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Car Insurance Renewal after accident
Jinxey
Posts: 12 Forumite
Hi all,
In July last year a bunch of joy riders reversed in to my parked car in the middle of the night causing £2000 worth of damage. They fled the scene. Although a taxi driver claimed he saw the accident, the registration he gave was unrecognised and so the police had nothing to go on.
As the car was brand new and the damage was awful, I had to make a claim on my own policy. Admiral reduced my no claims from five to three. Now I am at my renewal time, I am pretty sure they will be pushing up my premium and so I have started comparing to see what other policies are available, however I am worried about how I declare the accident.
As I was not in the vehicle, it was parked properly and the other driver was clearly at fault, I do not consider myself to be the one at fault, however I am told because I claimed on my policy this is a "fault claim". Can anyone confirm this for me? I am only 23 and haven't had to make a claim before so this is all very confusing for me!
I have taken a look at Compare the Market and they have the following options:
Who was at fault:
Was this claim made against your policy:
Was the no claims discount affected:
I have set the "Who was at fault" to "Other Party" and "Was this claim made against your policy to "Yes"
Is this acceptable? Or am I being naive here? I am not trying to gain insurance through deception or anything, I want a legit policy, just want to make sure it is all above board the way I have completed this form.
Many thanks!
In July last year a bunch of joy riders reversed in to my parked car in the middle of the night causing £2000 worth of damage. They fled the scene. Although a taxi driver claimed he saw the accident, the registration he gave was unrecognised and so the police had nothing to go on.
As the car was brand new and the damage was awful, I had to make a claim on my own policy. Admiral reduced my no claims from five to three. Now I am at my renewal time, I am pretty sure they will be pushing up my premium and so I have started comparing to see what other policies are available, however I am worried about how I declare the accident.
As I was not in the vehicle, it was parked properly and the other driver was clearly at fault, I do not consider myself to be the one at fault, however I am told because I claimed on my policy this is a "fault claim". Can anyone confirm this for me? I am only 23 and haven't had to make a claim before so this is all very confusing for me!
I have taken a look at Compare the Market and they have the following options:
Who was at fault:
Was this claim made against your policy:
Was the no claims discount affected:
I have set the "Who was at fault" to "Other Party" and "Was this claim made against your policy to "Yes"
Is this acceptable? Or am I being naive here? I am not trying to gain insurance through deception or anything, I want a legit policy, just want to make sure it is all above board the way I have completed this form.
Many thanks!
0
Comments
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Fault does not refer to blame as far as insurance goes.
You have a fault claim as your insurer was unable to get their outlay back.
And you lost no claim discount as a result, so your NCD was affected0 -
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Yes - unless they are asking about "blame" - in which case you can put "unidentified third party", though either way it won't alter the premium.0
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Yes - unless they are asking about "blame" - in which case you can put "unidentified third party", though either way it won't alter the premium.
Hmm, shame! Two cheapest quotes have suddenly vanished after changing the fault from Other party to myself.
I assumed that because I had put that this claim was against my policy but not my fault it would have covered me. However if that is not the case, I would rather pay the extra than have invalid insurance.
Many thanks.0 -
I have a theory that since the Consumer Insurance Act 2012 came into force, if an insurer asks (something like) "were you at fault?" in relation to having your parked car struck by an untraced third party (or similar), you're perfectly entitled to answer "no". Insurers have a duty to ask clear questions, a consumer only has to take reasonable care to answer the questions accurately, and the average consumer is blissfully unaware of insurance industry jargon and understands "at fault" to mean "to blame". If what the insurer really wants to know is whether your insurance company recovered all its costs from the other side, it should ask a clearer question, such as "did your insurance company recover all its costs from the other side?" So long as your interpretation of the question was a reasonable one, they'd have no grounds to refuse a claim or cancel the policy just because it didn't tally with their own interpretation.
However given that if I'm wrong the outcome could be a voided policy, I'll probably wait for someone braver than me to test the theory before I try it myself.
0 -
Hmm, shame! Two cheapest quotes have suddenly vanished after changing the fault from Other party to myself.
I assumed that because I had put that this claim was against my policy but not my fault it would have covered me. However if that is not the case, I would rather pay the extra than have invalid insurance.
Many thanks.
Careful with the comparison sites, I had an issue with "quote me happy" who were my lowest price but the comparison site had moved a "fault but no claim made" accident (I skidded on ice and damaged the car but didn't see any reason to claim on policy) to some sort of "no fault" claim - when I changed it back when I checked the policy they refused to quote me!Sam Vimes' Boots Theory of Socioeconomic Unfairness:
People are rich because they spend less money. A poor man buys $10 boots that last a season or two before he's walking in wet shoes and has to buy another pair. A rich man buys $50 boots that are made better and give him 10 years of dry feet. The poor man has spent $100 over those 10 years and still has wet feet.
0 -
I have a theory that since the Consumer Insurance Act 2012 came into force, if an insurer asks (something like) "were you at fault?" in relation to having your parked car struck by an untraced third party (or similar), you're perfectly entitled to answer "no". Insurers have a duty to ask clear questions, a consumer only has to take reasonable care to answer the questions accurately, and the average consumer is blissfully unaware of insurance industry jargon and understands "at fault" to mean "to blame". If what the insurer really wants to know is whether your insurance company recovered all its costs from the other side, it should ask a clearer question, such as "did your insurance company recover all its costs from the other side?" So long as your interpretation of the question was a reasonable one, they'd have no grounds to refuse a claim or cancel the policy just because it didn't tally with their own interpretation.
However given that if I'm wrong the outcome could be a voided policy, I'll probably wait for someone braver than me to test the theory before I try it myself.
Agreed! But I won't be the one to risk that! It should be a lot clearer imho, its like they are trying to trick you!Careful with the comparison sites, I had an issue with "quote me happy" who were my lowest price but the comparison site had moved a "fault but no claim made" accident (I skidded on ice and damaged the car but didn't see any reason to claim on policy) to some sort of "no fault" claim - when I changed it back when I checked the policy they refused to quote me!
Many thanks, going to carry on searching so will make sure to check! 0 -
You could always give the cheapest quotes, now vanished, a call to see what they say. In fact I'd recommend calling whoever you go with now.
Did you use your real name and address for the quotes? If so there is now a record of you changing your answers. Some insurers will randomly cancel your insurance when they realize this, so best to call them and explain your situation carefully before taking out the policy.0
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