Word of warning - Only contact your insurance if you are sure you will claim!

[mdon]

Re-read mine: I wasn't even in the car park when it happened to me!

Yeah I read yours, mines on a multi car policy and if they do change their minds and say I have to declare it I'll just move both cars over to aviva or somewhere else, admiral have been brilliant so far, they arranged Albany assistance to handle the claim with is a 3rd party company who handle. Non fault claims, I've got a courtesy car even though I didn't take that out when I bought the insurrance and have said since it isn't my fault, I don't have to pay my excess so I havnt paid a penny.

When they ask me the question "have you had any accidents or claims in the last XX years regardless of fault?" I'll say "no" as it's went through as his claim and my insurrance havnt paid a penny out.

[rockhopper]

My job is investigating vehicle accidents. The insurance companies are always sending me out to see people who have had an incident but not reported it. The insured vehicle generally hasn't been damaged and they aren't making a claim, so they think they don't have to report it. As mentioned above, they are breaking the terms of their contract by not doing so and the insurance company could cancel their insurance if they do wished.

The biggest problem with not reporting incidents is that claimants have 3 years from their 18th birthday to make a claim against you.

Imagine a 5 year old child runs out from between 2 cars and hits your passing car. They may not be hurt, but they have until they are 21 to make a claim against you......will you remember what happened 16 years ago?

I have noticed that insurance companies I work for routinely now investigate every incident involving a pedestrian, cyclist or motorcyclist. Regardless of any claim being made, so that it is all fresh in your memory. Even if it isn't your fault, you will find that the vulnerable road user may try claiming off your insurance. Cyclists and in particular motorcyclists with TPFT are some of the worst for trying it on.

Another big area is people think because they have comprehensive insurance that all named drivers are covered to drive anybody else's car. As you all know this is not the case. The policy holder in some circumstances can then be held responsible for the costs of the claim if the insurance company can't get their costs back from the uninsured driver.

Moral of that story is if you EVER lend your car to anybody, always ask to see their driving licence and insurance documents.

I know I have wandered a little off topic, but it is worth reminding people.

I can't comment on loading premiums as I don't work direct for insurance companies, as I'm self employed and work on their behalf.

My premium went up by 25% this year, and Skoda were still the cheapest. Some companies would not even quote me as the car has been remapped and has a flappy paddle MFSW retro fitted. Admiral was one of the companies who would not quote.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Nutter244]

And the insurance company`s wonder why when people have a little nudge they get claims for whiplash!! They screw you, you screw them!! I am not saying its right though, I am saying if they play fair maybe their customers will play fair. This was on Watchdog a while ago, and I was disgusted by it. I would be happy to pursue legal action against them, as this is just outright criminal!!

BTW this is also the case with most insurance inc Home Insurance Google Watchdog and find the program it was very interesting.

Naughty insurance company's, I am no solicitor but if you can prove they have not applied this extra premium to another one of their customers who are in the same situation, they would find it very hard to apply it to yours without being discriminatory. Therefore Illegal I would have thought. That`s the route I would be going down.

[anewman]

You can't put in a contract what you can't enforce in a court of law. Cancelling insurance is the biggest concern though.

Sent from my Blade using Tapatalk

[wolfinsheepsclothing]

OK, it's insurance renewal time.

Last year it was a little over £400 and this year Admiral have sent me a renewal for £845 which I of course find criminal.

I used the "compare" sites and found plenty of quotes around the £420 - £450 mark, so you'd think it was straight forward, either move on or get Admiral to match. So I gave them a call and quoted them the Elephant.co.uk quote I had in front of me.

The nice lady went away and came back telling me I hadn't told Elephant everything about my situation and that is why the quote was so much lower.

In January last year I had a run-in with a white van driver. It was a 50/50 situation however he drove off without leaving details.

I contacted my insurance to basically ask for advice. No claim was every made, either by myself or the other party.

However it was an "incident" and although it is listed as a "Incident only, notification made. £0, no claim" it added £200 to the elephant.co.uk quote, taking me up to £633 - which Admiral would match.

I decided to try a few others and on each occasion, when mentioning the "no claim incident" it added around £200 to the quote. There is no point me lying about it, the "incident" will now be on the central database and would get me in trouble should I need to make a claim.

So, the moral of this story is simple - only contact your insurance company if you've got any kind of intention of actually claiming. As I have to declare this "non incident" for the next 5 years, it's going to end up costing me around £1000 during that time!

My son had his Renault clio 1.6 RSIhit outside our house!.

[Stoofa]

I'm just adding to this thread to say how even more impressed with Aviva I'm being.

They offer £500 cover for audio equipment. As I have a Columbus I wanted to get the cover increased to around £1200 so if it was stolen I could get a brand new replacement.

I was expecting a slight increase in the premium of course.

Email response within an hour - if the audio equipment/Sat-Nav is factory fitted then it's unlimited cover! Top stuff, so no increase there.

I cannot change the registration plate online, so fearing a charge for that I asked about that too.

No charge at all, either call or email them the details and they will update the database within an hour and all for £0.

More and more impressed with Aviva.

[Jamesr021]

My understanding was the way it worked is you are simply refused insurance, then you have to declare this fact when trying to buy insurance and are loyally screwed over whenever you get a quote. I'd have imagined they wouldn't pass your details to the Police as it would be a Civil matter, as opposed to criminal, I'd have thought?

Failing to Disclose information for the purpose of obtaining motor insurance is a criminal offence for which the police can take you to court!! I would think that insurance databases hold all kinds of details including if you have witheld details previously!!

[mdon]

Well the OP was right, admiral tried to put my insurrance up after my 'incident' even though my car was parked, some old bloke ran into it and considering my car was 3rd party insured admiral didn't pay a penny out. I complained and kicked off so they reduced it to lower than it was last year and upped the cover to fully comp. Insurance companies will try all sorts to charge more so you have to be careful. Im still going to have a look around though to see if I can get it for cheaper.

[vindaloo]

Do they cover modified cars (remaps, brakes etc) or is it purely just cosmetic mods etc?

Having tried this myself recently...

It's mostly cosmetic but the list includes uprated anti-roll bars. There's an "other" catagory too. Choose that and it tells you to phone though.

Basically, if you've say 2-3 mods, what you do is obtain a quote for a standard car or car plus whatever specific mods you can categorise, then phone their helpline/quoteline. Explain about the additional mods and they'll refer to underwriter there and then and ask if it's possible to quote.

They probably won't quote you for a greatly modified car straight off though. "too risky on a new business...".

Fabia VRS with a RARB as the only mod would have been between £256-£292 depending on options chosen to go with the quote. Their recovery/breakdown option looks cheap too if bundled with the insurance.

J.

[mannyo]

This year, my premium has increased with everyone by an extra £150 - even though I was nowhere near the vehicle, parked in a car park! If only I knew this I would have thought about suing the london fire brigade for increasing my insurance costs.

Everyones insurance has gone up substantially over the last 12 months, an article on the news has shown that despite the road accident rate, along with their severity decreasing substantially, the number of compensation claims has risen 70% in the last 6 years. The money to payout these claims needs to come from somewhere, so that will be us then. With the average under 21 paying £4000 on a first policy it makes you wonder how many dont actually have insurance.

[VWD]

Personally ,I've never had problems with non claim "incidents" .Perhaps this is something the insurance industry looks on as an extra source of income. I've always told any company I've been with ,that wants to jack up my premium to stick it,and moved on . I've never had any problem with companies when I've been a new customer being interested in any past "no claim incidents" . But then ,I'm an old fart ,with over 45 years on the road , and a NCB history that ( if they honestly would match) ,would be about 30 years .But ,then the industry is a bit iffy - I can only claim NINE years NCB - SO what happens to my other 20+ years NCB .

In fact - I'v had companies recently looking to reduce my premiums ,possibly of my record .

[vRS Joe]

Somebody whacked my car with a car door while I was close to the car. I told my insurance about it, just to find out what could be done. In the end I left it after the other side decided to deny it ever happened. A few months later my renewal came through. I cant remember the exact figure, it was £16xx.xx! It was very hard to get them to delete the record of the enquirey I made, it took days and several phonecalls. Voila £772!

Basically you need to really think hard before you claim. I wish I'd gone bloody mental in the car park and demanded £150 cash on the spot for the 10cm long dent in the car.

Lesson learned...

[anewman]

Basically you need to really think hard before you claim. I wish I'd gone bloody mental in the car park and demanded £150 cash on the spot for the 10cm long dent in the car.

Yep, can't keep anything looking nice these days if you park in public areas. Not without spending lots of money to keep repairing damage other people cause.

Thing is they'd never give £150 cash. Most people out there will say there's no damage there, or tell you a tenner will sort it. IMO if doing anything return the favour of damage to their car. Perhaps slash all their tyres as they're something that can't be replaced on insurance and it isn't a dent you can simply put up with, you need them sorting out.

the number of compensation claims has risen 70% in the last 6 years. The money to payout these claims needs to come from somewhere, so that will be us then.

Chances are if an accident happened, an individual will not have thousands of pounds to chase. Everyone these days effectively lives hand to mouth and have no savings in the bank, splurging all their wads of cash on mortgages etc. But the insurance company has lots of assets. No win no fee vultures everywhere taking insurance companies for all they've got. It's fair enough saying insurance costs will rise, but it's the same with energy companies and everything else - it's not like they're doing badly out of it. They're still no doubt making millions to billions in profit.

With the average under 21 paying £4000 on a first policy it makes you wonder how many dont actually have insurance.

Or are fronting, which is effectively the same as not having insurance. Yet people seem to see this as acceptable and a major insurer (Direct Line) even produced an advert hinting that fronting is perfectly acceptable (with a young lady moaning she can't earn no claims as a named driver on a policy).

Edited 13 February, 2012 by anewman

[vRS G60]

Insurance = highway robbery.

It really is about time these practices were brought to book.

Upping you premium through a no fault accident!!!

*******s, that's what no-claims bonus is all about.

Excess is another rip off. To me if your insured, your insured. No two ways about it. If they want to add excess then your not insured up to the excess amount, any costs above that you should get THE FULL AMOUNT.

You will probably find with Aviva that come your renewal next year the premium will have increased considerably, claim or not. That's what they did to me. :'(

I doubt insurance companies can justify any quotes they give out. They quote what they think you'll pay half the time.

The 5 years rule for previous accidents/claims should be brought down to 3. Some do use 3 years but most don't. They'd increase it to the whole of your driving life if they could.

[Stoofa]

Personally ,I've never had problems with non claim "incidents" .Perhaps this is something the insurance industry looks on as an extra source of income. I've always told any company I've been with ,that wants to jack up my premium to stick it,and moved on . I've never had any problem with companies when I've been a new customer being interested in any past "no claim incidents" . But then ,I'm an old fart ,with over 45 years on the road , and a NCB history that ( if they honestly would match) ,would be about 30 years .But ,then the industry is a bit iffy - I can only claim NINE years NCB - SO what happens to my other 20+ years NCB .

In fact - I'v had companies recently looking to reduce my premiums ,possibly of my record .

But the problem is that the "no claim incident" still has to be mentioned.

When Admiral jacked up my quote I started shopping around. The difference between me saying "no claims" and "1 non-fault, non-claim" was approx. £200. It didn't matter who I tried and yes they all ask about the previous 5 years of history so you cannot "not tell them".

Aviva were the only ones not to increase the premium because of this one incident.

And I to have an impecable driving history - passed just after my 17th birthday.

I'm 35 now and before the "non-incident" this time around I've only had one other claim which was made when I was 18.

Totally clean license - never had a single point on it.

I'm sure Aviva will attempt to "screw" me come renewal next year. I'll shop around again, but still have to mention this non-incident that will have happened 2 years previously.

[vRS Carl]

As promised I said I would get back come renewal time.

Just to recap my car was reversed into at my wife's work, whilst it was parked up, by a colleague. I claimed off her insurance and informed mine, as you have to BY LAW, of the incident and that I was not making a claim from them.

It's renewal time and my insurance has not increased. I have changed my provider from Adrian Flux to Greenlight and even though I declared this to them it made no difference to the policy. They stated that the policy is not affected if it is a non fault accident and you claim from the other person's insurance.

So moral of the story. Be honest and tell them. If you don't and they find out, your insurance will be void.

[Stoofa]

Then nicely done. I can however, by the fact I contacted many, many insuance companies tell you that you've found one of the minority not to load your premium becuase of a non-fault accident.

With my accident I wasn't even claiming off the other person's insurance - there was simply no claim at all from either party against the other.

I didn't try Adrian Flux nor Greenlight, however I tried everone else under the sun and only Aviva were willing to overlook it.