wrong i.d

jps1976

i've been getting quote's online for my car insurance and discovered an accident my dad had in 2009 is on my file(we both have the same first names and address) and has obviously affected the price of my insurance,rang the company he was with at the time of the accident and they've said it's down to the underwriter's.i rang them and they passed it back to the other company and said it's down to them,rang them back and told me my dad had to ring them to give them authority and is hopefully now in the process of being sorted.what complaint/action can i take against both these companies and can i claim the money back of my current insurer for my rising insurance over the past couple of years which has gone up drastically.

InsideInsurance

What do you mean "its on your file"? What exactly has happened?

Your premium will be based purely on what you tell your insurers when you complete a quote. If they subsequently check a number of sources and find a discrepancy they will contact you to advise of the issue and what course of action they are taking (eg cancel the policy for non-disclosure or amend the policy and charge an additional premium)

You also say you contacted the insurer and they said to contact the underwriter, it sounds therefore like you contacted the broker or an intermediary and they told you to contact the insurer (aka underwriters)

jps1976

the insurance company i contacted were the company my dad was with at the time when he had his accident and claim.what i'm saying is this claim has been accredited to me on whatever database insurance companies check to find out if you have made any claims in the past 5 years.

vaio

Presumably you haven't been declaring it, has any of your insurance companies ever mentioned it?

jps1976

what would i need to declare?i wasn't involved in the accident nor was it my vehicle and i don't use any of the insurers that were involved in the claim.the quote i got today wasn't my current insurers and i did it online,when i ticked the disclaimer box stating i'd had no claims or accidents in the past 5 years,it then did an online check,is it similar to a hpi check?the info of the said accident my dad was involved in showed up.i then rang the company i was doing the quote with and they gave me the name of the company that was involved in the claim and told me to ring them.

forgotmyname

Did you phone them today and say its not your incident?

rs65

Is your dad a named driver on your policy?

jps1976

yes,rang and informed them and then it turned into a case of passing the buck,with one insurer claiming it was down to the other.i was then told by the company my dad had his policy with at the time that he'd have to give them authority to correct the information with the underwriters.i know have to contact my own insurers tomorrow and inform them of what's happened because it probably explains the fairly large increase for my own policy for the past three years.

rs65

Is he a named driver on your policy?

Did you disclose his accident when you took out your policy?

jps1976

no,he's not a named driver on my policy,i've been with the same insurers for 8 years and have automatic renewal on my policy, i've never been involved in any accidents,had a claim or any convictions,so contact with my own insurers has been at a bare minimum.i never questioned the rising price because it seemed to be a general gripe amongst a lot of people so i never thought to ring and question it.

vaio

the "steep" increases are more likely a function of auto-renewal than the wrong info on cue, some regard it as a tax on those too lazy to shop around....

Not all insurers check cue for every customer and if you've been with them continuously for the last eight years then I guess it's even less likely they would check.

If they did check and discovered something you hadn't disclosed then you can be sure they would have been in touch tell you and to collect extra premium