Notification (but no claim) has increased premium and i’ve made it worse trying to fix situation!

Tashatomsk

Last year a family member reversed into my empty parked car on their drive. They contacted their insurance company, admitted liability and our cars were repaired. I informed my insurers and was told they would note it on their records. Recently I switched insurers and when asked if I had any claims said no but then had them contact me a few weeks later increasing my premium and saying I should have declared the ‘claim’. I contacted my previous insurers and got a letter from them confirming it was a no fault incident and no claim was made, they also informed CUE and I was under the impression this was now sorted. Phoned again this week to check my premium had gone back down to the quote that had lured me away from my original insurers only to be told that the further information provided now meant they classed it as a loss and my premium had gone up further still for both the car policies I have moved to them. I managed to negotiate a lower price but still haven’t got it back down to its lowest and have no idea whether I should do anything further or whether I will just make it worse again?! Any thoughts? I was tempted to tell them to stick it and go back to previous insurers but they told me it would cost me a cancellation fee of about £50 per vehicle. Am feeling no love towards insurance companies currently ☹️

Quentin

You are missing the point.

You were asked for your claim history and wrongly answered you had made no claims

You did of course have a loss and made a claim!

You should disclose this to any future Insurers who you go to for quotes.

You are lucky that your insurer found out and allowed you to pay an increased premium when they did

Had this come to light following a successful claim against you then your insurer could have taken the view you deliberately lied to gain a cheaper premium and looked to you to reimburse them any payments to a third party+

System

Quentin wrote: »

You did of course have a loss and made a claim!

They don't make it clear that "making a claim" includes someone else making a claim on his own insurance not yours.


If they wanted you to answer their question honestly they should have said "Has any claim been made by anyone, not necessarily you?"

Lagamorph

Making a claim is making a claim, it doesn't matter who's insurers you're claiming from, you're still making a claim.

You still made a claim against the other persons insurance. The other person could not make a claim that includes the damage to your car, that's a claim only you can make.

Dangermac

Lagamorph wrote: »

Making a claim is making a claim, it doesn't matter who's insurers you're claiming from, you're still making a claim.

You still made a claim against the other persons insurance. The other person could not make a claim that includes the damage to your car, that's a claim only you can make.

Usually, the questions asks about 'accidents, claims or losses'

If it only asks about claims, then an argument could be made about what constitutes a claim.

However, if it asks about any 'accidents, claims or losses', then it's pretty clear that any claims, whether fault or non-fault, need to be declared.

Tashatomsk

Thanks to all.
Personally, I think my original insurance company should have made it clear when I notified them that this constituted a claim rather than just advise me they would just make a note on file. It made me feel it was of no consequence and as I have not claimed previously in last 30 years i am not familiar with this process! My contact with my relatives insurance company constituted one call from them when I confirmed I owned the car and details of the incident but as they had admitted full liability it went through without my insurance companies involvement and I heard no more and dealt directly with the garage. I did my new quote on the phone and thought I was being asked if there had been any claims against me (as it didn’t, and still doesn’t, make sense to me that someone else’s mistake should impact my insurance premium.) To be honest though, the speed they rattle through the legal bits, I can’t recall exactly the wording used but I would never knowingly misrepresent my claim status! What is clear to me now though is that my relatives insurance premium has gone through the roof and mine has increased significantly so we are both losers.

Can anyone explain to me why the premium increased further though from when it was recorded on CUE as no-fault claim to updated to a loss? Is that because it is now settled and a cost was involved rather than being a claim in progress? Does ‘loss’ mean my loss or any parties loss (including insurance company?). Is it therefore correct that it is recorded as a loss and do I leave it at this or should I be asking for it to be noted as something else? The chap I spoke with from my new insurers didn’t seem to have an explanation or any understanding of whether this was a mistake I needed to try and get rectified or whether it had been incorrectly listed before. I just want to ensure that everyone’s records are now accurate so this doesn’t come back and bite me next year when I move my insurance again!

alfie1950

Whether or not you agree with it insurance is all about statistics and the fact that you have been involved in an "incident" means that statistically you are more likely to be involved in another incident or accident in the future.
Your point about the premium going up further will be because the incident is now settled even though that was in your favour.
You should still have your full no claims bonus which will show future insurers that you yourself haven't had any claims yourself, unless anything happens during this year's insurance.

csgohan4

never money saving to limit yourself to one insurer

go on price comparison websites

Dangermac

Tashatomsk wrote: »

Thanks to all.
Personally, I think my original insurance company should have made it clear when I notified them that this constituted a claim rather than just advise me they would just make a note on file. It made me feel it was of no consequence and as I have not claimed previously in last 30 years i am not familiar with this process! My contact with my relatives insurance company constituted one call from them when I confirmed I owned the car and details of the incident but as they had admitted full liability it went through without my insurance companies involvement and I heard no more and dealt directly with the garage. I did my new quote on the phone and thought I was being asked if there had been any claims against me (as it didn’t, and still doesn’t, make sense to me that someone else’s mistake should impact my insurance premium.) To be honest though, the speed they rattle through the legal bits, I can’t recall exactly the wording used but I would never knowingly misrepresent my claim status! What is clear to me now though is that my relatives insurance premium has gone through the roof and mine has increased significantly so we are both losers.

Can anyone explain to me why the premium increased further though from when it was recorded on CUE as no-fault claim to updated to a loss? Is that because it is now settled and a cost was involved rather than being a claim in progress? Does ‘loss’ mean my loss or any parties loss (including insurance company?). Is it therefore correct that it is recorded as a loss and do I leave it at this or should I be asking for it to be noted as something else? The chap I spoke with from my new insurers didn’t seem to have an explanation or any understanding of whether this was a mistake I needed to try and get rectified or whether it had been incorrectly listed before. I just want to ensure that everyone’s records are now accurate so this doesn’t come back and bite me next year when I move my insurance again!

I think that you are making this more complicated than it needs to be.

You had an accident. So when an insurer asks you if you have had an accident, then you have to provide factual information. So, you will need to declare that you had a non-fault accident.

These days, private car premiums are generally calculated by computers. Those computers are programmed by the insurers. And whilst those calculations may be to your benefit on some occasions, they may not be to your benefit on others. Some insurers may (slightly) increase their premium for a non-fault accident.

You/we can debate about whether a non fault accident(s) should increase the premium or not, but ultimately it's the insurer's job to calculate the premium and your job to either accept the premium offer or go to another insurer.

I'm not sure that you will be able to successfully complain that your insurer did not advise you that, you having had an accident, would need to be declared to other insurers when asked the question. Not unless you can argue that their failure to give you this information would have prevented the accident happening.

Hope this information helps

DM