Car insurance renewal - Being held hostage!

dwj

Six months ago someone went into the side of my car. The police attended and the other driver told them he’d nodded off and accepted full responsibility for the incident. The police took our details, checked both cars were insured, etc.

I will spare you the details of the shoddy repair company they sent me to that took 7 weeks and 3 attempts to fix the car. I won’t mention the dozens of excuses they’ve given for prolonging the claim. I figured it would get sorted eventually and the £400 excess the repair company charged would be returned, so left them to get on with things.

From reading other people’s posts on here, I was expecting a slight bump in the renewal quotation which arrived this week. Last year’s policy was £380, the renewal quote is for £1,630 - a 400% increase simply for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Yesterday I saw a specialist motor insurance broker, who told me I had zero chance of changing insurance company whilst there was a claim outstanding.

I have absolutely no intention of paying them this amount. I would sooner sell the car than give them one more penny of my money after what they have put me through.

Out of curiosity, I tried entering very similar details to my own at a couple of insurance comparison sites. Adding an at-fault accident six months ago increased most of the quotations by only £250. This got me thinking…

Take out a new policy for £600 with a different insurance company, saying the accident six months ago was my fault. Cancel the policy with my current insurer, and hope that they eventually resolve the matter and restore my NCD. At which point I will cancel the £600 policy and find a new insurer to take my restored NCD to. Simples.


Does anyone see a problem with my proposed solution - or can someone please suggest a better way of dealing with this situation?

huckster

You can change Insurance with a pending claim, providing that you fully disclose the details to your new Insurers. Normally the Insurers will reduce the NCD by 2 years with a pending claim and will only reinstate if the claim is closed as non fault ( full recovery of outlay being made).

If you change Insurers, you will need to keep in touch with previous Insurers to check in the status. Once the claim has been settled and closed off, you can then update your new Insurers.

NB. Some Insurers won't quote with an outstanding claim.

dacouch

The specialist motor broker must have just started that morning

dwj

dacouch wrote: »

The specialist motor broker must have just started that morning

I must admit I was slightly disappointed with her response.

They are the biggest motor broker in my region, with outlets in just about every town around here.

Are there any national brokers you could suggest who might give me a more favourable answer?

Quentin

A local broker (not swinton) should be able to help, an independent should be as good as any "national"!

Dave101t

thats why they are big! big and bad!

dacouch

For the record this is what will happen if you stay with the existing Insurer.

When you recover your excess from the other party, you send a copy of the cheque and letter to the Insurers. They see the other party has accepted liability and record the claim as your fault. They will then reinstate your no claims bonus. They may reduce the loading or waive it totally for the claim. A refund is then made or your remaining instalments are reduced.

If you go to a new Insurer, you do the above except for the last two sentences, the old Insurer sends you revised no claims bonus showing the reinstated no claims. You send this to the new Insurer and they then carry out the last two sentences eg reinstate no claims and adjust any claims loadings and refund / adjust your instalments.

If your with a new Insurer, getting the premiums revised takes slightly longer.

I suspect the "specialist" you saw, either did not understand the system or could not compete on price or could not be bothered.