High insurance premium due to vandalism

EdGasket

Uzzler wrote: »

just seems so unfair

Life is unfair, have you only just realised? However you have a car which is more than most people in the world do; is that unfair too?

oldhand

s_b wrote: »

i once spent 5 hours in thick snow waiting to find the person (s) unknown who delighted in damaging my car
they finally won as i never caught them
i moved
they had all the time in the world
i had to get up each morning to go to work
with regards insurance theres an old but true saying,"someones got to pay and it aint gonna be me" (the insurers have this written on their bed headboards) hence higher premiums, remember too when looking for alternative quotes you must put down your claims or your insurance will be invalid

sorry to hear your problems but welcome to todays sick world

Wheres there a bear trap when you need one..........

Car_54

vacheron wrote: »

This is not the way it should be, however if you make any claim at all the insurance companies WILL get their money back with interest in the end... one way or the other.

Some time ago I had two claims in a year, costing about £4,000. I had protected NCD. At renewal, my premium doubled from £350 to £700. I shopped around and got cover with company B for £600.

So how will company A get its money back in a competitive market? Even if I had renewed with them, it would have taken them over a decade to break even.

vacheron

Car_54 wrote: »

Some time ago I had two claims in a year, costing about £4,000. I had protected NCD. At renewal, my premium doubled from £350 to £700. I shopped around and got cover with company B for £600.

So how will company A get its money back in a competitive market? Even if I had renewed with them, it would have taken them over a decade to break even.

That is the reason why I used "companies" not "company", I appreciate if the premium is higher you will most likely move away however other companies will then charge you more because of your history, basically Company A will benefit from the claim made with company B and company B will raise premiums because of the claim made with company A. At the end of the day they both can charge higher premiums and the only guarantee is the claimant will end up paying more.

Also 4K claim is quite high, the ones who suffer are the ones like the OP who make relatively small claims (which after the excess is deducted can be next to nothing), then they end up with higher premiums for years.

londonTiger

Uzzler wrote: »

My car was 'keyed' twice within a month, both instances reported to the police but no one caught


My insurance company waived the excess in both claims I didn't have to pay a penny as it was a police matter but now my insurance is due for renewal my premium has over trebled!!


Why am I being penalised for something that was not my fault?

I'm surprised that you're surprised. Clearly you are extremely high risk and your car could easily be keyed again and since you claimed both times chances are you will claim again when it happens.

I'm surprised the insurer is still allowing you to remain with them (albeit with treble the premiums), If I was an underwriter I would expect you to be a loss maker for the insurance company and refuse to quote premium.

pgoncalv

vacheron wrote: »

Anything less than this and I'll foot the bill myself. The pot I have saved from getting cheap insurance due to 18 years of no claims more than covers the odd bump / scrape that may come along every few years or so.

That is exactly the way I handled it! If I had paid £50-80 extra each time I rent a car so I do not have an excess of £1000, I would not have saved the £1000 by now, not having had any issues with car rentals that could have been prevented by this. And the one time I did have a problem with a rental, I got stung with some loss of earnings claim by Hertz that would have not been prevented by taking the insurance they proposed anyway.

The point is that admin paperwork costs and if you want to get the feeling someone else is handling a problem for you (and more often than not you still need to do pretty much the same paperwork yourself), you have to pay for it. Dealing with it directly using common sense can save a significant amount as it should do.

Joe_Horner

vacheron wrote: »

[...]I might end up completely writing off my car by ploughing into the foyer of a compensation lawyer convention!
.

If you ever do manage that we'll have a whip round for your high excess and a small gift for services rendered

dacouch

oldhand wrote: »

Wheres there a bear trap when you need one..........

A client has a problem back in the 90's on an Astra GTE, someone kept breaking into it to try and steal it, each night he increased security and each night they brought additional tools.

He finally put a stop to it by getting a radio baby monitor, he placed the babies microphone in the car and plugged the other end in next to his bed. The thief came back, which woke him up and he chased him down the road with a baseball bat.

The attempts to steal his car stopped

AdrianC

Uzzler wrote: »

Why am I being penalised for something that was not my fault?

Very simple. Because you put your insurer at a high risk of having to pay out.

gilbert_and_sullivan

I'm in Vacherons camp, i have insurance but (touch wood) avoid claiming if at all possible, don't even claim for screens because i use a local small screen company and its not much more than the excess.
Result being our premiums are amazingly low despite the government stealing ever more of the premium in tax grab to fund their expenses or crusade of the moment.