Motor Insurance

Irateconsumer

Hi All, Am rather perplexed at getting ripped off on motor insurance, my main complaint being how is it fair that I get penalised for a no fault accident, somebody drove into the back of my car which was parked at work, I was not in the car at the time and the person admitted liability yet when it came to re newing my insurance my premium had increased quite considerably, when I questioned the provider why they said it was because I had had an accident and despite my protest that I wasnt at fault they would not back down. Seems to be insurance companies will use any excuse to rip us off. NOT HAPPY🤨

MattMattMattUK

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6656826/motor-insurance

It is not about ripping you off, it is statistical risk models. Any accident, even a non-fault accident follows a trend where it increases the likelihood of another accident occurring. So whilst the accident may not be a fault accident it can relate to behaviours which increase the statistical risk of an accident. Relating to parked vehicles it can be increased by people parking in unsafe locations, or locations that are hazardous to other drivers, moving incidents where the legal position is the other driver is at fault, but that better roadcraft by the non-fault driver could have stopped the accident occurring etc.

elsien

Have you shopped around with a different provider?
If the claim is still open then until it’s closed, it will impact on your cover. If they can’t recover the money from the other driver, then your insurer will still have to pay out.

I have also read somewhere, although I don’t know how accurate this is, but if you’ve had an accident whether it’s your fault or you’re more likely to have another one and that is also part of what they factor in.

IOWJJBTM2025

Agree it is not fair. It is just the way insurance works and you have to accept. You cannot withhold information as you would not be insured. Just search for the best policy and try to get a better cost. If you renew with another insurance company do you have 26 days before the old insurance runs out. Add other people onto the policy.

MyRealNameToo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6656826/motor-insurance

First of all, is the claim still open or not? Most insurers count any open claim as fault because there is no guarantee that they will get all their monies back until the cash is in the bank.

If its closed as non-fault then some insurers will make a small adjustment because mass market insurance is priced on statistical analysis and that analysis normally shows those that have made one non-fault claim are more likely to have another claim than someone who's had no claims. You can postulate why that may be but insurers generally dont.

user1977

Also bear in mind that if there's a repeat occurrence, it might not be your fault but they won't necessarily have identified the culprit, so it's still your insurers who bear the cost.

dunstonh

 Am rather perplexed at getting ripped off on motor insurance

Many of us are rather perplexed at the frequency of those claiming rip-off when it is not.

 my main complaint being how is it fair that I get penalised for a no fault accident, somebody drove into the back of my car which was parked at work, I was not in the car at the time and the person admitted liability yet when it came to re newing my insurance my premium had increased quite considerably, when I questioned the provider why they said it was because I had had an accident and despite my protest that I wasnt at fault they would not back down. Seems to be insurance companies will use any excuse to rip us off. NOT HAPPY🤨

So, yet again, another case of not a rip-off.

Insurance is priced on statistics.

Previously, you were placed in a pot as someone with no claims. So, you were priced accordingly.

Now you are in a pot with a recent claim, and pricing is adjusted because claims statistics show that those who have suffered a recent claim are statistically more likely to have another claim in the near future.

The individual events of the claim cannot be filtered as easily as they are when viewed aggregated. So, it's not about you alone, but you and everyone else who has suffered a claimable event. You are sharing the liability risk of those in that pot. Some of whom will be higher risk than others.

You may say that its unlikely that you would be hit again as the car was parked, but what if you are parking it in a location that makes it more likely to be hit. For example, there is a junction near us that has two parking spots next to it. The junction is on a bend. Every couple of years, a vehicle leaves the road and ploughs through where those parking spots are. Ironically, Openreach has just put in place a green box in that location,and we are just waiting for that to be hit.

increased quite considerably,

That bit seems unusual for a no-fault claim increase. Typically, a resolved no-fault claim increases the premium between 0% and 10%. Not a considerable increase.

So, as others have asked above, could this "considerable" increase be because the claim hasn't been settled yet?