Additional premium to my policy due to named driver making a claim on her policy

Sizzlingsmith

Any advice or comments would be very welcome.
I have just received from my insurance company that there is an amendment to my policy because my named driver (wife) put a claim in on her policy because of hitting a badger in her own car. Why do I get penalised on my policy for a third party claim! The additional premium is over £250 and I'm only 4 days into this inew nsurance company. I have been driving for over 30 years and have fortunately never made a claim or any sort. I'm so frustrated as what can I do!

George_Michael

That's perfectly normal.
Your wife is a named driver on your policy and as she has had an accident, she is now classed as a higher risk.
Because your insurers will be covering her if she drives your car, your premium has risen because of the increased risk felt by the insurers.
Saying that, £250 does seem like a massive increase for one claim. How long has your wife been driving? and has she had any other accidents in the recent past?

As the policy has only been running for 4 days, I'm assuming that the car/badger incident was a while ago. If this happened before your policy started, did you declare it to your insurers?

AdrianC

Yes, and?

Your insurer set the premium based on risk. The car they'll be covering is driven by somebody with a track record of hitting things and costing insurers money. That makes you a higher risk than if she wasn't going to drive your car.

I am a tad confused as to why this is being charged four days into the policy, though. Did you perhaps lie to them when you were asked if she'd been involved in any claims, and they found out?

Sizzlingsmith

Thank you George for your comments. You say she is a higher risk! She unfortunately hit a badger., this can happen to absolutely anyone in this country, no matter how careful they are at driving. To nearly double my car insurance policy is in my mind legal theft and there's absolutely not alot I can do about it. As its only 4days in to the policy I have considered cancelling my policy and taking my business to another company who may not penalise too much for this unfortunate situation.

Mercdriver

Sizzlingsmith said:

Thank you George for your comments. You say she is a higher risk! She unfortunately hit a badger., this can happen to absolutely anyone in this country, no matter how careful they are at driving. To nearly double my car insurance policy is in my mind legal theft and there's absolutely not alot I can do about it. As its only 4days in to the policy I have considered cancelling my policy and taking my business to another company who may not penalise too much for this unfortunate situation.

When did the incident happen and did you declare it at quotation stage?  If not, you would be fortunate.  Others have had their policies cancelled for doing this.  That would have massive ramifications for an infinite amount of time until insurance co's stop asking "Have you ever had an insurance policy cancelled?"

Edited to add:  Any reason why you aren't answering the question about whether you declared the incident?

George_Michael

Sizzlingsmith said:

Thank you George for your comments. You say she is a higher risk! She unfortunately hit a badger., this can happen to absolutely anyone in this country, no matter how careful they are at driving. 

Yes, it can happen to anyone but it is more likely to happen to someone who is driving in an area where there are badgers living and because it has happened once, as far as the insurers are concerned, there is a possibility that it will happen again.

I'll ask again. When did the accident happen? and if it was before your policy started, did you declare it?

Mercdriver

I think he has answered it with his silence.  OP if you do go elsewhere make sure you declare the incident if the policy questions ask for it.  You would be in a whole new world of financial pain if after an accident involving large expense and injuries your new insurance co found out and then cancelled your policy then following up by suing you for the claim against them.  And yes it has happened.  There is a case of that fairly recently on here.  

Sizzlingsmith

AdrianC said:

Yes, and?

Your insurer set the premium based on risk. The car they'll be covering is driven by somebody with a track record of hitting things and costing insurers money. That makes you a higher risk than if she wasn't going to drive your car.

I am a tad confused as to why this is being charged four days into the policy, though. Did you perhaps lie to them when you were asked if she'd been involved in any claims, and they found out?

Hi AdrianC
Thank you too for your reply. I understand insurers base premiums on risk and assess track records, but this one claim in over 70 years of driving between the two of us is somewhat an extortionate additional amount to pay dont you think?
And I provided all the information correctly online especially the claim my wife made on her policy with dates, so yes why now 4days after do they inform me of this!

AdrianC

Sizzlingsmith said:

And I provided all the information correctly online especially the claim my wife made on her policy with dates, so yes why now 4days after do they inform me of this!

That's a very good question. And one you should ask them.

Aretnap

Sizzlingsmith said:

Thank you too for your reply. I understand insurers base premiums on risk and assess track records, but this one claim in over 70 years of driving between the two of us...

To be honest, I've never found the "I've never claimed in 30 years" logic very impressive. Why would an insurance company would care what your driving was like 30 years ago? I'm a very different person to the one I was 30 years ago, and I'm sure you are too.

Plus if insurers did take 30 years of driving history into account, the flip side would be that if you'd had an accident as a teenager in the days when Margaret Thatcher was prime minister and mobile phones were the size of a small rucksack, you'd still have to declare it, and pay extra because of it, today. Presumably you wouldn't be very happy about that either.

So insurers are only interested in your last few years of claims history - for good reason.

Sizzlingsmith said:

And I provided all the information correctly online especially the claim my wife made on her policy with dates, so yes why now 4days after do they inform me of this!

At a wild guess - did you declare this as a non-fault accident? If so I'm afraid you did the wrong thing. Leaving aside the question of whether your wife could have avoided the badger had she been paying more attention (which nobody on this board can offer a useful opinion on); insurers classify fault purely in terms of whether they were able to reclaim their costs from an at fault party (usually another driver) or not. So unless the badger had insurance, or was able to pay for the damage itself, it would be a fault claim on your wife's part, and you should have declared it as such.

Obviously if I've guessed wrong and you did declare this as a fault claim then this is something you should take up with the insurer - if it was correctly declared at the time of sale they should not be charging you more because of it now.

Norman_Castle

Sizzlingsmith said:

 As its only 4days in to the policy I have considered cancelling my policy and taking my business to another company who may not penalise too much for this unfortunate situation.

No reason not to get new quotes and find out any cancellation charges.