Car insurance /renewal help please

charlie3090

Hi,
In June this year I had an elderly gentleman say that i bumped his car when i pulled into a space,
I was doing under 10 mph and i didnt feel a thing,I looked at his car and there was a light graze about the size of a 5p piece.
I said sorry to him but i said i didnt believe I had touched his car.
i rubbed it with my finger and there was nothing there at all.
he was going crazy and insisted on swapping insurance details which i did.
I told my insurers everything,took a picture of this mark which didnt even show,they assured me it was nothing to worry about and they would make sure it went to their designated garage and would keep me informed but they didnt expect that any repair was needed.
I havent heard another word.
Today I have my renewal and they have taken 5 years no claims from me, i had 9 now i have 4 and my policy has gone up quite a lot.
on the claims part it says they payed £900 for this tiny alleged graze on the edge of the bumper(a little kia pride).
I just wondered if this is normal, I have driven for over 20 years and this is the first time I have ever had an insurance issue or collision of any kind.
apologies for the length of the post,
Charlie.

vaio

sounds about right, you lost NCB from 6 (I guess the max your insurer counts) down to 4 and now have a fault claim on your record.

Hit the web & shop around is my advice

charlie3090

vaio wrote: »

sounds about right, you lost NCB from 6 (I guess the max your insurer counts) down to 4 and now have a fault claim on your record.

Hit the web & shop around is my advice

thankyou for your reply,im just so puzzled why they would pay £900 without even telling me as there was no damage ,i took photos,told them i didnt believe i had touched the car,i guess im just naive but how can this happen?.
they had promised me that they would let me know ,
Charlie.

hugoshavez

charlie3090 wrote: »

thankyou for your reply,im just so puzzled why they would pay £900 without even telling me as there was no damage ,i took photos,told them i didnt believe i had touched the car,i guess im just naive but how can this happen?.
they had promised me that they would let me know ,
Charlie.

It sounds like you've been entirely responsible, and your insurer has treated you poorly by breaking their promise.

I'd consider complaining, and asking them to reveal the nature of the TP damage they paid for, and/or reduce the renewal premium.

Or if you change insurer run a comparison quote without the claim, and ask your old insurer to pay the difference between that, and what you end up paying.

charlie3090

Hi,
After speaking to my insurers today they tell me that they have made a mistake and just paid out £814 without requesting any documents for the repairs.They have told me that they are going to now request this and for me to send the photos in.
What rubbish this is,I wonder how many times this happens?
I dont intend to let this drop as I believe this is fraudulent in some way,if they dont resolve this I will try the fos,
needless to say,I didnt take up their renewal offer:rotfl:

lisyloo

I dont intend to let this drop

Good for you.
I recommend you keep a diary with names, dates and times of phone calls. Take surnames is anyone is called Jon or Sue as there may be 200 Jons working there.
These details not only help if you need to retrieve voice recordings, but also add credibility to your complaint and give a record of your actions.

You can make a formal complaint.
If that doesn't get satisfaction you can also ultimately go to the Ombudsman who is free and independent (but not necessarily quick).

Keep records of how much this has cost you so that you can provide the details if you are able to reclaim.

Paint repairs can cost a lot of money for entire panels but it sounds like something other that your "damage" has been repaired here.
Your insurer has let you down here.
Can you name and shame so that others can consider NOT using them in future?

charlie3090

certainly,
Hastings Direct:)

Oli.s

My brother was with Virgin a few years ago, he reversed into a parking space and parked up, and the car alarm of the car behind him started going off, he was a good foot and a half away from the car and hadnt reversed in then pulled forward slightly so was adamant he handnt touched the car in any way shape or form.

There were no marks at all on either car and the car behind was filthy and there was no disturbance to the dirt.

Two weeks later, knock at the door, local traffic bobby advising it had been reported as a fail to stop damage accident. He spoke to my brother and even said he's seen the other car which had the tiniest scratch (BMW Z3) which he believed was a stone chip.

He was of the opinion that there was no accident, apparantly someone had seen the alarm start going off and assumed my brother had hit the car, but had also said it was very very windy. And left a note with my brothers details.

The police man wrote the report off that he was not satisfied an accident had occurred after speaking with my brother and this witness.

A few weeks later Virgin wrote to him advising that this guy had made a claim, my brother went through the circs again with them and they wrote to him saying they would deny the claim.

Que renewal time, they send his renewal with a fault claim for £750, they had actually for this guys entire bumper repair, courtesy car for a few days etc etc and not even bothered to tell my brother they had completley gone back on their correspondance stating they would refuse the claim.

He complained and they just brushed it off saying that it was cheaper to pay up than go to court as the other insurer was pressing the issue.

After complaints to the regulator backed up by virgin correspondance he had his NCD reinstated and they gave him a very cheap renewal but he had to fight tooth and nail to get it.

charlie3090

Oli,
thankyou so much, that gives me some hope, i still dont believe i touched his car but to be honest because he was elderly and really shouting at me i thought i would do as he asked and give him my insurance details.
I have now sent my complaint to the insurers, to be honest its not even the ncb that bothers me, it just that its a complete lie,
whether it is the repairers or insurers i dont know but how can there be an £814 bill (kindly rounded up to £900 by my insurers)when there was nothing there,this tiny graze was not even visible without my glasses,didnt show on camera etc,i am going to take this as far as i can because this is why everyones insurance is so expensive if they just do this on a regular basis.
Charlie.

lisyloo

He complained and they just brushed it off saying that it was cheaper to pay up than go to court as the other insurer was pressing the issue.

This is dreadful service especially in the case where there is a police report.

but he had to fight tooth and nail to get it.

It shouldn't be like this but does show that there are avenues to go down - either the ombudsman or the small claims court.

Hastings_Direct_company_representative

charlie3090 wrote: »

certainly,
Hastings Direct:)

Hi charlie3090,

I am sorry to hear about this situation. I am glad you have been able to find some helpful advise on this forum and I am sure I will be able to help you get this resolved. Can you please contact me with some policy details so that I can investigate. [EMAIL="socialmedia@hastingsdirect.com"]socialmedia@hastingsdirect.com[/EMAIL]

Many Thanks,
Jamie