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Sheila's Wheels - please give me strength!
virgo149
Posts: 233 Forumite
To set the scene - some stupid young girlie drives into me on 3rd June, smashing my door and causing just a few scratches to her car (she started turning into what she thought was an empty space - but it wasn't). How you can miss seeing a 4x4 parking next to you when you are in a Fiat 500 is beyond me! She admits liability and offers to pay the following day by text to save going through the insurance.
After some discussion and consideration, I agreed to get some quotes to see how much it would cost (yes, I know.......). Anyway a couple of days later, quotes are coming out at around £1200 as I need a new door panel and respray. She can't afford this so we have to go through insurance. I ring them straight away and they state that as we were both reversing at the time, it's dealt with as joint blame until investigated - not happy but am confident the truth will out.
Anyway, several days later & several calls checking details from insurance, get a call from them again saying the other side are willing to settle on a 50/50 basis - I bet they are! I refuse to accept this and send them the text messages where she offers to pay for damage. Finally get the good news this week that the other side have now accepted full liability so the car is now booked in for repairs.
Now, here's the vent. My insurance is due for renewal on 3rd July and they have just sent me a revised quote, stating I've lost 45% no claims and premiums have doubled. Even though I am not at fault and have my no claims reinstated, the claim is considered open until all monies have been recovered so I have to renew on the basis that I am still at fault. They will 'refund' the difference once sorted. I have spent 20 minutes on the phone today, going backwards and forwards between claims and renewals and have achieved nothing. I am not to blame but cannot be given any written info from them about this until it is 'closed'. So in short, I cannot prove my full no claims and as a result, cannnot take advantage of moving to another company for a better priced policy for next year. So much for trying to be a money saving expert.............................. So very, very frustrated & rather upset about the whole thing.
The 'funny' side of the whole story though is she is also insured with Sheila's Wheels so try and figure that one out!
So finally, the moral of the story is, make sure no one drives in to you near to your renewal date - it'll cost you dearly
After some discussion and consideration, I agreed to get some quotes to see how much it would cost (yes, I know.......). Anyway a couple of days later, quotes are coming out at around £1200 as I need a new door panel and respray. She can't afford this so we have to go through insurance. I ring them straight away and they state that as we were both reversing at the time, it's dealt with as joint blame until investigated - not happy but am confident the truth will out.
Anyway, several days later & several calls checking details from insurance, get a call from them again saying the other side are willing to settle on a 50/50 basis - I bet they are! I refuse to accept this and send them the text messages where she offers to pay for damage. Finally get the good news this week that the other side have now accepted full liability so the car is now booked in for repairs.
Now, here's the vent. My insurance is due for renewal on 3rd July and they have just sent me a revised quote, stating I've lost 45% no claims and premiums have doubled. Even though I am not at fault and have my no claims reinstated, the claim is considered open until all monies have been recovered so I have to renew on the basis that I am still at fault. They will 'refund' the difference once sorted. I have spent 20 minutes on the phone today, going backwards and forwards between claims and renewals and have achieved nothing. I am not to blame but cannot be given any written info from them about this until it is 'closed'. So in short, I cannot prove my full no claims and as a result, cannnot take advantage of moving to another company for a better priced policy for next year. So much for trying to be a money saving expert.............................. So very, very frustrated & rather upset about the whole thing.
The 'funny' side of the whole story though is she is also insured with Sheila's Wheels so try and figure that one out!
So finally, the moral of the story is, make sure no one drives in to you near to your renewal date - it'll cost you dearly
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Comments
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The way they are reducing your no claims bonus is standard procedure for Insurance companies.
Your no claims would not be reduced if you had protected no claims0 -
Best approach, assuming your car is driveable, is to not instigate any claim on your own policy. Simply tell your insurance company your car won't be touched until they have secured 100% liability from the other party.
Protected NCB may not help as they could load the premium more to offset a high NCB you have. You can still shop around for insurance even with this claim ongoing.0 -
The days of trying to keep a good clean driving history are long gone.
Premiums will go up regardless.0 -
Best approach, assuming your car is driveable, is to not instigate any claim on your own policy. Simply tell your insurance company your car won't be touched until they have secured 100% liability from the other party.
Protected NCB may not help as they could load the premium more to offset a high NCB you have. You can still shop around for insurance even with this claim ongoing.
It would have made a massive difference to the OP's renewal premium probably cushioning the increase by circa £200.
Securing liability to an Insurers satisfaction to reinstate no claims bonus and adjust claims loading is generally when they receive their outlay from the other Insurers which typically takes months0 -
Firstly, yes I know I would not be having these problems if I had protected my no claims bonus - I've been driving since 1986 and as a retired Police Officer have some small experience of cars / accidents etc but thanks for pointing that out. I've personally never felt the need to add several more numbers to my policy premium amount every year by doing this but needless to say, will heed advice and protect from now on.
As for the renewal, I cannot prove at the moment that I have a full no-claims bonus - they won't provide anything in writing, so I have nothing to pass on to a new insurer.
As for liability, they have it agreed but cannot or will not do anything with my policy until it is closed - simple as. Trust me I spent a long time using all reasoned arguments and powers of persuasion today with no result. I was actually expecting the renewals guy to say 'computer says no'................0 -
The renewal notice they sent you normally shows your no claims bonus, if you're going to a new Insurer this is what you would normally use to prove your no claims.
If you do transfer, once Sheila's Wheels recover their money or you recover your excess (You can normally recover your excess much quicker than they recover they outlay) then they will normally reinstate your no claims bonus.
If you recover your excess, you normally need to send the letter attached to the cheque to SW.
They should then issue revised no claims which you send to your new Insurer and request reinstatement of your no claims bonus and the resulting refund.
N.B they may still apply a load for a non fault claim.
They normally won't budge about reinstating your no claims bonus until you or they get their money as it's not unusual for the third party to change their mind about liability so money talks
One of the advantages of protected is it helps to even out your premium following an accident that spans your renewal0 -
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Mine were too Bob, until this happened - that's the one positive of getting older I suppose.
I did have another non fault claim just over 3 years ago when someone went into the back of me at a roundabout in the snow - my no claims wasn't touched and my premiums were unaffected. As this accident is now deemed as no fault too, I fully expect this to be the case once sorted.
My vent is that I CANNOT PROVE my full no claims at the moment as SW will not provide me with documentary evidence of them. So I repeat, I cannot switch as I cannot provide evidence of my full no claims until it's sorted. Insurers won't insure you without this proof these days.0
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