Wrong fuel put in car- should we claim on insurance?

harryharp

My OH recently put the wrong fuel into his car by mistake (diesel instead of unleaded)- aaargghhh!!!! It cost £258 to put it right (flushing out the tank and the cost of the unneeded fuel). Our insurance company (Nationwide) says he can claim on the insurance, but he'd have to pay a £100 excess, and his no claims discount would be reduced from 55% to 35%. The last insurance premium (in Jan.) was £206.85.

We don't know what to do for the best. I'm afraid I'm not very good at doing the maths....Would someone with a bit of financial !!!!!! be kind enough to give us some advice please??? It would be much appreciated.

alant1000

Hi,
i'm not the best at mathes either, but considering you have such a low premium to start with plus such a low excess i'd say claim - after all thats what you pay your insurance for! You might have to pay the £100 excess and perhaps a small penalty due to the reduction in no claims discount - but this is far better than paying £258 to fix + £206 for insurance (=£464) out of your own pocket. The whole point of insurance is to cover you so THEY pay out, not you. Don't let them talk you out of claiming, especially when your excess and premium are low enough to make it the cheaper option for you.

Mark7799

Regardless of the maths, you'd be in effect paying a higher premium in current years as well and would have to declare it on your claims history which may affect premiums if you move elsewhere.

Bite the bullet, it may be cheaper in the long run to borrow elsewhere if you haven't the funds to absorb the cost now.

alant1000

do you have protected no claims discount?

harryharp

Many thanks for your advice. Apparently we do have protected no claims, but the guy at the insurance company said it didn't apply to this sort of claim (only to 3rd party claims I think?)

alant1000 wrote: »

do you have protected no claims discount?

inkie

Can you actually claim on your insurance for this - just wondering?

wannabedebtfree_2

I'm not sure how the insurance companies work it out, but if its truly straight forward mathematics then it would increase his insurance to about £290.

BUT as the OP said it would have to stay on record as a claim for 3-5 years dependant on the insurers, and if he was shopping around it might make things more difficult.

If you are paying the £100 excess, and then a £85 increase in insurance (plus additional insurance for the next few years) then its probably not worth claiming.

My dad did this as well, but the other way round, unleaded instead of diesel, luckily he hadnt started the engine otherwise it would have been a lot more expensive!

I think its best to just pay up and never let him live it down!

alant1000

harryharp wrote: »

Many thanks for your advice. Apparently we do have protected no claims, but the guy at the insurance company said it didn't apply to this sort of claim (only to 3rd party claims I think?)

really?? That would surprise me. I'm with Privilege insurance, and am "relatively" higher risk as i'm 28 with a sports car, and you would have thought that especially with someone like me they would throw the book at me and penalise me heavily when i claim. However i put a claim in last year for vandalism (half the car got keyed) and that years premium was £680. My renewal came through this year - £438, no questions asked, and that was with a vandalism claim which insurance companies dont like. I now have 10 years no claims protected, and it seems my claim last year made no difference at all to my policy, indeed it went down by a lot.

Your insurance company may have the caveat as the damage was self inflicted on the car - but then again this would be the case if you went into the back of someone so i am surprised that they are saying even with protected you will take a hit. Although each company has their own rules i suppose.

Supposing your insurance company stiched you up and increased your premium by 50%, which would be a HUGE hike and pretty unlikely to happen in my opinion, you'd pay an extra £129 next year, which is still lower, and if you have a claim free couple of years afterwards, you should still come out on top.

Your premium and excess are both very low, suggesting you are either careful drivers, mature drivers or have a cheap car to insure, if you were a boy racer i'd say don't claim, but i think in your case you should do it.

The job of an insurance call centre agent is to mitigate th companies losses by discouraging claims where possible - its in the interest for them to put you off doing so to save their company money.

Before you make any decisions though i'd dig out your insurance policy terms and conditions, and look for any caveats around fuel claims. If its not in there in black and white, the agent is basically making up scare stories and i doubt your protected claims will suffer.

Paul_Varjak

I would try to get a better deal next time on your house insurance. Many insurance companies are offering cashback deals on house insurance - you can often get a double discount if you order house and contents policies at different times (even with the same company).

With cashback, my buildings and contents was around £130, and I got free European annual travel insurance thrown in too!

Never ever, renew a policy, you will always find it cheaper to take out a new policy each year online, even if it is with the same company (this applies even if cashback schemes were not operating)!

harryharp

Paul_Varjak wrote: »

I would try to get a better deal next time on your house insurance. Many insurance companies are offering cashback deals on house insurance - you can often get a double discount if you order house and contents policies at different times (even with the same company).

With cashback, my buildings and contents was around £130, and I got free European annual travel insurance thrown in too!

Never ever, renew a policy, you will always find it cheaper to take out a new policy each year online, even if it is with the same company (this applies even if cashback schemes were not operating)!

Very true...but my question was about car insurance.....?

harryharp

inkie wrote: »

Can you actually claim on your insurance for this - just wondering?

Yeah, you definitely can, as we phoned them and asked. The question is whether it's worth it or not.