How to answer insurance questions for no claim incident

SeagullFTB

My wife's car insurance is due for renewal soon, so I was using a compare website to get the best price.

She clipped another car about a year ago, which we declared to the insurance company for information only. No claim was made and the matter was closed.

I presume this needs to be declared. When I say that she has been involved in a claim or accident, it asks:

Has the claim been settled?
What was the cost of the claim?

I presume the answers are "yes" and "0". I just wanted to check this is correct?

Unfortunately, it adds about 50% to the renewal quotes!

DullGreyGuy

Need to see the exact question set to be sure but if they dont calve off not claimed for incidents then that would be how I'd answer it. 

SeagullFTB

DullGreyGuy said:

Need to see the exact question set to be sure but if they dont calve off not claimed for incidents then that would be how I'd answer it. 

I retried using the MSE tool. The question set is:

Have you had any motor accidents, claims or losses in the last five years? This is regardless of who/what was at fault or if a claim was made.

What kind of incident or claim was it?
Accident. Not at fault.
Accident. At fault. (Selected)
Accident. Both parties at fault.
Fire damage.
Other/Miscellaneous.
(Other irrelavant options such as theft, vandalism)

When did the incident happen?

Did this affect your no claims bonus? Answered "no".

It doesn't actually ask if the claim was settled or for how much. So the answers selected make it sound like a claim was possibly made, even though it wasn't, which negatively impacts the quotes quite significantly.

DullGreyGuy

Each seller and aggregator has its own question set. With aggregators in particular the actual seller then has to interpret the answer against their own answer set and what they do about questions that they'd like asked which the aggregator hasn't asked 

The other consideration is that "fault" in insurance talk has little to do with blame and actually is just about if the insurer had a net outlay at the end of the claim. So a hit and run is a fault claim because the third party is unknown so your insurer cannot recover their outlay from anyone. You hit the back of a car but the damage to yours is below the excess and the third party never claims then thats a non-fault claim because the insurer never paid out. 

Aggregators in particular tend to have some of the hardest question sets because the fact they have big corporations trying to influence the question set and will never be able to satisfy all of them. Some ask how the claim was settled, some who was to blame, the nuances are important

SeagullFTB

@DullGreyGuy Thank you. I really appreciate the help, especially the explanation about the term "fault".

I presumed that because my wife hit a parked car, it would have to be deemed "accident, at fault", as she was undoubtedly to blame. But as neither party made a claim, it might make more sense to list it as "accident, not at fault". This might help reduce the premium a bit.

XRS200

I don't see you can call hitting a parked car as not at fault

Arunmor

The way the question is framed claims or losses the answer is no.

user1977

XRS200 said:

I don't see you can call hitting a parked car as not at fault

That's because "fault" doesn't have its normal meaning here (conversely, if you were the owner of the parked car and didn't know who had hit you, that would be an "at fault" claim because your insurers can't recover the costs from the responsible party).

SeagullFTB

XRS200 said:

I don't see you can call hitting a parked car as not at fault

That's what confused me. It seems a strange way to phrase it, but I understand the reasoning given and appreciate the help.