New Insurance - Old insurance say I made a claim?

bilko89

Hi, I've just renewed my car insurance, moving from one and starting with a new insurer.
Paid the deposit etc a few days ago and the insurance officially kicked in today.
I received an email to say there was a claim that I didn't include when applying and that they would be upping my monthly premium from £55 to £107!! The claim they are talking about, to me, wasn't a claim. I notified my insurance that I had a bump in a car park but didn't want to claim. They told me that this wouldn't affect me and my claim history but here we are today.. What can I do? I refuse to pay almost double on the insurance I have and also dispute that a claim was made.

Thanks!

Sandtree

You were almost certainly asked to provide details of all claims and incidents and therefore have made a false declaration if you failed to mention the bump in the carpark... the email is probably just sloppy drafting as claim/incident are often used interchangeably in Motor insurance

bilko89

Sandtree said:

You were almost certainly asked to provide details of all claims and incidents and therefore have made a false declaration if you failed to mention the bump in the carpark... the email is probably just sloppy drafting as claim/incident are often used interchangeably in Motor insurance

Ok thanks, just naivety on my part then. Is there anything I can do to negotiate that down? Or even cancel within my cooling off period and go shopping again? 

George_Michael

bilko89 said:

 Or even cancel within my cooling off period and go shopping again? 

That's what I would do.
If you decide to do this, make sure that when you get further quotes that you mention the incident. You may have to phone up and speak to someone to make sure that they are aware that there was no claim made and that you only informed your previous insurer for information purposes.

What exactly happened when you had the bump? Was it another vehicle that you hit or was it something such as a bollard or wall? and was there any damage to any other property?

bilko89

George_Michael said:

bilko89 said:

 Or even cancel within my cooling off period and go shopping again? 

That's what I would do.
If you decide to do this, make sure that when you get further quotes that you mention the incident. You may have to phone up and speak to someone to make sure that they are aware that there was no claim made and that you only informed your previous insurer for information purposes.

What exactly happened when you had the bump? Was it another vehicle that you hit or was it something such as a bollard or wall? and was there any damage to any other property?

Thanks. I was reversing out a space in a car park and someone behind me did the same and we met in the middle. I heard nothing after so assumed that no claim had been made from her side. I did provide my details and she gave hers to me. There was no damage at all apart from a small scratch on my car. I’ll keep that in mind then when I get a quote, to call up and explain the claim. Thanks! Do you know if I would get my deposit back if I cancelled in my cooling off period? Bearing in mind the insurance only started today. 

George_Michael

When you use your legal right of cancellation in the 14 day cooling off period, the insurance company is legally allowed to charge you a reasonable fee to cover their costs incurred in setting up the policy and they can also charge you for the time that the cover was being provided.
All you can do is to speak to your insurers and see what figures they come back with.

AdrianC

bilko89 said:

Sandtree said:

You were almost certainly asked to provide details of all claims and incidents and therefore have made a false declaration if you failed to mention the bump in the carpark... the email is probably just sloppy drafting as claim/incident are often used interchangeably in Motor insurance

Ok thanks, just naivety on my part then. Is there anything I can do to negotiate that down? Or even cancel within my cooling off period and go shopping again? 

Get quotes for the correct risk before doing anything. You may well find this insurer is not actually uncompetitive for the correct risk...

I don't know how you found your new insurer, but the precise wording of the question the Meerkats ask is...
"Have you had any motor accidents, claims or losses in the past 5 years, no matter who was at fault or if a claim was made?
It is really important to tell us about any claims (including unsettled claims), accidents or losses that are motor vehicle related."

So it's fairly clear that the answer there should have been "Yes"...

neilmcl

bilko89 said:

George_Michael said:

bilko89 said:

 Or even cancel within my cooling off period and go shopping again? 

That's what I would do.
If you decide to do this, make sure that when you get further quotes that you mention the incident. You may have to phone up and speak to someone to make sure that they are aware that there was no claim made and that you only informed your previous insurer for information purposes.

What exactly happened when you had the bump? Was it another vehicle that you hit or was it something such as a bollard or wall? and was there any damage to any other property?

Thanks. I was reversing out a space in a car park and someone behind me did the same and we met in the middle. I heard nothing after so assumed that no claim had been made from her side. I did provide my details and she gave hers to me. There was no damage at all apart from a small scratch on my car. I’ll keep that in mind then when I get a quote, to call up and explain the claim. Thanks! Do you know if I would get my deposit back if I cancelled in my cooling off period? Bearing in mind the insurance only started today. 

No point calling up during a quote to "explain the claim", it'll make no difference, they're not upping your premium because of a past claim they are because of a past accident and whether your claimed or not this now makes you a bigger risk to insure.

RBN20

It would be worth contacting your previous insurer to see whether a claim came in from the third party or not. It would need declaring regardless, but you would know whether you are supposed to be declaring it as a full claim, or a notification incident. As the premium impact may be different for both 

Scrapit

This is why I would never tell an insurer about something I wasn't gonna claim for.

George_Michael

Scrapit said:

This is why I would never tell an insurer about something I wasn't gonna claim for.

That's fine if yours is the only vehicle involved but in the OP's case there was another car and if they didn't inform their insurers then the other party made a claim sometime after the accident stating that the OP was at fault, this could lead to a possible cancellation of their policy.