Premium Increased

Iddon

My Wife was contacted by RAC Insurance recently advising that her premium was being increased by £17/yr. The letter indicated that there was a claim on her policy for recovery of costs, something that she did not know anything about. After a very lengthy call with RAC it turns out that the increase is as a result of a repair for damage caused to my car some 14 months ago. My car had bumper damage from by a car hitting it whilst exiting from our office car park. The person who damaged the car owned up immediately and said that they'd put the cost of the repairs through their insurance. No problem with that but the question I'd like answered is how can it be right that an incident to my car, when it's parked in my office car park can have an effect on my wife's insurance policy?:cool:

InsideInsurance

You are presumably a named driver on it

Iddon

Yes, but why does that impact her premium?
It's bizarre that I'm sat at my desk someone bumps my car and her premium is affected and yet mine isn't?

InsideInsurance

There is a very long thread on here about non-fault accidents increasing premiums.

Ultimately insurance is a game of statistics and someone will have noticed that even if you have a non-fault accident you are more likely to have another accident than someone how has been involved in no accidents. Of cause next time the person that hits your parked car may not be so honest or not captured on CCTV and so its a fault claim. In addition to that even non-fault claims can cost insurers money to handle them which they cannot recover from anyone.

Quentin

If you don't inform your insurer about all incidents then expect them to find out!

Your wife should declare all your incidents/claims/convictions/health issues etc as long as you remain as a name driver.

Her premium is impacted because your profile has changed!

Maybe yours hasn't changed because either your insurer is unaware of the incident, or is one of the few that do not load premiums for non fault incidents/claims.

Iddon

My Insurer was advised at the time of incident, they were requested by the other party's insurance company.
Bizarre!

Quentin

Iddon wrote: »

My Insurer was advised at the time of incident, they were requested by the other party's insurance company.
Bizarre!

Whatever it is, it's not bizarre!

You and your wife are both bound by your policy conditions to inform your own insurer of any incidents you (or any named drivers) are involved in which involve any loss, even if you do not make a claim over it.

Thus, by not informing them you breach the policy conditions!

StuieUK34

imagine if u had 20 morons drive into your car, whilst your at work, and u had your car repaired by the other insurer 20 times, all in the same year..........
would u be able to get insurance the following year ? despite your own insurer never incurring a cost ? think i may go do a few phone calls and find out just how bad non-faults affect u !!

Iddon

StuieUK34 wrote: »

imagine if u had 20 morons drive into your car, whilst your at work, and u had your car repaired by the other insurer 20 times, all in the same year..........
would u be able to get insurance the following year ? despite your own insurer never incurring a cost ? think i may go do a few phone calls and find out just how bad non-faults affect u !!

But we're not talking about supposition, just the facts, whether or not it is a requirement of my Wifes policy to inform them of any incident, claimed or not claimed on does not make it right that she should be penalised. I understand that it is probably down to me as a named driver but that does not make it right. I'm fortunate to have an Insurer that does not load non-fault claims to my policy.
I've looked at the various threads on this topic and found there are people with similar issues so yes I can see an Insurer needs to mitigate for this and hence the hike.
Oh, and let me know how you get on with your phone calls!

vaio

InsideInsurance wrote: »

......In addition to that even non-fault claims can cost insurers money to handle them which they cannot recover from anyone.

Yep, some people seem to have the ridiculous idea that dealing with claims is one of the overheads an insurance company should have factored into their business model although it’s rumoured that sun alliance have a cunning way round this and it’s so simple I’m surprised no one has thought of it before.

What you do is rather than the insurance company dealing direct with the garage (ie repair bill of £1000, Sun Alliance sends garage a cheque for £1000 and reclaims £1000 from third party) you set up another company called something like Secret Profit Ltd.

They then place the order for the car to be repaired and get the garage bill for £1000, then add 30% plus some imaginary items like delivery, valeting etc and send Sun Alliance a bill for £1500. Sun Alliance then send Secret Profit Ltd a cheque for £1500 and reclaim the same amount from the third party. Secret Profit Ltd pay the garage the £1000 and keep the £500 profit until the end of the year when it gets handed over to the parent company, probably called something like Sun Alliance Holdings Ltd.

Some might think deliberately inflating claim costs like this could be considered fraud and indeed, if it was done by an ordinary punter, it’s very likely it would be, the whole claim would be rejected and prosecution could well follow.

However, because this is an insurance company doing it it’s not fraud and all that happens when they get caught is they have to forgo the money they tried to steal, no prosecution, no punishment, just a stern finger wagging from a judge.

All a bit of a joke really