Don't EVER notify your car insurance of an 'incident' if you don;t intend to claim!!!

fimonkey

If you read your car insurance policy it says you have to notify them of any incident that may lead to a claim.

Last year a garage roof fell on my car during the storms. Superficial damage only (scratches) but I dutifully told my insurance company, but stated at the time I DID NOT WANT TO MAKE A CLAIM!

Now I've come to renew my policy and have been charged an extra £80 becuase I have a 'no fault no payout claim' recorded against me!!!

Ludicrous or what? After talking to the monkeys and numpty's who work for private car insurance, I'm told a 'claim' is the word they use for 'incident' or 'notification' and the main point is that it says it was not my fault and no payout. BUT the main point to me is that because I was honest, I've been charged an extra £80 and this stays n my record for the next 5 years!!!!

WAKE UP INSURANCE COMPANIES!!!

lisyloo

Have you shopped around?
Vote with your feet.

fimonkey

Yes I originally used confused.com and money supermarket. I went with the cheapest and tried to complete online but was told I had to call them. I dutifully did this to be told of this 'claim' on file. I still maintain IT WAS NOT A CLAIM!! I then tried to buy insurance online with the next few cheapest insurance companies online and was told again I had to call them, and had the same answer (and more or less same increase in premium)

I tried to re-enter my search terms in the two search sites, saying YES to a 'claim' in past 5 years, but then it wouldn't let me enter '0' as the cost of the claim! So still had to do it via telephone, and no amount of protesting on my part made any differnce to the numpty's who's lives and decisions are made by computers.

Stuffed if you do, stuffed if you don't. But hopefully my story will save someone else from being stitched up!

lisyloo

Thanks for letting us know.

Perhaps you have (unwittingly) highlighted yourself as the sort of person that might claim. I'm not suggesting you did anything wrong (in fact you were honest) but maybe that's how their scheming logic might work.

fimonkey

Well Lisyloo, you're EXACTLY right according to the guy at the insurance company I spoke to... which is ludicrous in reality, as I was playing by the book in notifying them OF AN INICIDENT AND STATED THAT I DID NOT WANT TO MAKE A CLAIM! (If I was statistically likely to make a claim, I would have done so and got the scratches repaired)......Oh well lesson learnt, there's nothing to be gained by being honest with your insurance company!!!

asea

i think you're right to be upset. my understanding is that you should inform them it's a part of 'utmost good faith' that both you & the insurer rely on for the contract. but they should have a separate recording device for incidents that are never to become a claim

michaels

I got a stone chip on the bonnet this morning - better call the insurance company and let them know so they can screw me when I come to renew...may be if we all did this the system would colapse under the wieght or admin required?

jackieb

That's ridiculous. Why do we really need to tell them anyway if we've no intention of claiming?

purply

my husband's car was a write off after he had an incident-it wasn't a serious accident-i say 'write-off' in the sense that the damage caused was more than the value of the car. he didnt claim and we never heard from the other party either.

when i renewed the car insurance on MY car, with him as a 2nd driver, i didnt indicate he had had an incident as it would not allow me to put the value of the claim-ie £0!

so ive just left it as no incidents.

cheers

bristol_pilot

This seems to be quite a common problem. I registered an incident after a car bumped into mine from behind when I was stationary in a traffic queue. My car was undamaged, the other car had a bit of a dent. On renewal, my insurance company didn't load my premium, but because I had a 'no fault zero cost' claim registered it made it difficult to shop around with other companies - the computer will not accept £0 as the cost of a claim. By the next time I renew 3 years will have passed...only another two to go then!

Anyone from the Motor Insurance industry care to post?

bristol_pilot

jackieb wrote: »

Why do we really need to tell them anyway if we've no intention of claiming?

In case someone else makes a claim against us relating to the incident. If we haven't reported the incident and the insurance company finds out anyway due to the other party's claim we could be prosecuted for fraud when renewing.