Car Insurance - What counts as an accident?

NH2004

I've been fortunate to enjoy 15 years of motoring without ever having an accident or having to claim on my insurance.

Last year however I had a couple of incidents, one a broken window, which I had repaired on my comprehensive insurance windscreen cover. So only had to pay the £50 excess.

In the other incident my car was hit whilst parked in the car park while I was shopping in Tescos. Fortunately the guy who did it was an honest chap and hung around to own up. The repair work was all covered by his own insurance, so I didn't need to make a claim.

My car insurance is now due for renewal and, after using a few of the screenscraper sites like Confused.com and Moneysupermarket.com to get quotes from many different companies, the best quote I've had so far, from over 30 companies is £130 more than last years premium.

So should I answer "Yes" to the question on "Whether I've been involved in an accident during the last 3 years?"

When I do, I'm definitley being penalised for the car park incident described above, as if I remove it from the quote forms, my premium would be £30 less than I paid last year.

I think this is grossly unfair, but it seems to be the same with all the companies, not just the odd few. So does this type of incident count as an "accident"?

I'm going to phone a few of the cheaper ones and explain the situation to them and see if I get any joy. I'll let you know what happens.

ben500

It's dodgy ground, to fulfill terms and conditions you must report it, that being said it would be discounted when calculating your premiums as a "no fault" incident unlikely to recur, however online quotes cannot make this judgement and will penalise you hence the increase premium, you could get contact quotes (telephone, email etc) but these may invalidate any online cashback scheme you might choose to use, you have to weigh up the benefits of losing cashback or higher premium. although having taken out the policy and had cashback there is nothing stopping you contacting the company direct and asking them to reduce premium once they have the full facts, they may go for it they may not.
HTH

aj3001

The windscreen was a claim against you, and the other one you will need to declare, but thats a no fault so won't effect your premium, claiming for the window may put it up a bit but I very much doubt anyone would give you a 25% loading on the policy for that!

Anon

You have to declare otherwise it can invalidate your insurance. However, there is an option on Confused.com and other insurance sites "Accident, other party hit you, claim O/S" or something similar (a no fault claim on other sites) - I had to tick it as someone ran into my car but the claim was completely covered by the other side (and it didn't seem to affect the premium).

Once you have worked out the correct options/details for getting reliable quotes, a reminder that it is worth looking at Quidco etc before buying as there are some great cashback options (£120 Lloyds TSB, £100 Prudential etc).

Anon

nearlyrich

I was under the impression that windscreen claims don't count ( but I have been insured by my company for over 5 years so that might have changed) The other incident should be reported but as a no fault fully recovered accident, premiums should not be adversely affected by an accident that has been paid for by the driver responsible.