Car insurance - named driver accident, what to declare

locky123

I havent had to make a claim for ages and need some help.

My wife and I are named drivers on each of our car policies. I have just had an accident in her car and a claim is in progress, it was my fault. Her policy is due for renewal next month. She will lose some NCB.

What is best to declare when using comparison sites for quotes? Is it as simple as she has made a claim and that I have had an accident, as I will still be named driver?

Do I inform my insurance of my accident now and what will be the consequences?

InsideInsurance

You declare on both your and her policy that you have had an accident - assuming you will both continue to be on each others policy.

dazza.mk

I'd declare that you had a fault claim on her policy, on your policy you also had an accident but it was non-fault (ie no Insurance payout as nothing was claimed on your policy as it was claimed on your wife's)

InsideInsurance

It is fault still, just because it wasnt his policy.

locky123

Still not sure how to use the comparison sites now, as just started to input details for renewal next month.

NCB has been reduced from 7 yrs to 2yrs, which is a shock. It wasnt protected though, guess its worth doing.

So does my wife, as policy holder, choose this option - accident and driver was fault, and then I do the same a named driver. There doesnt seem to be any other suitable choices for her apart from not declaring.

That doesnt seem correct as the accident was mine and not hers.

She is claiming on her policy but it was my accident.

vaio

locky123 wrote: »

.......NCB has been reduced from 7 yrs to 2yrs, which is a shock. It wasnt protected though, guess its worth doing.........

traditionally NCB goes down by two years for a claim but subject to the max the company allows so if you have 7 years and your company only allows 5 you should have 3 left.

I suppose the figure is correct if your company give max discount when you have 4.

Shop around as always and for the NCB thing you might get a good result with a face to face local broker

locky123

Having input details into comparison websites, declaring fault accident under both names (which still doesnt seem correct), the premiums are more expensive than the renewal quote.

This is the first time this has ever happened, so makes me a little uncertain whether whether I've correctly used the comparison websites.

Is finding a good broker a bit of a lottery?

locky123

I wonder if Quentin is around as I've searched the forum for similar situations and he recommends that the fault accident is only declared under my name and not my wifes, when filling out details online.

raskazz

locky123 wrote: »

I wonder if Quentin is around as I've searched the forum for similar situations and he recommends that the fault accident is only declared under my name and not my wifes, when filling out details online.

When obtaining quotes for your wife's policy, if you are to be named as a driver on the policy then you only need to disclose the claim as a fault claim against your name.

If you are not to be named then you have to disclose it against your wife as a fault claim.

silvercar

So if you have his and her cars, with both being insured on each others, there is a greater penalty if you have an accident in your spouses car than in your own?

Plus the advantage of taking the accident causing spouse off your own insurance to maintain full NCD on renewal?

dazza.mk

InsideInsurance wrote: »

It is fault still, just because it wasnt his policy.

InsideInsurance, the normal definition of fault is:

"Fault claims include any claim where your no claims bonus has been affected or where you have made a payment directly to the other person involved in the claim." (Taken from Admiral)

Therefore it would only be a fault claim on the policy to which you are making the claim.

You have to declare an accident in both instances (but only one fault claim).

If you still disagree take a look at a multicar policy:

"How will my No Claims Bonus be affected if a claim is made on the MultiCar policy?

If a policyholder within the MultiCar policy makes a claim or a claim is made against them, the other policyholder(s) No Claims Bonus will not be affected. Only the individual policyholder’s No Claims Bonus of the car involved, will be affected." (Admiral)

With your assertion of the need to declare on a fault claim on both policies there would be a no claims bonus impact on both policies - in a multi car policy you've got a single insurance company with full visibility of both cars and full details.

And the above specifies that only the NCB for one policy will be affected ie. if you then move to separate policies only 1 fault claim.