Insurance Excess

Keith_Butler

Hi,
I had a car ran into me which caused £600 worth of damage and the driver admitted liability, I had to pay £250 excess and my insurance went up because of it. Why is this happening? and shouldn’t the other drivers insurance have paid my excess?

Warwick_Hunt

You paid your excess because you claimed on your policy, that’s the condition you agreed to when you took it out.

You can claim your excess back from the third party.

Your policy may have gone up due to rising costs or they may consider you a greater risk.

marlot

You should reclaim your excess from the other party/their insurance company.

It may also be possible to claim the increase to your premiums, though I believe that is rather harder to do.

interstellaflyer

Warwick_Hunt wrote: »

You can claim your excess back from the third party.

Not being rude but are 100% sure of that? I had a no fault accident back in October, third party (which was a Taxi company) admitted full liability (couldn't argue with the dash cam footage) I was told several times by AXA my insurers that I could claim the excess back once the the other party's insurance had paid up, only to be told by my Broker (Halifax) that I couldn't because I didn't take out legal protection.

thescouselander

interstellaflyer wrote: »

Not being rude but are 100% sure of that? I had a no fault accident back in October, third party (which was a Taxi company) admitted full liability (couldn't argue with the dash cam footage) I was told several times by AXA my insurers that I could claim the excess back once the the other party's insurance had paid up, only to be told by my Broker (Halifax) that I couldn't because I didn't take out legal protection.

That's not quite right, you still can get the money back but your insurance will not fund any legal assistance for this since you didn't take out the cover. You can either claim it back yourself or find some other way of getting legal help (pay yourself, no win no fee etc).

Aretnap

interstellaflyer wrote: »

Not being rude but are 100% sure of that? I had a no fault accident back in October, third party (which was a Taxi company) admitted full liability (couldn't argue with the dash cam footage) I was told several times by AXA my insurers that I could claim the excess back once the the other party's insurance had paid up, only to be told by my Broker (Halifax) that I couldn't because I didn't take out legal protection.

Either you misunderstood your broker, or he was talking nonsense.

You have a right to claim your uninsured losses from the at fault party - and this has nothing to do with the terms of your own policy. If your policy comes with legal protection then your own insurer will provide you with a solicitor to assist you with the process. If it doesn't then your insurer won't help you with the process (which might have been what the broker was trying to say) - but there's nothing to stop you claiming it yourself. When liability is settled it's usually a simple matter of writing to the third party insurer with a copy of a receipt showing the excess you've paid, and requesting reimbursement - in the unlikely event that they don't pay you you can make a claim in the small claims court.

Keith_Butler

Hi,
I did contact my insurance company about my insurance going up and they said if you are involved in an accident we take it as part of your fault because you should have seen the accident coming and took relevant steps to avoid it. I think it is a cop out about having to claim your excess back off the other party, I think it is a deliberate part of insurance company policy to stop you using them when you have an accident

Le_Kirk

Keith_Butler wrote: »

.....if you are involved in an accident we take it as part of your fault because you should have seen the accident coming and took relevant steps to avoid it.

I can just imagine the letter you write to the insurance company: - "Dear Sirs, I saw the car behind me approaching quickly and it was obvious he wasn't going to be able to stop in time, so I took the relevant steps to avoid the accident and accelerated away. Unfortunately I hit the car in front and now you have two claims............"

neilmcl

Keith_Butler wrote: »

Hi,
I did contact my insurance company about my insurance going up and they said if you are involved in an accident we take it as part of your fault because you should have seen the accident coming and took relevant steps to avoid it. I think it is a cop out about having to claim your excess back off the other party, I think it is a deliberate part of insurance company policy to stop you using them when you have an accident

Your premiums will nearly always increase after an accident, whether you're at fault or not because you are statistically a higher risk. No conspiracies etc, that's just the way it works.

Car_54

Keith_Butler wrote: »

Hi,
I did contact my insurance company about my insurance going up and they said if you are involved in an accident we take it as part of your fault because you should have seen the accident coming and took relevant steps to avoid it. I think it is a cop out about having to claim your excess back off the other party, I think it is a deliberate part of insurance company policy to stop you using them when you have an accident

The excess is indeed a deliberate policy, to save them the cost of dealing with trivial claims. In return, you get a cheaper premium. There's nothing devious or secret about it.

Keith_Butler

Hi,
I think you are screwed no matter what, and terms and conditions who reads them, Microsoft put a section in there terms and conditions where you could claim $4,000 and it took 4 years till some one claimed it