Car insurance up for just phoning them?

trevoralf

Hi,

I've been insured with eSure for a number of years but my renewal quote just came through £100 higher than last year (up from 200 to 300). Looked on Go Compare and found several quotes for £200 including Admiral so cancelled esure and called Admiral. Was going through the questions and right at the end I was questioned about by reply to the accidents, claims etc in the last 5 years question (to which i'd replied no). I was told there was a record of an issue through Hamilton Insurance (possibly a broker that esure use?) in November.
I didn't have a clue what they were talking about until I remembered that someone in my car park at work had driven into my parked car at work. There seemed to be a few scrapes but nothing major and we agreed to deal with it privately, but I called esure just in case I had issues with the guy involved later on. Nothing was ever done about it as there was virtually no damage. They said it had been entered as a 'Notified' but it wouldn't affect me adversely in anyway.
It now appears that it has - presumably simply notifying them of an accident against which there was never a claim and in which my car was not even moving has led to insurance companies collectively raising my insurance by £100. Presumably, as I will have to point this out for the next 5 years, just notifying them this will cost me £500 in total over the next 5 years. :mad:
I've renewed with Admiral anyway (policy runs out imminently) and I've learnt my lesson (keep my mouth shut, not only to other drivers but the insurance companies themselves), but surely they are having a laugh and cannot justify this is anyway? Presumably I can do absolutely nothing about this, but thought i'd check if anybody had any comments\thoughts?

Thanks in advance,
T

adamc260

You had an 'incident' and they believe that to be a higher risk than someone who hasn't had one so charge a higher premium. Harsh but.. that's life eh?

It's the condition of your policy to notify your insurer of any incidents btw.

vaio

adamc260 wrote: »

You had an 'incident' and they believe that to be a higher risk than someone who hasn't had one so charge a higher premium. Harsh but.. that's life eh?

It's the condition of your policy to notify your insurer of any incidents btw.

yep, and it's a principle of english tort that if you suffer a loss as a result of the negligence of another then they (or their insurers) must compensate you.

loading innocents for non fault incidents is a nice income stream for insurers which they will continue to milk until the innocents start reclaiming the loadings from insurers

hardworking_mummy

My car was damaged (lightly scratched) when parked up outside my house. I informed my insurer via telephone what had happened and who had done it. For some reason my terrible insurance company could not be bothered to chase up the company responsible (they asked me to do it). I refused and told them to leave it and I would deal with it myself. When it came to my renewal it was noted, but it had the cost of my claim as £0 and I kept my full no claims bonus. My renewal with them had not increased, but I went elsewhere as they have proved themselves to have pretty dire service!

McKneff

don't keep your 'mouth shut'

It is in your terms and conditions that you notify them of incidents.

Look at it this way.

If you dont and somehow the other party informs their insurance company, your details will be on the Central Data Base. Couple of years down the line, you have a major accident, kill somebody, trash their car, trash your car, you maim somebody for life, you maim your family in the car, claim on your insurance, policy voided for 'previous non disclosure' . Your life wouldn't be worth living.

You have done the right thing, hopefully the other party informed their insurance company or they face the scenario above if they try to claim in the future.
Some insurance do put the premiums up and some dont, Coop don't or Aegis, been and done that twice.

McKneff

hardworking_mummy wrote: »

My car was damaged (lightly scratched) when parked up outside my house. I informed my insurer via telephone what had happened and who had done it. For some reason my terrible insurance company could not be bothered to chase up the company responsible (they asked me to do it). I refused and told them to leave it and I would deal with it myself. When it came to my renewal it was noted, but it had the cost of my claim as £0 and I kept my full no claims bonus. My renewal with them had not increased, but I went elsewhere as they have proved themselves to have pretty dire service!

They have advised you rightly, it is by far the best and easiest way if the other party admits liability then deal directly with the other parties insurance company. Done and dusted in a week or so.
If you use your company, they contact them, they answer back, back and forth, you pay your excess, then you have to claim yourself for uninsured losses. ie (excess) More hassle for you. So in actual fact it saved you a lot of time and stress.
Could be several weeks/months before its all sorted.

forgotmyname

Lucky they pulled this up now, As you could have found yourself uninsured.

They could say you failed to declare the incident and cancel the policy. Its happened to members on here.

So the other quotes were cheaper because you failed to disclose this. Good job it wasnt found out if you needed to claim.

hardworking_mummy

McKneff wrote: »

They have advised you rightly, it is by far the best and easiest way if the other party admits liability then deal directly with the other parties insurance company. Done and dusted in a week or so.
If you use your company, they contact them, they answer back, back and forth, you pay your excess, then you have to claim yourself for uninsured losses. ie (excess) More hassle for you. So in actual fact it saved you a lot of time and stress.
Could be several weeks/months before its all sorted.

It wasn't "advice" as such. The company who owned the vehicle that had damaged my car just weren't responding to my insurers, so when I rang to find out what was happening with my claim, the claims advisor said we can't get them to respond - will you ring them and get back to us?. As I had a 5 day old baby at the time - I flat out refused. My car kept its scratches until last month when a neighbour's son managed to drive into my door. We dealt with it ourselves and now my car is repaired and totally scratch free

McKneff

And did you inform the insurance company of the 'driver hit the door'

hardworking_mummy

McKneff wrote: »

They have advised you rightly, it is by far the best and easiest way if the other party admits liability then deal directly with the other parties insurance company. Done and dusted in a week or so.
If you use your company, they contact them, they answer back, back and forth, you pay your excess, then you have to claim yourself for uninsured losses. ie (excess) More hassle for you. So in actual fact it saved you a lot of time and stress.
Could be several weeks/months before its all sorted.

McKneff wrote: »

And did you inform the insurance company of the 'driver hit the door'

Nope. They paid for the repair and that was all I was interested in. No doubt had I informed his insurance company his premiums would have gone through the roof. He's a young lad, who's back living with his folks due to financial problems. I didn't want to add to his misery. To be fair there were no witnesses - he could have driven off and I would have been none the wiser.

Quentin

hardworking_mummy wrote: »

Nope. They paid for the repair and that was all I was interested in. No doubt had I informed his insurance company his premiums would have gone through the roof. He's a young lad.......

You miss the point.

You don't need to contact the "culprit's" insurers, but you do need to inform your own insurer!

This "young lad" may realise that he ought to have reported this incident as he gets older and wiser, and decides to do so (maybe at his next renewal) to ensure his policy cannot be voided in future for deliberate non disclosure.

By not telling your insurer you are in breach of the policy conditions, and leave them (and future insurers) the opportunity to void your policy, as they will find out if the young lad does the report this!