Report accident + claim vs report but don't claim - impact on premiums

rizzla

hi all, is there a significant difference between reporting an accident to the insurer and also making a (no fault) claim for repair vs reporting and not claiming? It used to be the case that claiming would negatively affect the following year's premium whereas one could just report the accident but repair at their own cost to avoid losing NCB and affecting insurance premium. Any recent experience of this?

Sandtree

What do you mean "no fault"?

In insurance terms it means the insurer can recover their outlay from a third party.  Assuming we are on the same page on that and accept that every insurers sets their own pricing approach, generally on a long term basis there will be no difference between the two with many insurers and a non-fault accident doesn't impact your NCD

There are two considerations though... not all claims go the way you imagine and so you may claim thinking it will end up non-fault but the third party gives a different version of events and there is no evidence so it goes 50/50. Secondly, in the short term if your renewal is before the third party settles the claim it may be considered fault at that point still and have to be corrected after your renewal once reimbursement is received.

[Deleted User]

If it's not your fault you can claim the increase in premium back from the third party insurer.

Sandtree

[Deleted User] said:

If it's not your fault you can claim the increase in premium back from the third party insurer.

You can attempt to... was certainly a head of claim we rejected all the time.

[Deleted User]

Sandtree said:

[Deleted User] said:

If it's not your fault you can claim the increase in premium back from the third party insurer.

You can attempt to... was certainly a head of claim we rejected all the time.

I guess people didn't try hard enough to get it. I've had it twice now.

Sandtree

[Deleted User] said:

Sandtree said:

[Deleted User] said:

If it's not your fault you can claim the increase in premium back from the third party insurer.

You can attempt to... was certainly a head of claim we rejected all the time.

I guess people didn't try hard enough to get it. I've had it twice now.

Clearly haven't seen your letters or know how much you claimed however I am sure that some people will have said similar amount our settlements too because when someone makes 10 heads of claim (injury, loss earnings, loss use, OTC meds etc) its often settled on a global offer basis. They therefore may think their £100 future premium increase has been paid but in reality our global offer of £5k -v- their £5.5k claim was because we redlined their claim for premiums and they'd claimed gross rather than net income etc.

We did have a £50 "miscellaneous" authority (also known as FO money) which was to cover small claims for things like OTC meds when there is no injury, telephone calls, mileage for going to the garage and other poxy small things which sometimes could include premium increases but again it was formally recorded as misc