Issues with Admiral car insurance - help needed

juniper_berry

Hi All,

I recently renewed my car insurance deciding to go with Admiral. Previously I have always been with Elephant and Diamond and never had any problems.

I thought I had declared everything correctly:

My partner had speeding fine in 2010
He also had an accident in April 2011 which resulted in the car being written off for a grand total of £50.

I had an accident in Nov 2011 (which my partner was driving the car).

I declared all of this to the insurers and joked with the woman that it wasnt even me driving on 'my' accident and she said that this would in fact go under my partners name not mine.

I paid £430 for 10 months as I wasnt planning on using my car for much longer.

Everything seemed fine until I received 2 seperate emails from Admiral telling me they were adding an additional £120 and £70 charges for discrepancies.

Panicking I called them to be told that they had added an additional speeding fine (it turns out I wrote 2009 not 2010!!) However it shouldn't make a difference to the cost. They also said they were adding on an additional accident which my partner was involved in (he was hit and the claim never got resolved so was written off completely). Therefore because it was closed I didnt think it was necessary to declare - on my last insurance the claim was still in the process of being sorted, this time it wasnt.

They also claimed that my accident was worth a lot more - I noted the settlement I received as I didnt know any other figure.

I have argued with Admiral claiming that even with these amendments - the closed claim of no value, 'my' accident and the one correct fine date, it does not justify adding nearly £200 on to my insurance. I did a check with other companies and it increased it £30.

Admiral are telling me that they will be taking this money by 10th November and I dont know what rights I have. They are suspending payment withdrawal because they need to confirm I did declare my accident however, I am worried as I dont know what I can do about this.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated...and apologies for waffling!

LittleMax

Diamond and Elephant are both Admiral companies, so in fact you are not with a new company at all. Possibly why all previous claims have been shared so efficiently.

Unfortunately the question they ask and then load the premium for is whether there have been any accidents not claims. That's why I never bother taking out no claims protection as even if I am involved in a claim I will have to declare it as an accident anyway and they will still up the premium.

dacouch

juniper_berry wrote: »

Hi All,

I recently renewed my car insurance deciding to go with Admiral. Previously I have always been with Elephant and Diamond and never had any problems.

I thought I had declared everything correctly:

My partner had speeding fine in 2010
He also had an accident in April 2011 which resulted in the car being written off for a grand total of £50.

I had an accident in Nov 2011 (which my partner was driving the car).

I declared all of this to the insurers and joked with the woman that it wasnt even me driving on 'my' accident and she said that this would in fact go under my partners name not mine.

I paid £430 for 10 months as I wasnt planning on using my car for much longer.

Everything seemed fine until I received 2 seperate emails from Admiral telling me they were adding an additional £120 and £70 charges for discrepancies.

Panicking I called them to be told that they had added an additional speeding fine (it turns out I wrote 2009 not 2010!!) However it shouldn't make a difference to the cost. They also said they were adding on an additional accident which my partner was involved in (he was hit and the claim never got resolved so was written off completely). Therefore because it was closed I didnt think it was necessary to declare - on my last insurance the claim was still in the process of being sorted, this time it wasnt.

They also claimed that my accident was worth a lot more - I noted the settlement I received as I didnt know any other figure.

I have argued with Admiral claiming that even with these amendments - the closed claim of no value, 'my' accident and the one correct fine date, it does not justify adding nearly £200 on to my insurance. I did a check with other companies and it increased it £30.

Admiral are telling me that they will be taking this money by 10th November and I dont know what rights I have. They are suspending payment withdrawal because they need to confirm I did declare my accident however, I am worried as I dont know what I can do about this.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated...and apologies for waffling!

It's based on the info as of the date you took your insurance out, to get a fairer (It's not actually relevant to the matter) idea of what other Insurers would charge you would need to adjust the dates of the accidents and convictions so they were the same age as when you took your Admiral policy

Buzby

The monetary angle is also a red herring - you are deemed to be a greater risk in the period following an accident, and whilst this diminishes over time the underwriters (who work out what your actual risk is and the odds of you having an accident) decide on the premium based on this calculation.

Unfortunately, their recalculation is based on their re-evaluation of your risk, and, as a female driver hav now lost an earlier discount based on gender

Your rights are limited to providing them with accurate informstion, you didn't and hey could have gone nuclear and cancelled the policy entirely. I'd pay up as any other option will work against you if you switch companies - especially if you have to answer Yes to has any company terminated or refused you cover.

Quentin

LittleMax wrote: »

......Unfortunately the question they ask and then load the premium for is whether there have been any accidents not claims. That's why I never bother taking out no claims protection as even if I am involved in a claim I will have to declare it as an accident anyway and they will still up the premium.

You are mixing up no claims discount and premium loading.

Your premium gets loaded if you have convictions and incidents/claims/change to a higher rated car etc.

Then any ncd is applied to the gross premium.

If you have protected ncd then you get the benefit as you don't get penalised twice following a fault claim.

ie. Although your premium gets loaded you get your protected discount level deducted from the premium, rather than losing 2 years off your ncd level as well.

LittleMax

I'm not mixing anything up ... I fully understand it. However, many people do not and are under the misaprehension that if they protect their no claims discount their premium will remain the same following an accident.

paddedjohn

LittleMax wrote: »

I'm not mixing anything up ... I fully understand it. However, many people do not and are under the misaprehension that if they protect their no claims discount their premium will remain the same following an accident.

But if you dont have protected no claims your premiums will rise further.

LittleMax

paddedjohn wrote: »

But if you dont have protected no claims your premiums will rise further.

No, the premium won't rise further ... it just won't fall as much when the lower no claims discount is applied

bouncydog1

To be pedantic, there is never any guarantee that the premium will remain the same.

No claims bonus protection does what it says - it protects the level of no claims bonus. It is normally only available once you have a minimum of 5 years which equates to c65% depending on insurer. You protect your bonus at 60% but in the event of a claim you don't lose it. Normally it would reduce back two steps on the first claim to either 40% or 50% depending on insurer.

Personally I would always choose to protect my no claims. 60% off £1000 is a lot better than 40% off a £1000!

dacouch

LittleMax wrote: »

Diamond and Elephant are both Admiral companies, so in fact you are not with a new company at all. Possibly why all previous claims have been shared so efficiently.

Unfortunately the question they ask and then load the premium for is whether there have been any accidents not claims. That's why I never bother taking out no claims protection as even if I am involved in a claim I will have to declare it as an accident anyway and they will still up the premium.

Without protected no claims, you will lose two years of your no claims bonus for any claims the Insurers cannot recover their outlay. You may still have loading applied for having a claim but the premium will normally be substantially lower than without protected no claims bonus.

When a claim is presented, Insurers will normally assume it's a fault claim and reduce your no claims bonus. If you have a renewal before they recover their money you will pay the premium based on reduced no claims bonus. This may be refunded should the Insurers recover their money at a later date.

Protected no claims bonus saves an absolute fortune if you have two or claims the Insurer cannot recover their outlay.

juniper_berry

Thanks for your replies.

I knew that Admiral etc were all part of the same group however, I still strongly believe a £200 increase isnt justified. I knew they would share details and admittedly after realising I had entered the wrong date 2009 rather than 2010 I told them this was incorrect. However, the accident which I believed went under my policy, where my partner was driving was declared therefore all information was as asked completed to the fullest of my knowledge.

I'm wondering whether to cancel the policy, get my money back and take out a new policy ensuring the claim which was cancelled is included and ensure that they definitely include all the correct details on it - it seems both they and myself are to blame.

I also did a requote with Admiral to confirm what figure they would likely charge with the amendments and there's is extremely inflated which is why I feel so adamant that I wont pay their £200 increase.