Can Extra cost of Car Insrance be claime back

AVENUE

I recently had my car written off whilst parked. Full liability was accepted by other persons insurance and has had no effect on my no claims.


In getting another car to replace the written off one, all Insurance quotes were much higher than my previous car as apparently because it was a new vehicle to me then this is normal.


So now instead of my previous £23 per month premiums I'm having to pay £35 per month. This is via a different insurer than the one I was with at the time of the claim as it was much cheaper than their quote of £52 per month.


What I'm asking is why should I through no fault of my own have to pay more in Insurance premiums than I was before and is it possible to claim back the difference in my old insurance premiums & my new ones & if so how do I go about it bearing in mind I've changed insurers now?


Many Thanks - Avenue

InsideInsurance

You can attempt to, though success rates are low as it is very difficult to prove what element of it is purely due to the incident and not just the normal market movement in prices etc.

What car did you have, what have you got now?

That size of differences sounds far too big just to be because of experience with the vehicle. I went from a car of 7 years to a brand new car worth ten times the value and the price went up by only £100 a year

Buzby

No - not a chance. Your insurance is annual, not monthly. You choose to pay it this way and will pay more as a result on the additional work required to administer. You will also have been billed a change of policy fee to cover the replacement vehicle. This however IS reclaimable, but you may find that this has sailed as you will have agreed to the settlement provided.

The watchword is 'betterment' - this isn't allowed. Your replacement car is probably better in some way than the one that was written off?

OnanTheBarbarian

Only if the increase is due to your risk profile changing, i.e. the fact you have to declare the non-fault claim for the next 5 years.

To demonstrate what the increase is today, you need to run 2 quotes for your new vehicle on a couple of the price comparison sites, one quote with the non-fault claim declared and one without it. See what the difference is.

You can't claim for more expensive insurance because you bought a newer or more expensive/ higher insurance grouped car as you have bettered your position with a newer and riskier vehicle, rather than replacing with the same age, make, model etc.

It is impossible to forecast what insurance rates will be at in 2-5 years time though and how much loading may apply to the declared claim. So the high water mark on any possible claim for increased premiums would be 5 x whatever the difference in premium is per annum now.

Aretnap

Your old insurance company should have given you the option of transferring your old policy to your new car. Did they offer this and did you take them up?

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/technical_notes/motor-valuation.html#17

If you changed the car they might have imposed a pro data increase in the premium, but if you replaced the old one with an identical one your old insurer should in theory not have charged you any extra (bar possibly an admin fee) to transfer the policy to it. Of course, if you took the opportunity to upgrade to a newer, more powerful or more expensive car, the third party would not be liable for the extra insurance premiums you incurred as a result.

AVENUE

Aretnap wrote: »

Your old insurance company should have given you the option of transferring your old policy to your new car. Did they offer this and did you take them up?

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/technical_notes/motor-valuation.html#17

If you changed the car they might have imposed a pro data increase in the premium, but if you replaced the old one with an identical one your old insurer should in theory not have charged you any extra (bar possibly an admin fee) to transfer the policy to it. Of course, if you took the opportunity to upgrade to a newer, more powerful or more expensive car, the third party would not be liable for the extra insurance premiums you incurred as a result.

The Car I had was a W (2000) Reg Vauxhall Astra Estate Automatic, when I was looking at replacement vehicles I found an almost exact replacement really, an X (2000) Reg model with same specs...only 6 months newer. I had been paying £23 per month & was quoted £35 per month for the replacement vehicle...this would have been on my existing policy (Groupama via Swinton), which I though was ridiculous for basically the same vehicle!


I wasn't really sure I wanted that car in any case so started looking at others. I got a 2003 Mondeo Auto in the end....but Swinton quoted £52 per month to add that car to my existing policy whereas by going online I got it insured elsewhere for £35 per month. I had to pay £50 cancelation fee to Swinton & £41 to Groupama but that still worked out cheaper than adding the Mondeo onto my existing policy!


Many Thanks - Avenue

[Deleted User]

Sounds like you have a case if you found a nearly identical car but were quoted so much more. The principal in law is simple: you should not be out of pocket. If you suffer a financial loss, such as having to pay more, you can claim it back. It might be hard, but you can in principal.

cjgoodsell

Did you have to put a date of purchase in for the car?

I know that when I worked for Swinton some of the insurers gave a discount for the length of time you owed the car. Try it online by putting in the date you got your original car. If in doubt give them a call and ask them to speak to the underwriters at Groupama.

I could be wrong may of changed I left there November time!

AVENUE

cjgoodsell wrote: »

Did you have to put a date of purchase in for the car?

I know that when I worked for Swinton some of the insurers gave a discount for the length of time you owed the car. Try it online by putting in the date you got your original car. If in doubt give them a call and ask them to speak to the underwriters at Groupama.

I could be wrong may of changed I left there November time!

Yes they did a requote by putting the "new" car onto the original policy & came up with those increased figures which I think is not fair but they said that's just how it is!


Many Thanks - Avenue

vaio

It's a commercial decision for your insurers so they don't need to justify it but if they did then their argument would be that by having the crash you have shown that you drive/park in places where accidents happen and so you are an increased risk.

The extension of this is that the increase has come about because of someone else's negligence so they are liable provided you can demonstrate that the increase is a consequence of the accident. The way to do this would be two quotes with all the details the same apart from the accident.