MY car insurance goes up because someone hit me???

jeannieblue

I had someone hit my car, it went through insurance. The other party was to blame, my no claims is intact - over 14 years of no claims. I am trying to renew my insurance, getting horrendous quotes and they are saying that this is because of this accident!? It wasn't MY fault!!

They say that this is the way things are now due to false claims etc.! But other party admitted fault, and I am being penalised too?

Can anyone advise? I'm finding this really difficult to swallow, I have tried six different companies so far and they are all saying something similar!

happycamel_2

Apparently being in an accident makes you more likely to be involved in another and they adjust the premiums accordingly.

jeannieblue

I can vaguely see that ...... but being parked at the time makes it seem even more unreasonable! Why should I be responsible for other bad drivers! His excuse was something like, I couldn't see, not used to the dark tinted windows! I'm feeling really angry!

Aretnap

I'm surprised if it's causing you to get horrendous quotes. How much shopping around have you done? YMMV, but from a quick play on GoCompare it looks like a recent £2000 no fault claim with full recovery from the other party would have almost no effect on my cheapest quote (£238 vs £235), and many of the others would only go up by 5-10%. What was your last premium and what are you looking at now? Is this a straightforward competed case, or is it a bit more complicated than the one I tried - eg have you got a full recovery from the third party yet?

Best advice is to do as much shopping around as you can - use all the price comparison websites, and if you're still finding it difficult try a local broker.

As for why a no fault accident puts your premium up, well it's not very fair, but neither is life. Insurers aren't out to penalise you - they just see you risk as different. Some of them see a correlation between no faut accidents and future claims - and if they do they'll increase their premiums for people with no fault accidents.

Why might people who've had no fault accidents be at greater risk of having a fault accident in future? Well, why they're a greater risk is actually less important to insurers than the fact that the data show that they are. But it's fun to speculate, so here are a few possible explanations

(1) Fault isn't necessarily clear cut and the fact that you were found not to be at fault doesn't necessarily mean that you were completely blameless. A few years ago I rather knobbishly cut into a line of queuing traffic, slammed the brakes on... and the guy behind me didn't brake hard enough. He admitted liability and I was hardly going to argue with that, but the truth is that it was partly my fault for driving aggressively, and I would have had no cause for complaint had it gone 50:50. Certainly I had no cause for complaint when it put my premium up the next year.

(2) It could be a sign that you drive on dangerous roads which don't leave much margin for error. Who is more likely to have his car hit while parked - the guy who lives on a wide street with bags of room for manoeuvre, or the guy who lives on a narrow street with cars parked on both sides and just enough room to squeeze down the middle? Now, of the same two guys, who is more likely to prang someone else's car if he has a dozy moment of his own setting off for work in the morning? Or perhaps you were hit on a winding country lane with blind bends which you drive on your way to work - you're at more risk of suffering from someone else's carelessness, but there's also more risk of causing an accident if you have a careless moment of your own.

(3) Similar to (2), it could be a sign that you live or drive in an area with a lot of careless drivers, and the next time one of them hits you there's a risk that he'll just drive off, leaving your own insurer to clear up the mess.

These may or may not apply to you personally, but it makes sense that as a group people who've had no fault accidents might be at somewhat higher risk of making future claims than people who haven't.

vaio

if the increased premium is a result of the accident then you can recover it from the other insurer same as any other consequential cost

jeannieblue

Firstly, this happened in a quiet car park at work, all visible on CCTV. He admitted fault, it was settled and car repaired. Straightforward and no arguments.

Over 14 years of unblemished record hardly makes me risky as someone who is likely to have an accident in my works car park where I have parked for over 11 years without incident.

I have been on Go Compare and have spoken to six different insurers so far, who have all given the same excuse. The quotes look good but when you speak to them, and inform them of the claim, then the quote jumps up. Saying that it is due to all the false claims that are being made these days.......

I wil certainly check out to see if I can claim for the increase in premium! But who with? I want to change who I am currently with!

spacey2012

It will depend if you accepted a "full and final" settlement

jeannieblue

Ok, will have to check that out Spacey, thanks. I possibly did as car was repaired to my satisfaction, another annoying factor is that the car was only about a month old when this happened!!

ging84

you cannot claim for increases in the cost of your insurance

What sort of response did you give when ask what your best quote so far was?

The majority of insurance companies will give higher quotes for people who have had a no fault claim, so it does not matter if the insurer believes you are more likely to claim again, they will certainly expect you to receive higher quotes from most other insurers and it is them they are trying to compete against.
What this can mean is that although they are quoting higher, they may have the scope to discount significantly, if you phone up and suggest a realistic best quote, they may be able to beat it

spacey2012

You can claim for any loss caused for 6 years, unless you limit it by unwitting accepting a full and final settlement.

jeannieblue

Thank you for all the advice, I will be better armed for when I ring around tomorrow! Obviously as the car was new I wanted it repaired properly and the other person wanted to go through insurance!