Changing insurer before claim

duggan1

Insurance is up very soon and I'm not planning to renew as I have a quote for considerably less, current insurer can't match it. I was involved in an accident a couple of days ago where someone rear ended me in traffic. I've reported to insurer and have a 'claim/incident' reference although have not yet made a claim. Other party is looking to see how much repairs will cost before deciding to stump up or go down the insurance route - I suspect it will end up being expensive enough that them paying for the repairs doesn't make sense financially. I will be therefore looking to make a claim after my current policy has ended. I imagine this isn't that uncommon, but are there likely to be any issues from this from the exisiting (soon to be ex) insurer?

Not the end of the world if it's best to renew with current provider just in case, but would save me £150 if I didn't have to!

Aretnap

No obvious issues, the important thing is that the incident that leads to the claim happened while the policy was in force, not whether the policy is still in force when you make the claim.

Presumably you have declared the accident to the new insurer. Did you declare it as something along the lines of "incident - no claim made?" if so you'll have to update them if you actually make the claim, and be prepared for a change to the premium for your new policy. 

Sandtree

Your new insurer may become very expensive when you tell them about having an open claim, which most external insurers will consider fault until such time as its settled.

There is no issue claiming after the policy is lapsed, car insurance like most personal lines policies are written on a date of loss basis. Some do warn that your insurers "goodwill" may have reduced if you've moved on but back in my claims days we didn't go into the policy administration system to see if the customer had renewed when deciding how much a total loss should be valued at etc. 

dunstonh

Not the end of the world if it's best to renew with current provider just in case, but would save me £150 if I didn't have to!

Are you sure its cheaper after full disclosure?

Your NCD will be temporarily reduced.  You will have an open incident that cannot currently be classed as non-fault.   Have you declared those changes to the new insurer?

duggan1

dunstonh said:

Not the end of the world if it's best to renew with current provider just in case, but would save me £150 if I didn't have to!

Are you sure its cheaper after full disclosure?

Your NCD will be temporarily reduced.  You will have an open incident that cannot currently be classed as non-fault.   Have you declared those changes to the new insurer?

I was basing this on the quote websites, and yes I was listing it as a claim. Other party has decided to go insurance route now though so no claim on my poilcy but just a notified incident. Doesn't seem to make any difference to the quote at this stage.

dunstonh

duggan1 said:

dunstonh said:

Not the end of the world if it's best to renew with current provider just in case, but would save me £150 if I didn't have to!

Are you sure its cheaper after full disclosure?

Your NCD will be temporarily reduced.  You will have an open incident that cannot currently be classed as non-fault.   Have you declared those changes to the new insurer?

I was basing this on the quote websites, and yes I was listing it as a claim. Other party has decided to go insurance route now though so no claim on my poilcy but just a notified incident. Doesn't seem to make any difference to the quote at this stage.

If the other party has decided to go down the insurance route then it is no longer an incident but a claim.  As fault is yet undecided and you may lose a couple of years NCD.  You should recheck the pricing takes that into account.  Otherwise you could pay less initially but get a bill later.