Can Insurance Companies Settle a Claim Without Informing You??

Gambler

I've just tried to renew my car insurance and been told that I have a claim against me from March 2010 for £500 which I was unaware of.

There was an incident at that time where I clipped the wing mirror of a parked car and damaged both mirrors. I gave the other party my details and told them to provide me with a quote and I would settle directly rather than go through my insurance.

I also reported the accident to More Than and told them I didn't want to make a claim at that point until I knew how much the repair bill was. (My excess is £150)

I never heard anything further and when I received my renewal documents in Sep-10 it did state that I had been involved in the following claim(s) or incident(s) in the last 5 years:

Mar-10 and I was at fault

As there was no value stated I assumed it was an incident and not the claim.

I thought I would have received a letter and I also thought I have to pay the excess?

I didn't declare the claim to my new insurer so I'm guessing my insurance has been invalid for the past 12 months?

By declaring the claim the renewal premium has increased by £60.

How do I calculate my no claims bonus? It is protected and must be 10 years plus but most renewals say '5 years or more'.

Edit: The premium actually reduces by £30 if I select the 9 years max rather than 5 years. Is there a way of working out the no claims bonus?

InsideInsurance

Your insurers are entitled to settle any claims they receive as they see fit without having to have your express permission to do so.

In this incident it appears you, correctly, informed them of it and from the circumstances there would be no question of who is liable. It sounds like there was a breakdown in communication somewhere and I expect either they said they'd settle any claim received and you didnt hear it or you telling them not to settle wasnt correctly passed to the department that deals with third party claims.

You could ultimately buy the claim back from them, ie repay them the cost of it, but given the numbers involved it may not be worth while you doing.

As to the NCD. If it was protected and this is your one and only claim then for at renewal your NCD would have neither gone up nor down because of the claim. Most insurers max out their NCD at 5 years where as others dont max out til 9 years, that said, some insurers 5 years NCD discount is actually higher than 8 years with one that does a Max 9. For a variety of reasons, most to do with ancient IT systems, you will find a fair number of insurers produce letters along the lines of "5 or more years". To find your "true" value you´d need to look back through your records to find what your highest NCD was and then count forward the number of claims free years you have.

System

Your insurance company has a duty to inform you of all third party claims and payments they have made since you need to know these details whenever you ask for insurance quotes. I would expect this type of information to be provided to you in a letter A.S.A.P. after the claim was settled. In my opinion, your previous insurer has failed in their duty so you have grounds for a complaint.

The excess(es) on you policy will most likely be for:
a) Own Damage
b) Fire & Theft
c) Windscreen

i.e.
You do not normally have to pay any excess for Third Party claims

You mentioned that you did not declare the claim to your new insurer. However, did you inform your new insurer of the at fault accident ?

Even when no claim is made via your insurance, you must still declare this type of event to prospective insurers (for the next 3 to 5 years)

alistair.long

It was your fault as you state,

In your senario I would do the following.
get 2 quotes, 1 with no claims and 1 without. if the quote with no claims is £500 cheaper then pay the £500 and get the 1 year bonus off morethan.

Hope this helps.