Premium Doubled due to Non Fault Claim

plh56

Recently was involved in an accident where a coach hit a car behind me pushing it into us while we were stationary in a queue of traffic lights.
All insurance details swapped and amicably dealt with at the scene.
Now my car is booked in for repair and as it is non-fault it will be coming off the coach driver's insurance.

Unfortunately, my car insurance is up for renewal in a few weeks, and my insurance company has doubled my premium on the auto-renewal. When I enquired about this I was told that this was due to it being registered in the system as an at fault claim until the claim is fully settled (even though it is a clear non-fault incident and no one is arguing otherwise).

I have 11 years NCD which is not affected by this as not at fault. But I am aware that any claim, even when not at fault, can cause a small increase in the premium, but doubling it just because renewal is coming at a bad time seem excessive. Do I have any options here, it would seem that at the very least the company should refund the cost difference between the current renewal quote and what it would have been had the claim been settled at the time of renewal so it would only be slightly higher once it is settled? Do I have any rights here to demand this?

If my current insurance company does not help and insists on charging double, and I have to look elsewhere when the insurance ends what do I put as the incident, I see there is an option for not at fault and costs reclaimed in full or at fault. I would like to put not at fault and costs reclaimed in full as that is what it will be once processed, but I will not know when that has actually happened, so do I have to put at fault when getting other quotes too until previous insurer gets around to updating the case? And what happens if they never bother to tell me when/if they have reclaimed all the costs if I've left them by then?

olgadapolga

plh56 said:

Recently was involved in an accident where a coach hit a car behind me pushing it into us while we were stationary in a queue of traffic lights.
All insurance details swapped and amicably dealt with at the scene.
Now my car is booked in for repair and as it is non-fault it will be coming off the coach driver's insurance.

Unfortunately, my car insurance is up for renewal in a few weeks, and my insurance company has doubled my premium on the auto-renewal. When I enquired about this I was told that this was due to it being registered in the system as an at fault claim until the claim is fully settled (even though it is a clear non-fault incident and no one is arguing otherwise).

I have 11 years NCD which is not affected by this as not at fault. But I am aware that any claim, even when not at fault, can cause a small increase in the premium, but doubling it just because renewal is coming at a bad time seem excessive. Do I have any options here, it would seem that at the very least the company should refund the cost difference between the current renewal quote and what it would have been had the claim been settled at the time of renewal so it would only be slightly higher once it is settled? Do I have any rights here to demand this?

If my current insurance company does not help and insists on charging double, and I have to look elsewhere when the insurance ends what do I put as the incident, I see there is an option for not at fault and costs reclaimed in full or at fault. I would like to put not at fault and costs reclaimed in full as that is what it will be once processed, but I will not know when that has actually happened, so do I have to put at fault when getting other quotes too until previous insurer gets around to updating the case? And what happens if they never bother to tell me when/if they have reclaimed all the costs if I've left them by then?

You could probably ask them to recalculate the premium once the claim is settled. DH did that on a no-fault claim that wasn't settled for almost two years and received a refund.

You will need to put that the claim hasn't been settled when asking for quotes from other insurance companies. Just because, well, that's being truthful, isn't it?

fimacdoodle

Good timing to Jump ship. Just don't go too cheap - I used to work for some of those companies, and they never wanted to pay out !

400ixl

It will be registered on the database that all insurers can see as a non settled claim which will be an at fault until the process has been completed and the status changed to non fault. So don't be tempted to lie on any quotes.

So actually timing couldn't be worse.

It would be worth speaking to your current insurer and ask what they will do to recalculate once the claim is settled and whether it gets back dated to the full years policy. Check what the admin fee would be to have it done as well.

plh56

Thanks everyone. So it sounds like this is geared against the consumer and there's simply no protection against being unlucky and having someone hit you right before premium putting your prices up the same as an at fault claim. Totally ridiculous and unfair but can't say I'm surprised. I will call my insurer and say that this is unfair and ask for them to be understanding and hope for the best then, if they are decent they will correct it once settled as no loss to them and if they don't they will lose customer forever. If they don't though it doesn't sound like I have the option to jump ship, as from other replies this will be recorded as an at fault claim until it is finished (which will be after I have to renew so no help), so I have to get quotes based on that even though it's not really true as the other driver and insurance have admitted fault. So sounds like whether they do the right thing or not I am going to be stuck with paying double this renewal, but if they don't do the right thing I will leave them forever and can at least put down no fault accident in the following year's renewal with other companies.

Aretnap

While you can't just declare it as no-fault when you apply for quotes, you can ask the new insurer to recalculate your premium when it eventually is settled in your favour, and refund you the difference. 

A couple of caveats:

(1) You should ask the new insurer to confirm that they'll do this before you buy, as not all will do it and

(2) the old insurer won't automatically tell the new one when it's settled - so you'll have to be willing to do a bit of legwork yourself in terms of chasing the old insurer for details on how the claim is going, and then updating the new one when it's complete

Which means a bit if extra work for you unfortunately. Whether the difference in premium is worth the extra hassle is up to you. Maybe get some quotes with it declared as no fault as well as fault to get an idea of just how much your premium might go down when it is eventually settled.

caprikid1

fimacdoodle said:

Good timing to Jump ship. Just don't go too cheap - I used to work for some of those companies, and they never wanted to pay out !

Yep Direct Line is a really good example, shocking in every area if you have to claim.

Steve182

caprikid1 said:

fimacdoodle said:

Good timing to Jump ship. Just don't go too cheap - I used to work for some of those companies, and they never wanted to pay out !

Yep Direct Line is a really good example, shocking in every area if you have to claim.

Yep,

My wife was with DL. She had a "no-fault" claim when another parent (mad !!!!!! in Volvo is her nickname by the other parents) hit her parked/unoccupied car outside the school. Still still kept her 10 years NCB. At renewal DL wanted to increase premium by 47%. We shopped around and managed to get a policy for much the same as the original price from Privilege, who ironically are a division of DL!. How bizarre is that?

plh56

Aretnap said:

While you can't just declare it as no-fault when you apply for quotes, you can ask the new insurer to recalculate your premium when it eventually is settled in your favour, and refund you the difference. 

A couple of caveats:

(1) You should ask the new insurer to confirm that they'll do this before you buy, as not all will do it and

(2) the old insurer won't automatically tell the new one when it's settled - so you'll have to be willing to do a bit of legwork yourself in terms of chasing the old insurer for details on how the claim is going, and then updating the new one when it's complete

Which means a bit if extra work for you unfortunately. Whether the difference in premium is worth the extra hassle is up to you. Maybe get some quotes with it declared as no fault as well as fault to get an idea of just how much your premium might go down when it is eventually settled.

Very useful to know, thank you. To avoid double premium I would be willing to do this, does anyone know any insurers that are well known for being willing to recalculate it and refund (is there a list somewhere perhaps?), or is it simply a case of asking each one individually?

se2020

You are entitled to be put back into the same position as you were before the accident. 
So just put in a claim for the extra cost on your renewal to the coach drivers insurance company 

plh56

I have just spoken to my insurance company. They were very unhelpful. They advised that they might refund us the extra cost once the claim is settled as non-fault but would not commit to it or give any estimation of what the new premium would be if the claim was settled by the renewal date so we can estimate how much the refund might be. So for all we know it could just be £1! I did ask why they could not estimate this, as we are not asking for it to be binding but surely this is necessary information for us to know if their renewal price is competitive with others and something even the customer could do when getting a quote on their website (by editing the quote just to mark the claim as settled by the renewal date which it may be). They claimed this would be fraudulent as this is incorrect information given on the quote. I didn't understand this view so tried to press for more information, explaining that if we are asking for a quote for a few weeks time we can't predict the future so it is a guess whether we put it down as settled or unsettled so no fraud is happening as we are putting the best guess correct information of what it will be when the insurance starts but they would not change their view. I then pointed out that if it is fraudulent to get a quote for if it is settled by the renewal date surely it is also fraudulent to provide/get a quote for it being unsettled as we don't know which outcome will be in place by that date, but according to them it is fine to guess at it being unsettled at that time and quote on that but not to guess at it being settled and quote on that.