I have had my 2 Octavias insured with Skoda through Allianz and have a 25 year no claims bonus.

 

Last week someone damaged my 8 month old vRS is a supermarket car park and just drove away leaving some scratches on the bumper I will not say on here what I think of them.

 

I have decided to pay for the repairs myself and I ring Skoda insurance to arrange cover on a courtesy car I am not claiming on the insurance. They then tell me it will have to go on my file as an accident and my premium will go up!!! They say I am more likely to have another accident now someone had damaged my car. I cannot believe this and have been on the phone for about an hour with them but they will not listen.

 

So I am paying for damage done by somebody else my premium has gone up and a note on my file and I have not claimed one penny from Skoda Insurance.

 

If anybody else is insured with them and pays for the repair do not tell them about it . So much for being honest with them If a shopping trolley had caused the damage it would have been different.

 

Has anyone on here come across this.

Edited 28 April, 201511 yr by MATT1

Sorry to say but this will be the same for most insurance companies.

As said. Fairly standard across the board.

Yes, this will happen no matter who you insure with.  Otherwise, what would stop anyone getting free car hire for a few days when they want it?

 

Unfortunately with insurers it's a case of claiming for all or nothing. Insurers will record this as too many occurrences on your vehicle could mean the difference between you being in the wrong place at the wrong time and someone having a grudge against you and/or your car meaning that your premiums would increase dramatically.  Although frustrating, it's not the end of the world as when insurance companies ask you about accidents, claims or convictions, a positive reply results in a question about the cost of the claim which in your case, could be zero.

 

I guess it's a sign of the times when folks chose to repair their car at their own cost rather go through the insurance.  There is so much money in the industry now with parasites such as Skoda's ensurance and ambulance chasers looking to take their cut from any claim and even the smallest claim now runs into several hundred pounds.  It's no wonder people are insuring their insurance aka protecting their no claims bonus.

 

I do feel for you, but you've been treated the same way as other motorists would be.  It seems harsh when all you've done is tried to save the industry and therefore every motorist a few quid by applying common sense and morals in what has been a common sense and moral free industry for many years. Hopefully all will be good from now on.

Yep quite standard, statistically you are now more likely to make another claim , insurers deal in statistics

Back in 09 my wife was driving my superb when a truck clipped it on a roundabout knocking the drivers door mirror off , I informed my insurer but the trucks insurer paid the £500 bill I didn't claim for anything

My insurer loaded my Superb policy , my second cars policy and my wife's car policy as she was driving, FOR FIVE YEARS !

It's not fair but it's statistics

Sadly, this is common and standard practice (My dad worked in the insurance industry for 20 years, so have first hand insight on this one).

Any knowledge of an accident, whether you are claiming for it or not, will be put onto your insurance history wherever possible in order to accurately recalculate your risk profile. It's an odd statistical thing, but cars that are involved in an accident or are vandalised are much more likely to suffer from the same thing happening again inside of three years. IIRC the figure my dad used to quote was 40% more likely.

Since 2008, insurance companies have been finding it harder, and more expensive to borrow short-term finance to deal with claims during the quieter months for renewals. With insurance company claims also continuing to escalate thanks to high injury claims, uninsured drivers, inflated hire car and repair costs etc. the industry is looking for every opportunity possible to increase premiums to offset the overall rise in claims and the high costs of managing cash flow.

OP - it's nothing personal, but the insurance industry views you and everyone else on its books as a potential cost on a balance sheet, not a person.

Proteting your "no claims bonus" does not stop your insurance costs going up if you are a victim such as the OP, the premimum wil still go up you merely receive the % of discount of the now increased premimum ie. you still pay more.  Getting your insurance premimum to go down is extremely rare, the only general occurance is when you renew post your 46th birthdaythen you will see a drop less moving up the scale significately in car type.

I "understand" the other pragmatic reason is the "crash for cash" artists, i.e. those who contrive to stop very suddenly in front of another party, say just as they are entering a roundabout, or after accellerating on an otherwise clear road.

The accident (or collision) was "not their fault" Gov, Honest gov!, and indeed the poor sap behind will get his Policy loaded, and be made to pay for the claim.

BUT

The only way the insurance have of attempting to keep track of these undesirables is to log "involvment in an accident/collision" regardless of the attributed liability.

cheers

M

^^^

This is so common in Birmingham. Thankfully it's on the decline but investigations have shown that it used to be a family business. Someone would cause a driver to crash into them before getting their car fixed at a brothers garage, arranging car hire through a cousin's company, getting a sick note from an uncle to be signed off from working at their brother's company and employing a niece to claim for non existent injuries. Of course, it would all be claimed from the 'guilty' parties insurers.

 

Nowadays, people driving up the cost of claims tend to wear suits and call themselves claim handlers. In some cases they used to be involved in the above!

I would have just hired a car separately and said nothing to the insurance if you are planning to pay for the repair yourself.

Insurance can be annoying and odd - I had an accident, my fault, in my last company car (Mondeo) but badly damaged a third party car (and she made personal injury claim turns out) and the Armco (bearing mind highways charge some thing like £1000 per m to repair).

Company insurance covered this, but obviously told my insurer of our other car about it at renewal time and estimated claim from others I said was £10k - but then found out it was liabilitised for £36k ! - to do with the personal injury claim mostly as her car was probably £3k tops. But when I told our insurer about this my insurance renewal went down - only by £35 but on £250 it's a reasonable proportion but don't know why it went down!