Help! Car insurance premium doubled after no fault accident

danman007

Hi all, help needed!

I was involved in an accident in April 2022 after being rear-ended at a roundabout. Claim all settled through the other driver's car insurance. It happened just before my car insurance policy was renewed, so at the time my premium was unaffected.

However, I have noticed earlier this year that my premium has more than doubled! I was paying £550 a year but now I am paying more than £1100 a year! I spoke with my insurance company (AA) who said that even though I was not at fault for the accident and did not lose my 9 years of no claims discount, I am still regarded as higher risk and £1100 was the best deal they could offer. To make matters worse, I am deemed to be higher risk for the next 5 years!

I have since been on price comparison websites and the best deal I can find is more than £1100.

I am simply gobsmacked that an accident that was not my fault is leaving me more than £550 out of pocket this year and potentially £2500 out of pocket over the next 5 years.

I am tempted to re-open the claim but have been informed that doing so could further increase my premium as the claim would show as "unsettled".

Does anyone have any advice for getting a cheaper premium?

Ayr_Rage

Shop around and use Topcashback or something similar.

danman007

Thank you. I have been shopping around unfortunately and the best premium is now more expensive than the £1100 I received from the AA 

Billxx

Not much consolation but everyone's motor insurance is increasing at the moment.  My wife's recent renewal quote was an increase of 68%.  No claims, no changes, just a regular renewal.

daveyjp

Insurance renewal prices are all,over the place at the moment.

Your price doubling may not only be down to the accident as some drivers who have had no accidents or claims have experienced similar increases.

I had a renewal in January after a claim in November and it made no difference to the renewal quote, another policy renewed in June and the policy was 50% more.  Same insurer for both policies.

DullGreyGuy

The AA are a broker and the call centre agent you speak is not told why you get the price you get from the insurers. They can make a semi-educated guess but it's not much better than asking a random person down the pub. Did you ask them to say what the quote would have been without the incident on record?

A single non-fault claim on an otherwise good risk will make minimal difference with most insurers, there are some insurers it will be material with but they typically are aiming at the spotless records type. If you are a bad risk for other reasons then the compound nature of insurance pricing means the impact will be greater. 

The fact you have shopped around and are seeing similar prices suggests you are more being impacted by the general increase in premiums that the majority of people are seeing as you'll have received quotes from those that dont care about a single incident. Whilst the industry average is about a 48% increase in premiums its not smoothly applied and some people are still reporting savings on last year and others are seeing much more than 50% increase despite not claims at all.

[Deleted User]

You can add the increase to the cost of your claim against the third party, but you need to show that your shopped around and how much of the increase is due to the accident.

Nobbie1967

You say the accident happened just before your previous renewal, but didn’t affect the premium then? If the increase was due to the accident, surely it would have jumped then?

Car_54

Nobbie1967 said:

You say the accident happened just before your previous renewal, but didn’t affect the premium then? If the increase was due to the accident, surely it would have jumped then?

Not if he didn’t tell them!

danman007

Thanks for the replies, everyone. Car_54/Nobbie1967: AA were aware at the time, tbh I’ve no idea why the premium didn’t increase - possibly it had already been offered. But obviously has increased massively since. As others have noted above, I’m sure a significant part of the increase is down to the market and inflation etc.., but it still leave a sour taste in the mouth.

I did contemplate going back to the at fault driver’s insurance company. The only issue is almost 18 months have passed since it was settled and I worry (a) it could end up being a painful process to re-open it and seek another insurance company to absorb the price differential; but mainly (b) I’ve heard re-opening it could affect future insurance premiums. I am possibly between a rock and a hard place!

DullGreyGuy

danman007 said:

Thanks for the replies, everyone. Car_54/Nobbie1967: AA were aware at the time, tbh I’ve no idea why the premium didn’t increase - possibly it had already been offered. But obviously has increased massively since. As others have noted above, I’m sure a significant part of the increase is down to the market and inflation etc.., but it still leave a sour taste in the mouth.

I did contemplate going back to the at fault driver’s insurance company. The only issue is almost 18 months have passed since it was settled and I worry (a) it could end up being a painful process to re-open it and seek another insurance company to absorb the price differential; but mainly (b) I’ve heard re-opening it could affect future insurance premiums. I am possibly between a rock and a hard place!

The fact it didn't raise it last year when it was more recent would suggest that it's not impacting your premium this year either, the impact of claims diminishes overtime not increases. The fact they'd already quoted is irrelevant, insurers update the renewal quote based on new information that comes to light prior to the renewal date. 

Going back to the third party insurer and reopening the case almost certainly wouldnt have any impact on your premium, its only if you went back to your own insurer and asked them to reopen the case that it would but this is an uninsured loss so your insurers wouldnt be directly interested (unless you have Legal Expenses cover and want them to appoint someone to assist with the recovery). 

You would need to gather definitive evidence of what impact the claim is having as from what you have said to date its having no impact.