Hastings & Admiral: Honest drivers hit by insurance penalties

Crabman

Interesting that a 'claim' was logged in both these cases and that both insurance companies apologised, refunded and compensated both policy holders when their 'error' was highlighted.

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/cars/article-2467812/Honest-drivers-hit-insurance-penalties.html

Of course these were two isolated errors that just happened to financially benefit the insurers... :think:

OddballJamie

How is this newsworthy? Driver has accident, informs insurance company, renewal goes up.

What happened to the first driver does sound iffy as it seems they put the price up mid policy which is odd. Then again it was most likely written by a Mail journo.

Quentin

The article is misleading. But it was from the Mail, so why give it credence here?

It suggests that reporting losses should not affect future premiums. When in practice it usually does, and should be expected.

Indeed the last paragraph confirms this to be far from newsworthy, and journalistic jingo!

Gocompare sought the top ten quotes for a 29-year-old in Cardiff driving a Volkswagen Golf. Then it did the same search, where one incident had been reported but no claim had been made. The difference in annual premiums varied between zero and £52.

peter_the_piper

I made the mistake of telling my insurance co that I had damaged my front door (house) but found the excess was greater than the repair cost so did not make a claim. Come next renewal they doubled the price. Happens outside of just motoring.

Crabman

OddballJamie wrote: »

How is this newsworthy? Driver has accident, informs insurance company, renewal goes up.

Both insurance companies wrongly registered the incidents as claims. That's why it's newsworthy. There is a distinction between an insurance premium rising because of a claim on a policy or purely because information was provided.

The insurance company apologised for their "one-off" error in these cases.

Steve059

And how many other customers pay these "speculative invoices"?

Times are hard, and these poor insurance companies are evidently getting ... how can I put this kindly? .... inventive.

PS. See this other thread about Admiral ...

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/842921