Car insurance

micheleg19

In May this year someone ran into the back of my car - it was a no fault accident on my part as far as my insurance was concerned.  When my own car insurance policy was due for renewal and both my husband's and daughter's policies were also due at the same time (on which I am a named driver on both) i went onto a comparison website to find the cheapest prices for renewal on all 3 policies.  To begin with i didn't mention the accident I'd had in May and got quotes for the 3 policies.  I then redid the quotes declaring the accident (as I know lawfully i had to declare it) and recording that the accident was a no fault/blame accident on my part.  All 3 quotes had increased by approx £50 + each.  Given that i have to declare this accident for the next 5 years on any policies I am named on this works out at an approx cost of nearly £800 i will be out of pocket over the next 5 years due to an accident that was not my fault!! When i queried this with Halifax they said i was a bigger risk- how am i any more of a risk than any other driver who is driving about but NOT being hit by another driver!! Surely I'm the same risk as them!!  This is really unfair! 

Car_54

If I've understood you correctly, you're saying the cheapest quotes increased. Did you try a comparison again with the claim declared?

Sandtree

You also have to consider the other option... insurers are very sensitive to people trying to defraud them by doing quotes with changes that should be immutable. Some insurers will increase the premiums when you requote with changes to your claims history, how long you've owned a vehicle, points on your license etc not because the changes represent a greater risk in themselves but more that you are increasingly looking like a fraud risk... if you keep changing factors many insurers very quickly stop quoting at all.

Some insurers do make small loadings for non-fault accidents, Car insurance is all about stats and those show that someone that has a claim is more likely to have another even if the first was "non-fault"... consider those that regularly park in a poorly designed car park, the first time the person that hit them is honest and leaves their details so its non-fault. The next time the person doesnt stop and so its a fault claim.

In theory if you can definitively prove the financial impact and get evidence that its solely linked to the declaration of the incident (rather than you now being labelled as someone considering fraud) then the cost would be recoverable from the third party insurer. It is however extremely difficult to do 1) because of the reason above and 2) its very hard to predict the future... some insurers only ask for 3 years of claims not 5 so in year 4 will your insurer be asking about it? The impact of claims decreases as they become more historic so £50 this year could be £30 next year but there is no way to know what next years pricing will look like.

If you have someone acting to do your uninsured loss recovery under the Legal Expense option on your car insurance then speak to them about claiming these losses but dont be too hopeful about getting £800... the premiums of those you are a ND on and not thepolicy holder of will be deemed not your loss and so to remote. Back in my claims day we may give £50 as shut up money but then only if we hadnt done similar on another head of  claim.

sheslookinhot

Remove your named driver status. If all cars are insured you can still legally drive them, if you require to.

jimjames

sheslookinhot said:

Remove your named driver status. If all cars are insured you can still legally drive them, if you require to.

Not great advice as you have no idea of the policies involved. You can only drive them if you are given the third party cover extension on your policy and also they would only be covered for third party damage. If it's an expensive car (or even if not) you could end up with a heap of trouble trying to get things sorted out in the event of an accident.

Sandtree

jimjames said:

sheslookinhot said:

Remove your named driver status. If all cars are insured you can still legally drive them, if you require to.

Not great advice as you have no idea of the policies involved. You can only drive them if you are given the third party cover extension on your policy and also they would only be covered for third party damage. If it's an expensive car (or even if not) you could end up with a heap of trouble trying to get things sorted out in the event of an accident.

And assumes that the OP isnt the owner... plenty of spouses/parents have cars owned by one person but insured by the main driver be that the husband/wife/daughter/son

DOC requires it to be someone else's vehicle

bazzyb

micheleg19 said:

 how am i any more of a risk than any other driver who is driving about but NOT being hit by another driver!! Surely I'm the same risk as them!!  

Insurance is all based on statistics & risk.  Statistically somebody who has made a claim for being hit by another vehicle is more likely to make a claim in the future.

sheslookinhot

jimjames said:

sheslookinhot said:

Remove your named driver status. If all cars are insured you can still legally drive them, if you require to.

Not great advice as you have no idea of the policies involved. You can only drive them if you are given the third party cover extension on your policy and also they would only be covered for third party damage. If it's an expensive car (or even if not) you could end up with a heap of trouble trying to get things sorted out in the event of an accident.

Of course I don’t know about the policies, just as you don’t. It didn’t stop you speculating. The OP was commenting on the £800. One way of reducing it is removing herself as a named driver. There will be other ways.