Car Insurance Claim Advice Wanted Please!

Spanishomelette

I have recently taken out a new insurance policy for our family car. When I was looking for quotes I did not list a no-fault claim (my neighbour drove into the side of our parked car), because to be absolutely honest I had completely forgotten about it. . I was quoted a renewal premium. When I went to take out the insurance, details of the no-fault claim came up on the Motor Insurance Database and I confirmed that we had been hit by another car. However, even though we were not at fault and the costs were recovered from the third party's insurers, the premium increased from that originally quoted, which seems a bit unfair.

Fast forward to today, my husband was driving this afternoon when the traffic in front of him slowed. He slowed down too - but unfortunately the lady behind didn't and drove straight into the back of our car.

My husband has the lady's name, address and phone number, but she didn't have her insurance details to hand. My question is, do I tell my insurance company and have to pay a yet higher premium next year, or do I try to get her insurance details from her (she actually lives about 200 miles from where the accident happened so won't be back any time soon!)?

Please excuse my ignorance, but I just don't want to be penalised for something which wasn't my husband's fault.

FutureGirl

Check your policy. You might find that it's a t&c that you have to disclose all incidents / accidents that occur.

You only need the reg, as insurers can check who insurers a car.

If she has taken your reg down, she could submit a claim on your policy, or on her own with her insurers coming to your insurers to get reimbursement.

Quentin

Claiming off the third party insurer won't mean you don't need to disclose the claim to current and future insurers.

Patchsofts

That's a valid point

Aretnap

If you have her registration number you can get her insurance details from askmid.com for a token fee - but as above you will still have to inform your own insurer and declare the claim in future f ou do this.

If the damage is relatively cheap to repair and the lady is willing then you could do what many people do in minor accidents and settle with a handful of cash without telling your respective insurers. Strictly speaking this would be breaching the terms of your policies, but if your insurers never find out then there are no consequences. But once you involve the other insurance company you should assume that the details of the claim will end up on a shared database, and therefore that it will come back and bite you if you don't declare it to your own insurer.