Changing Insurance company while existing claim is still going on

PROIT

Hi - I am new to this forum need some advice please?
Our car insurance is due in few weeks’ times. The renewal Quotation sent by existing company is very expensive.

I am main driver, and my wife is named driver. My wife had an incident, and this was reported to insurance company. I received renewal quotation from the company which is double the previously I paid last time. My Qs is

Can I change the insurance company who is offering less price?

Existing company is saying I my NCD is 3 years. I never had an accident and had more then 20 years NCD. This claim is still open. They are saying all open claims are considered as at fault claim and this has reduced my no claim. Why has wife’s incident reduced my NCD?

FlorayG

I don't know about the NCD problem but I had a small accident, my fault, two weeks before my insurance was due for renewal. I changed to a new, much cheaper insurer, declared the claim, no problem; this was 6 months ago and nothing has come back on me

Aretnap

No claims discount applies to the policy, not to the driver, so a claim on your policy will affect your no claims discount - it makes no difference whether it was you or your wife driving at the time.

You can certainly change insurer - your old insurer will deal with the ongoing claim. You will have to declare to the new company that you have an open claim - and tell them that you have 3 years NCD, not 20.

If the claim is ultimately settled in your favour (ie if your insurance company recovers all its costs from the other drivr, or his insurance company) then if you stay with the same insurer they should restore your no claims discount and refund any difference in premium as a result of not having had it at renewal time. If you change insurer then the new insurer won't automatically do this. You would need to ask in advance what they'll do if the claim is eventualy resolved as no-fault - and also be willing to do some legwork yourself in terms of chasing up your old insurer for details when the claim is settled, as they won't automatically inform your new insurer.

400ixl

Its not clear, but I assume the claim by your wife was against your policy (your car with her driving at the time).

If so, you have likely not protected your no claims, which will mean the reduce it until the claim is settled as non fault. Or if at fault then that will be what it stays at until you re-build it. 

NCD of 20 years is irrelevant price wise and anything over 6-7 years makes no difference at all to your price. This is why some companies only recognise a much lower number of years.

As stated you can change insurer with an open claim.

I assume that when you got those alternative quotes you declared an open at fault claim, and only 3 years NCD?

DullGreyGuy

PROIT said:

I am main driver, and my wife is named driver. My wife had an incident, and this was reported to insurance company. I received renewal quotation from the company which is double the previously I paid last time. My Qs is

Can I change the insurance company who is offering less price?

Existing company is saying I my NCD is 3 years. I never had an accident and had more then 20 years NCD. This claim is still open. They are saying all open claims are considered as at fault claim and this has reduced my no claim. Why has wife’s incident reduced my NCD?

Presumably your wife's accident was in your vehicle? Was it fault or non-fault? 

Your no claims discount has been reduced because there has been a claim made against your policy so you are no longer claim free so not entitled to as much no claims discount. 

If it was a non-fault incident then hopefully when the claim is resolved they'll reinstate the NCD and adjust your premiums if you stay with them. If you choose to move elsewhere you'd need to speak to your new insurers as to if they'll allow the NCD to increase mid year and retrospectively apply it, certainly with my former employer we wouldn't  if it was a new customer to us, our systems did it automatically for renewing customers. 

PROIT

Thanks you all.
The new quotation from comparision site is for 3 years NCD and Claim not setteld. My insurance Quatation is £2900.
Is this true that NCD should be reduced only 7 years even if the claim is not settled?
Also is it worth paying the claaim from our own pcoket and have NCD back of 9 years and have incident recoded as Information only? the amount is claim is less then one thousand. Would this make any future insurance cheap?

PROIT

The claim is aginst my policy - wife is named driver on it

DullGreyGuy

PROIT said:

Thanks you all.
The new quotation from comparision site is for 3 years NCD and Claim not setteld. My insurance Quatation is £2900.
Is this true that NCD should be reduced only 7 years even if the claim is not settled?
Also is it worth paying the claaim from our own pcoket and have NCD back of 9 years and have incident recoded as Information only? the amount is claim is less then one thousand. Would this make any future insurance cheap?

Your policy book will state how NCD is impacted by a claim, assuming you dont have NCD Protection the norm is to step down 2 years for a fault (or open) claim if you have less than 5 years and to drop to 3 years NCD if you have 5 or more. 

Back in the old days everyone used to max NCD out at 5 years from a discount perspective, then some decided it would be a good marketing strategy to say they now recognise up to 9 years but all they did was rather than adding a 5% discount when you hit year 5 they spread it out so you got a 1% discount per year up to 9. They still wanted the effect of a claim to be material on premiums hence retained the drop to 3 years as those that still only used up to 5 years NCD. 


Most insurers will allow you to buy the claim back, if it's worth it depends on the numbers. The impact will be felt over 5 years but the it tails off fairly quickly as long as you dont have any other claims. How much an insurer pays for repairs is normally material above the cash in hand prices a backstreet garage will offer so if the £1k is how much you think it cost it may be worth a call to the insurers to check the value before deciding on a path. You would need to repay both your vehicle damage and any losses a third party suffered (assuming its a fault claim)