Accidents/Claims - watch out for new wording on car insurance quotes

Kat78MFW

Here's a warning when shopping around for car insurance.  Have just renewed DH car insurance and nearly came a cropper when entering details of a previous accident/claim.  On both Direct Line and LV websites, the question about previous accidents has got different wording and it could cause you to give the wrong information.  Instead of asking whether a previous claim was "fault", "no fault" or "50:50" the options are now "I hit someone/something", "someone hit me" or "you and somebody else hit each other".  Now my accident a couple of years was determined to be my fault due to my road position but the correct factual answer to the new question was "someone hit me" as I was virtually stationary when the other car hit me.  I rang LV to ensure that the claim was recorded correctly on the quote and new policy -  they confirmed that if I had answered "someone hit me" they would have recorded it incorrectly on the quote as a non-fault claim.  So I have had to answer "I hit someone", to ensure it goes down as an at-fault claim.  I can't believe they have changed the wording so that answering the question factually correct ends up with incorrect information going down on the insurance database.  Potentially leading to someone having their insurance cancelled or not being covered in the event of an accident.  Has anyone else had a similar experience?   

daveyjp

You can't be virtually stationary, so as you were both moving you and somebody else hit each other.

Kat78MFW

But if I answered "you and somebody else hit each other", it would have been recorded for the quote and new policy as 50:50 which it wasn't. It needed to be recorded as an at-fault claim.

Sea_Shell

So if you, say, pull half way out of a junction and then stop, so you ARE stationary, and you are hit, then somebody DID hit you.   But you would be at fault!

Like you say very ambiguous, which is always a problem where insurance is concerned.

Kat78MFW

That's pretty much exactly what happened.  And I can't be the only one, so I just wanted to warn people because it seemed very easy to make a mistake.

Sandtree

Its an interesting one and you would consider its, in very simplistic terms trying to move from "fault" to "responsible".

Take a hit and run with no CCTV etc, that would be a fault accident because there is no third party to recover outlay from but you would honestly be able to tick the box that "someone hit me". The test is really going to be when they decide to do a spot check and see that you have a fault claim on your record; I would strongly struggle to see how they can increase the price when they never asked about fault... in consumer insurance they have to ask the questions, its not up to the customer to offer up information.

There are lots and lots of scenarios where the questions won't equate to fault and not even responsibility... failing to giveway but stopping before you are T-boned - "someone hit me".

Virtually stopped  =  moving, assuming you weren't moving away from the third party then you hit each other by my reading of the scenario and options.

Sea_Shell

I'd like to know how the ombudsman would view this, if the question, as asked, was answered faithfully.

A layman isn't to know what an insurer may be interpreting from the answers.

Sandtree

Sea_Shell said:

I'd like to know how the ombudsman would view this, if the question, as asked, was answered faithfully.

A layman isn't to know what an insurer may be interpreting from the answers.

In my opinion the only question will be was it answered honestly, what the insurer read into is nothing to do with the customer. But as illustrated by the OP, some may thing "I was almost stationary" and so tick the someone hit me option and that would be grounds potentially for a false declaration accusation. 

Shedman

The other issue I'm finding in doing renewal quotes at the moment is that rarely is there the ability to enter a notification only incident and/or that accident resulted in no claim eg insured hits someone in very low speed crash, no damage to either vehicle and no claim made by either party (both party's insurances notified) and insured's insurer closes incident as a notification only.  Most of the comparison sites seem to only allow to put At Fault claim, sometimes with option to put claim value which would be zero. No ability to put notification only or that there was no claimed made.

Interestingly on chat with RIAS agent yesterday they said if your insurer has just noted it as Notification only then you shouldn't enter the incident in the quote,  but this seems at odds with the general advice that all incidents/accidents/claims should be declared.  Is the agent correct and, if so, does that apply to a quote for any insurer or is it just a RIAS thing?   I have to say I feel somewhat dubious about that advice.

wongataa

Shedman said:
Interestingly on chat with RIAS agent yesterday they said if your insurer has just noted it as Notification only then you shouldn't enter the incident in the quote,  but this seems at odds with the general advice that all incidents/accidents/claims should be declared.  Is the agent correct and, if so, does that apply to a quote for any insurer or is it just a RIAS thing?   I have to say I feel somewhat dubious about that advice.

All incidents, even if no claim was made, should be declared.  The question asked will ask you to state incidents whether or not there was a claim.  In my experience comparison sites have the option to put no claim made on incidents.

[Deleted User]

daveyjp said:

You can't be virtually stationary, so as you were both moving you and somebody else hit each other.

You can. English is a living language.