Increased premium despite blame free accident.

iceman1336

Last September a man changed lanes on a local roundabout and hit my car on the drivers door handle. Initially he held his hands up but his wife was unhappy that despite me being in the correct lane, that her husband had owned up. After a few months backwards and forwards, I instructed my insurance company to take the third party to court. Sadly having been in law and forcement for many years, this held no fear for me. Sadly my insurance company employed a really wet trainee solicitor to deal with this. In the end after a few strong words the third party paid up almost £6000 to avoid court action. I subsequently had an email from my insurer stating that it was all sorted in my favour and my full no claims was unaffected! Yesterday I took out some car insurance for my 31 year old daughter. I put my wife and myself on the insurance but ended up having to call the insurance company only to find that despite a blame free accident showing on the records I was being charged £20 more than the quote due to my accident. My wife's car insurance is due shortly. How can an insurance company charge me extra when I did absolutely nothing wrong. Can I complain to the Ombudsman?

swingaloo

No point in complaining to anyone.

It is still a claim even though you were not at fault so your premiums will rise. Your no claims will not be affected but that doesn't mean the premiums themselves will not be more.

prowla

"Law and forcement"?

I reckon £20 isn't much in terms of insurance premiums.

dunstonh

 Yesterday I took out some car insurance for my 31 year old daughter. I put my wife and myself on the insurance but ended up having to call the insurance company only to find that despite a blame free accident showing on the records I was being charged £20 more than the quote due to my accident.

That is quite common with some insurers.  Statistically, those who have an incident are statistically more likely to suffer another in the short term than those that do not.

How can an insurance company charge me extra when I did absolutely nothing wrong.

Statistics.  That is how insurance is priced.

Can I complain to the Ombudsman?

You can waste yours and everyone else's time doing that but the FOS won't rule on pricing issues unless it is discrimination.

Peter999_2

You are more than a risk after having been involved in an accident than you were before even though it wasn't your fault.   It's bad but that's how insurance companies work.

Aretnap

iceman1336 said:

How can an insurance company charge me extra when I did absolutely nothing wrong. 

If your car is stolen or vandalised you've done absolutely nothing wrong, so how can an insurance company charge you extra?

If you live in a high crime or flood risk area you've done absolutely nothing wrong, so how can an insurance company charge you extra?

If you're a young inexperienced driver or an old, doddery one you've done absolutely nothing wrong, so how can an insurance company charge you extra?

You seem to be making the mistake of thinking that an insurance premium is supposed to be a moral judgement on you as an individual, rather than an assessment of risk based on a number of factors, some of which are within your control and some of which aren't.