Car breakdown

foxesarered

My car engine exploded when I was driving on a fast moving dual carriageway. It was terrifying, and I phoned the breakdown service included in my car insurance. The explosion made an extremely loud bang and I had no idea what had happened at that time. I only found out later that the engine had exploded.
Because of the loud bang I told the breakdown that maybe I had hit something, but I had no idea why my car was now completely undriveable. The breakdown towed me to my own garage, where my car was not worth repairing, and I bought a new car. 

Now my insurance company say that as I reported I may have hit something, they are treating this as an accident and not a breakdown. They are therefore adding £180 to my annual premium. However it transpired that I had not hit anything at all, and it was a breakdown. I am being penalised for saying the wrong thing to the breakdown company when I called them. How is this fair?

MyRealNameToo

How do you know the £180 is in relation to the notification? Never come across an insurer that will explain their pricing to the degree of saying which aspect is having what impact. 

Once a claims been registered its generally not possible to delete it, they close it as a non-fault no layout, info only or whatever you want to call it and for most insurers it will make a little to no impact on premiums if you are otherwise a good risk. 

foxesarered

The £180 charge was applied 2 years after the event. It was applied separately to my normal premium and explained in a letter.

MyRealNameToo

foxesarered said:

The £180 charge was applied 2 years after the event. It was applied separately to my normal premium and explained in a letter.

So probably a combination of premium and fees. Given it was in their mind them catching you out rather than something declared at quote stage then it could have been priced as a mid term adjustment thats with some providers can be more expensive than the new business/renewal rate. Was that just for one year or did you renew with them too so its for 2 years?