Car Insurance Article Discussion

desparateglasgowhousewife

Hi all, First time user,long time follower...

Can anyone help with the following?

Time to renew the car insurance. My husband was involved in a bump, rear ended, in Jan '11, but not to blame. The claim was settled,as the other driver accepted liability. We're with Swinton, but shopping around online to renew. I have an online quote from Admiral, but called to let them know about the Jan accident, now they have increased the quote by £200 as a result of being involved in an accident, despite not being to blame. Does anyone have experience of paying more as a result of this type of situation?:(

Quentin

Do a search and you'll see it's almost become the norm.

Shop around for the best deal - but you need to declare the incident to get an accurate quote, rather than fail to disclose it then have to own up later!

Quentin

roxsandandboobie wrote: »

My son was knocked off his motorbike by a hit and run driver.we did get the registration and reported to our insurance company. We were told if he went through mib he would loose his no claims....

Whoever said this has mislead him.

skippy7

Can anyone answer please! I am currently looking at insurance quotes for the family car through comparison sites. The problem is that I was hit from behind in the company car back in July this year. The claim has been settled and the incident was recorded as "not being my fault". Also No claims were made for any personal loss or injury.
So why is it, that some insurance companys (on comparison sites) still increase my new quotes by a minimum of £25 when I declare the accident, despite ticking the "Not at fault" box??
Please advise someone! or are they all crooks!!

System

Unfortunately, many insurance companies do increase your premium after a no fault accident. They seem to argue that because you were involved in an accident, your risk of being involved in another accident has somehow increased. I do not believe there is much logic to their argument, but there isn't much you can do about it other than shop around to get the best quote, like you have done on the comparison sites.

WildTDDi

Hi, I am totally confused by the Motor Insurance industry, here's why:

I am an owner of two vehicles, I am the only one who drives them and can only drive one vehicle at a time. Ok, with me thus far? I have earnt over the years full NCB for good driving and not having any accidents nor penalty points on my license. So, how is it that 'cars' earn the NCB and not you?? I have one vehicle which I have full NCB on and the other which only has 1 year. Both were insured (I say were, because I have just had to swap to another insurer, as my present insurer wouldn't off me fully comprehensive insurance as the value of my vehicle is below £2000). Now, the vehicle I have had to swap over on insurance had only 1 year NCB, which is going to put up my premium with the new insurer, despite me having a second vehicle with full 5 years NCB. Why is it that it is the 'car/vehicle' that earns the NCB and NOT the driver??? I can only drive one vehicle at a time, so I don't understand why the rules of NCB are as they are, it's stupid. If I have an accident in the car with 1 years NCB, I can hop into my other vehicle and say I have 5 years full NCB....but hang on, I've just had an accident in my other car....surely that can't be right??? I think this law needs looking into and revising.

System

The clue is in the name : "No Claims Bonus" - that is there is a bonus for not making any claims on that particular car's insurance policy, so if you have a 2nd car with a seperate policy, then the NCB is also seperate.

If you have a multi-car policy, the way the NCB is applied may be more beneficial, but I've never had a multi-car policy so I'm not sure ?

It's not actually a "law" it's a feature of car insurance policies.

Also, if you have an accident / claim, it may reduce your NCB on the car the accident / claim happened in, but it would not reduce the NCB on the other policy (Although the premium may still increase on both policies due to the accident / claim and hence your increased risk)

WildTDDi

Thank you for the reply BAA1. I understand what you have written, but I am just annoyed that the NCB is for the car and not you. I'm the one driving, so therefore really it should be me who has the NCB and not the car, I mean the car can't drive itself!

Unfortunately, there only seems to be one insurer out there that I know of that does "Mult-car" which is Admiral. My other car is modified and so therefore I have to go to a specialist insurer to cover the car and all it's modifications, which by the way is far less (half the cost) than I have to pay on my daily runner, which is just a run of the mill diesel. To put it into perspective, my modified vehicle (on limited mileage) only costs me a little over £350 a year fully comp, whereas my diesel which is a cheap run around is almost twice that! It seems that the insurance companies monopolise on this and charge people the earth who have a "second" vehicle. It shouldn't matter which vehicle you have an accident in, your NCB should be affected, whichever the vehicle, as you are the one in control of it, not the other way around. As the vehicle is not to blame but the driver...surely?? I have always had two vehicles, well at least for the last 5 or 6 years at least and I cannot remember ever having a problem with NCB before, as the insurer always just asks "how many years NCB have 'you' got? I always answer I have full NCB, as I'm not lying, because on one vehicle I have! The question from the insurer should be "how many years NCB has the vehicle got", rather than using the term 'you'. As you stated in your reply "Although the premium may still increase on both policies due to the accident/claim and hence YOUR INCREASED RISK" - well if I'm the "increased risk" why is the NCB associated to the vehicle and not the driver/insured?

I know that I am playing devils advocate here, but car insurance to me can be a complete con! I still believe that it needs reviewing by those who operate these so called 'features' within insurance.

Ok, rant over. Thank you.

mikey72

If you have always had two vehicles, why haven't you earned two full ncds?
I've got several, those on mainstream polices all have full ncd earned over the year, the classics and kit car are on specialist agreed value polices, but don't earn ncd on that type of policy.

fallen121

If you have two cars with different NCDs insured with the same insurer, you can sometimes "swop" the NCDs once only, so that the higher NCD is on the newer car.

This happened to me, I had a second hand Focus (5 years NCD) then bought a brand new Golf worth about 5 or 6 times more, but they would only give me 1 year NCD on it because I already had a car insured with them. Swapped the NCD so that the 5 years was on the newer car, and the 1 year on the older car which I drove less and subsequently sold a few years later.

Company which did this was Halifax, but my previous insurer Sheila's Wheels, confirmed they would have done this had I stayed with them.