Car Insurance - Accident not my fault.

MathewRaynor

Hi All,

So I am a 22 year old accountant, with his driving license for 5 years (only had a car 1).

My first year insurance was £838 which wasn't too bad however in February this year I was parked at some traffic lights and someone went in to me and wrote off my car.

They took complete liability, claim was settled and that was that.

However, I am just at the process of renewal and now I find the cheapest quote for this year is actually £1200 wherever I go.

I have put named drivers on etc but whatever I do it's a £350 increase for something not my fault.

I have a 1 year no claims bonus and therefore assumed my insurance would go down (even if very slightly).

Has anyone had this issue/ got a resolution/ got any helpful ideas?

All the best.

Mat

InsideInsurance

MathewRaynor wrote: »

I have put named drivers on etc but whatever I do it's a £350 increase for something not my fault.

Is that £350 because you are comparing it to last year or because you have done dummy quotes without the accident and they are coming out the same as last year?

To test the real impact of the claim you need to run a dummy quote using a fake name, slightly different address (but same postcode) etc and just omit the claim. Insurers review their prices frequently and the AA Price Index is showing premiums are now starting to rise again and so you cannot judge the impact of the claim based only on a comparison to last year.

Outside of that you just need to follow the normal tips of how to drive down the price.

There are some that will say you can attempt to reclaim the price increase from the third party but the chances are fairly slim. You would need that alternative quote from this year though to confirm the price difference.


Insurers increasingly use compound rating factors and so the impact of one change can be greater or lesser than the same change on someone else. I just ran some dummy quotes through Confused.com with a 22 year old, 5 year license and 1 years NCD and for the top 5 got the below difference by adding 1 non-fault claim

Go Skippy - +£37
LV= - no change
GA - no change
Policy Shop - +£41
Nationwide - no change

MathewRaynor

So,

Following your advice I did a dummy run. Low and behold I receive a quote of £825 from my current insurer (who at best this year offered me £1150). Therefore this is a £325 increase for a non-fault accident.

Any ideas on how to remedy this knowing that information?

Also the £825/£1150 is including all the money saving tips as mentioned on MSE, so there isn't much leeway to reduce further that way.

Thanks,

Mat

InsideInsurance

Some insurers will simply reduce their renewal quotes by you asking... you can say you've seen it cheaper elsewhere and want to know the best they can do. Admiral Group (Admiral, Elephant, Bell etc) in my experience will normally knock 25-30% off just for you asking.

Outside of that, then really theres not much you can do as there is something in your data that is notably different to the dummy quotes I did which is meaning that rather than the normal small increase you'd expect to see they are loading you with a large increase. The only option would be to attempt to recover the extra from the third party who caused the accident but the chances are fairly slim

stator

Sorry but statistics show that drivers who are involved in accidents are more likely to have more accidents even if it wasn't their fault. That is why insurance companies allways ask you about all accidents.
At this stage there is nothing you can do except shop around and find the lowest quote

forgotmyname

As above figures suggest your more likely to have more claims in the near future and premiums have risen again since they dropped earlier this year.

I was getting quotes around £1300 for a newly qualified driver, Not its closer to £2000 whether i use the same details passed in Jan/Feb/March or passed last week.

Premiums have jumped up again.

[Deleted User]

You can claim the difference from the at-fault party's insurer. I have done this in the past, saved about £180. I took out the new policy at the higher price and then wrote to the at-fault insurer with documentary evidence of the increase (two quotes from my insurer's web site - I called them to explain what I was doing just in case) and in a few weeks they paid me the difference.