Insurance Rules!

Lillypad1791

Last year, someone hit my car and rudely drove off leaving no details. I advised my Insurance Company 1st Car Central who told me to take it to a garage and get a quote etc etc. The damage wasn't too bad and as my access was £250 and the cost of getting the car fixed would have been around £300, i decided not to pursue the claim as I did not want to increase my future insurance costs, even though I had a no claims bonus. I had intended on getting the work done myself, but have not had the spare cash as yet.

This year I received two renewal quotes from this company, one via post and the other via e-mail, which vary in price. I discussed this variation with the sales team and was advised that the higher quote included the claim made on my policy the previous year and the lower valued quote did not.

So, just because I reported the incident to the Insurance company, I have been financially penalised even though I did not make a financial claim against them??? I clearly should have just continued with the claim, taken the car to a garage and got the work done by them. What incentive does this rule give me to report future incidences which may occur?

huckster

Yes you do have to think about whether to report such an incident, if you could get the repairs done yourself. It was not as if, a third party was going to report the claim involving your car, which was parked at the time.

Make sure 1st Central have closed the claim off and recorded it as nil settlement.

vaio

Your problem (and it's a common one) is that by mentioning the incident to your insurer you've told them that you are in the habit of parking where hit & run drivers play.

This time you didn't make a claim but your insurer is worried that next time the damage will be worse and worth a claim so your premium has gone up as you are more of a risk. I'd guess it would have gone up even more if you'd made a claim this time.

Sadly, once you've mentioned this sort of thing to an insurer they will put it on the CUE database so you'll have to disclose it to future insurers for the next 3/5 years.

forgotmyname

The incentive is to have a read of some of the threads started on here by people that failed to disclose information to the insurers and found they would not pay out for a claim. Or worse found out the policy was cancelled by the police stopping them and towing their car away.

Is that incentive enough?