Cancelling insurance after a 3rd party claim

hermum

To me it's not a relatively small increase, with the APR it works out to almost £160 pa.

hermum

I never have or would, but I'm beginning to understand why some people break the law & don't insure, this is becoming a total nightmare.
Maybe when I can afford to get another car I will buy insurance through a broker where I can go into their office & have it explained. Believe it or not, I'm not as stupid as this thread no doubt implies.

tomtontom

hermum wrote: »

To me it's not a relatively small increase, with the APR it works out to almost £160 pa.

I'm sorry to be blunt but can you afford to run a car? How would you manage if the price of petrol increased, or you had an accident that was your fault? Perhaps you could have a look at the Debt free board and get some help with budgeting?

dacouch

hermum wrote: »

It wasn't a new insurer, I'd been with them a couple of weeks when the accident happened, the other party's insurer admitted liability.
It was when I replaced the car my insurers upped the premium by loads, as that was the price as of that day.
Other than on the written t&c's, (guess you should always print off & refer to the t&c's on a daily basis until you understand it all,) nobody advised me that there would be the full years premium to pay as well as the £50 cancellation fee. Had I been at fault, I could understand that but as they will claim back what they paid me & no doubt a huge admin fee from the other insurer it seems really wrong.
After an accident if you let your own insurance company handle the claim, they can charge you whatever they like for the rest of the year & you have to pay it.
So always best to go through the 3rd party insurance in a no fault claim.
Another very expensive life lesson.
On the new insurance, sorry I went off track there, I put down that there had been an accident and the date & would have said that it was a no fault as the other co had admitted liability. Looks like from your response that is also wrong.

Your Insurers can only recover their actual outlay from the other Insurers, they cannot recover any admin fees.

There is no 100% guarantee that they will recover their outlay from the other Insurers.

Your Insurers cannot charge whatever they want, they have to treat you fairly so can only charge what extra any other customer would pay.

Do you have protected no claims bonus? (I'm guessing you don't)

hermum

I think like a lot of people money is very tight & people have to decide what is to them priorities, I don't drink, smoke, go out, or buy clothes. I have though had a car since the early 80's and that to me is a priority.
I do budget (if I didn't, I wouldn't know that the increase is beyond my budget) & bought a car & insured it based on the original quote, which I budgeted for, I don't have debts.
If petrol increases a lot then I would budget for that increase by not using the car for non essential journeys.
If I should have an accident that is my fault then I would expect to be penalised for it.
I appreciate your input but as I said trying to keep a car was to me a priority.

hermum

dacouch wrote: »

Your Insurers can only recover their actual outlay from the other Insurers, they cannot recover any admin fees.

There is no 100% guarantee that they will recover their outlay from the other Insurers.

Your Insurers cannot charge whatever they want, they have to treat you fairly so can only charge what extra any other customer would pay.

Do you have protected no claims bonus? (I'm guessing you don't)

Yes I do, I've always protected them.
I was told that my NCD wouldn't be affected as it wasn't my fault.

Quentin

hermum wrote: »

Yes I do, I've always protected them.
I was told that my NCD wouldn't be affected as it wasn't my fault.

NCD does normally get reduced following a claim until the insurer gets full reimbursement of their outlay from the third party.

But whatever happens, the worst that can happen to you is you lose a protection "life" over this claim.

However you do need your old insurer to provide you with your NCD proof at the date you cancelled the policy to be able to get the same NCD with your new insurer, and as previously posted, many insurers won't do this if there is still an outstanding debt.

Pincher

Your case shows up the fallacy of paying for the premium monthly.

Some people think they can sell the car five months into a policy, and stop paying, and go to Ibiza for six months. What actually happens typically is you sign a credit agreement with a loan company. Let us say the premium is £500, so the loan company gives £500 to the insurance company, who is happy. You, however, now owe the loan company £560, spread over 12 months.

The online quote is always cheaper than the call centre.

I sold a 1.5L diesel COLT, and bought a 1.3L petrol COLT, two months into a policy. I checked online first; it was over £100 cheaper, on identical terms. Called Churchill up to change the vehicle, and they said there is no change in premium, so I said look at the online quote, giving the reference number. The call centre staff basically said they were not allowed to match online quotes, but since I am getting another Churchill policy, they will waive the cancellation charge, but I have to pay for the new one online myself, and then come back to them with the policy number. The only drawback was, the NCD year starts again with the new policy.

In terms of protecting the NCD, I'm not too sure it is a good thing.
I see a lot of "Was this NCD protected?" when filling out online forms these days. So they have every intention of ignoring it and charge you according to your claims history. Any claim, including No Fault, counts against you. I had five years NCD, but two No Fault claims over a five year period still forced my premium up to £600. It's only the 2009 claim disappearing over the five year horizon that means I pay £300+ now.