quote came back at £466.70!!! a difference of £90+ why am i being penalised when the accident wasnt even caused by me? Does anyone know why this is please..thanks to any replies!

McKneff

Its normal Im afraid with most insurance companies nowadays.

The odd company doesnt do it (Im with the Coop and it happened to me lastyear and they dont hike the premiums) but like I say,
lots do.

No choice but to declare it.

kwaks

Statistics show that those who have an accident, whether fault or not, are a higher risk of having a further claim.

You car was put into a position where it was damaged, next time the 3rd party may not give details etc.

I do however assume you live in a high risk area going by that premium?

Ihatecameron

Unfortunately that is what happens, they did the same to my neighbour when her car was written off. Car insurance companies rip people off because they can. There is no limit to what they can charge which is ridiculous when you think about it. They can and do charge what they like and you have to pay because it is a legal requirement to have insurance to drive.

kwaks

Ihatecameron wrote: »

Unfortunately that is what happens, they did the same to my neighbour when her car was written off. Car insurance companies rip people off because they can. There is no limit to what they can charge which is ridiculous when you think about it. They can and do charge what they like and you have to pay because it is a legal requirement to have insurance to drive.

Bit unfair. Market forces ensure that insurance companies are competitive if you shop around. In addition there is an alternative to having insurance, if you can afford to pay the bond, so it is incorrect to say you must have insurance.

Prices are increasing as people inflate claims and fraudulent claims are rife, policies also now carry tax (thank previous governments for that, why they feel they should benefit from insurance is beyond me). With diligence I believe the OP could get her price down, I pay less on a group 20 car with a fault claim in my history.


Edit: And no, I don't work in insurance

Ihatecameron

Bit unfair

.

You must be joking, what market forces are you talking about, probably the ones that say you have to pay by law no doubt, which is why companies charge what they like.

As for the alternative, remind me how much you need to pay in the UK to self insure, about 5 million quid is it or something ridiculous like that.

All I know for a fact is my car insurance has doubled this year, and I checked all the comparison websites for the cheapest quotes, that is daylight robbery IMO.

mikey72

Couple of threads on the insurance board recently about claiming back the additional loading as an out of pocket expense, and the so adding it to the third party claim.

alastairq

MSE has a section on tricks that can be done to reduce premiums.

One way is to see if one's job can be 'correctly' defined under another description.

Another is to increase the excess?

One thing I have discovered, with the cheaper quotes is, to be wary of what the insurer charges for any mid-policy changes, like a new car, or change of cover,etc.

My last brush with Budget [and Post Office, strangely the same paper headings]....would mean a charge of £25 for each item changed...so, buy a new car, increase to fully comp, that'll be 50 quid please...on top of any premium hike.

NoSatisfaction

Op, if you know who damaged your car, sue them for the extra costs on you premium. It's their fault and they should pay for it.

I have done it successfully.

Incyder

alastairq wrote: »

One thing I have discovered, with the cheaper quotes is, to be wary of what the insurer charges for any mid-policy changes, like a new car, or change of cover,etc.

My last brush with Budget [and Post Office, strangely the same paper headings]....would mean a charge of £25 for each item changed...so, buy a new car, increase to fully comp, that'll be 50 quid please...on top of any premium hike.

I moved address to 2 miles away, went on swiftcover site to change my address and they wanted 75 quid for it.
Needless to say, I have left it as it was and will not be using them again when my policy expires in april.

Just to prove to myself my new postcode was no more risk than my old one, I went onto swiftcover again as a new customer and got a new quote at the new postcode and it gave me a yearly premium quote of £5 less than my current yearly policy.

Therefore they were trying to rob me. :mad:

Nilrem

Ihatecameron wrote: »

.

You must be joking, what market forces are you talking about, probably the ones that say you have to pay by law no doubt, which is why companies charge what they like.

As for the alternative, remind me how much you need to pay in the UK to self insure, about 5 million quid is it or something ridiculous like that.

All I know for a fact is my car insurance has doubled this year, and I checked all the comparison websites for the cheapest quotes, that is daylight robbery IMO.

Most (all?) car insurance companies in the UK don't make much if any profit on the policy fees.
The only way most of them stay in the business is by investing that money in the markets.

So if the number of claims goes up, or the markets are in trouble they make a loss or have to increase premiums.

Car insurance is not a profitable business on it's own, especially when you consider that your £500 premium might end up costing the insurance company £100k for a relatively small accident involving the wrong thing before any personal injury claims, and that many of the "accident management" companies can/will charge hundreds a day for supplying a hire care and "assisting" in the claim against the third party (one of the reasons many insurers can be quite helpful to third part claimants is because it can reduce their bill by a considerable margin).