Non fault claim - affecting my insurance premiums

[ikarl]

Guys, looking for a little bit of advice...

On Saturday my car was involved in a minimal car park ding that I thought would be sorted out out with the insurance. Long story short, the girl who bumped her door into mine wants it to go through the insurance.

I had Direct Line's engineer out today and he said they will give me £173 for the damage (it is a tiny mark, but noticeable)

Anyway, I've run quotes through for my other insurance policies and it does make a difference to the quoted price, but Direct Line are refusing to meet any differences. In fact, the increase in my premiums is considerably more than the £173 they're offering. For a completely non-fault claim that their driver has admitted!

Is there anything I can do? or do I have to just suck it up and pay the £173 myself to fix the damage, even though they have fully admitted liability

ETA - the quotes I have run have all been on the basis of the claim being fully settled by the other insurance co.

[kwaka jack]

Rubbish isn't. I had a non fault crash 5 years ago and my insurance went up because you are classed as " being more at risk of having another accident because you have been involved in one" My Insurance has been more for the last 5 years than it would have been if I didn't have to declare it. i don't think there's a lot you can really do. I asked my insurance at the time and their response was you'll just have to deal with it.

[JustinP1]

One of those things I'm afraid.

They look at odds. They know your age, car, post code, but not much else.

Now you've had an incident, no matter how minor, you are statistically more likely to have an accident than someone who never claims at all.

[ikarl]

So there is nothing I can do?? that's ridiculous!

Surely this counts as 'uninsured losses' - my first estimate is that this non-fault claim is going to cost me £250 this year

Would an accident management company take on the fight

[Retroman]

If you can justify it raising with evidence (i.e 2 identical quotes, one with the claim and one without) you should be to claim this money back from the liable party as it's an uninsured loss.
It's likely you'll only be claim this for the first year however.

[L1OFF]

I'm just about to go through this at the moment, the 3 month old Mini had a ding when parked in a supermarket carpark by a woman in a Shogun. Fortunatly had a witness but the woman still claimed she could not have caused the damage I pointed out the blue paint on my car that matched hers exactly.

[ikarl]

It's ridiculous though.. Why should ayone be out of pocket by any amount when someone hits their car and fully admitted liability?!

Gets really painful when you have multiple cars because it obviously affects all vehicle policies.

Does anyone know, would an accident management company deal with this and recover the increased premiums?

(I'm loathe to use one, especially as Direct Line have been quite on the ball and they WANT to deal with it themselves, but if that's the only choice other than paying to fix my car myself, then so be it)

[StottyEvo]

An old women was blinded by the sun and crashed into my car whilst it was parked and I was in bed, then I was rear ended whilst sitting at a red light by a taxi driver who I assume was texting.

Both drivers admitted 100% liability and my renewall quote was £1500, when I told the insurance company about the non fault accidents they wanted a further £2200. This is despite having a previously clean record, 2yrs no claims bonus and £1350 excess.

You have to suck it up, also even if you don't go through the insurance its going to take a fair bit of arguing to get the accident removed.

[L1OFF]

would an increase in insurance primium not be class as consequential loss and therefore not recoverable?

[StottyEvo]

L1OFF said:

would an increase in insurance primium not be class as consequential loss and therefore not recoverable?

Yep

[98elise]

ikarl said:

It's ridiculous though.. Why should ayone be out of pocket by any amount when someone hits their car and fully admitted liability?!

Because the insurance company has evidence to show that someone who has been involved in accident (regardless of the fault), is more likely to be claiming again soon. Its not the accident they are concerned about, its what that says about your future risk/cost to them.

There will be some people involved who truly have not increased their risk, but that's what happens when insurance is based on risk groups than individual risk.

[Mr2Mike]

L1OFF said:

would an increase in insurance primium not be class as consequential loss and therefore not recoverable?

How could you possibly put a figure on how much extra you will be paying for the next 5 years?

Insurance companies claiming that you are a higher risk (but without being able to back this up since you can't see their stats) really pisses me off, but realistically you won't be able to recover this.

[Boydie88]

L1OFF said:

would an increase in insurance primium not be class as consequential loss and therefore not recoverable?

No. Policies are subject to discounts, having a claim reduces the discount. I don't think it's considered a loss.

Simply put, a non fault claim still means you've put your car in a position it can be hit/damaged by another driver who may well not be insured/give details next time.

[kiethton]

Sucks doesn't it but there is nothing you can do, especially as the defendant will at there are companies which don't load (the fact they are already 10+ Times more expensive is irrelevant)

For me, I got my E92 335i at 21, ran it for a year without issue, second year I had somebody pull from a side road into my rear wing and then another third party rear end me within 6 months...my insurance for both years had previously been ~£800, after that it went to £2500 and all other comparison sites were the same, I had to sell my dream car (of the time) owing to it and they still affect my insurance premium now, nearly 4 years later

[LoonR1]

Read this

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/apr/16/no-fa...

60% of insurers do NOT load for the first nin-fault claim. Some do, but they may well still be cheaper than those who don't load. Either way, you have no right to cheap insurance and you can NOT claim for any increase in premium. How do you put a price on it, when I can show you over half the market that won't charge you more, therefore no "loss"

This is a regular topics on here and it goes on and on and on, but it can't be claimed successfully for and that is the end of the discussion in theory; in oractice it will run and run with people going on about it being unfair for days.

As for the comment about insurers releasing their data, I keep saying it is competitive commercial data and can not be released. Do Supermarkets release all the pricing details of all their products? Do petrol stations release the full details of all their costs to deliver the price at pump? Do car or bike manufacturers tell you how much each individual part of a car or bike costs to design, manufacture amd assemble?

[StottyEvo]

kiethton said:

Sucks doesn't it but there is nothing you can do, especially as the defendant will at there are companies which don't load (the fact they are already 10+ Times more expensive is irrelevant)

For me, I got my E92 335i at 21, ran it for a year without issue, second year I had somebody pull from a side road into my rear wing and then another third party rear end me within 6 months...my insurance for both years had previously been ~£800, after that it went to £2500 and all other comparison sites were the same, I had to sell my dream car (of the time) owing to it and they still affect my insurance premium now, nearly 4 years later

Whoa someone as hard done to me as me

Instead of selling my car I contacted an insurance company that deals with underwriters, when he asked if I had accidents I said yes, but he didn't ask any details. I got a call back a couple of hours later saying they could insure me for £1500. I checked with him that the accidents had been added, he said they hadn't, so I told him the details and they were added to the system. As it was a lazy Friday afternoon he said the price would be honored and I got my insurance for the same price as if I hadn't had any accidents.

[StuTheGrouch]

ikarl said:

So there is nothing I can do?? that's ridiculous!

Surely this counts as 'uninsured losses' - my first estimate is that this non-fault claim is going to cost me £250 this year

Would an accident management company take on the fight

Try getting a quote from Direct Line themselves. Some insurers do take into account non-fault claims (Admiral and their associated companies) and others do not (Direct Line being one I know of- I insure with them).

[TwigtheWonderkid]

ikarl said:

On Saturday my car was involved in a minimal car park ding

Car parks are a high risk place. Lots of collisions occur in car parks. Some people's lifestyle means they never use car parks, or if they do, not on a Saturday, which is the busiest day. Insurers can't ask every question so they don't ask on the proposal form "do you use public car parks on a Saturday?" That would be ludicrous.

But now they know you use car parks on a Saturday, you are a higher risk. The tp who hit you hasn't made you a higher risk, they've just helped your insurer uncover the truth about your high risk driving habits!

Next time you are in the car park on a Saturday and get hit, you might not know who did it, and will be claiming off your own policy.

[LoonR1]

Hang on a minute, the OP's car was hit in a car park? Where's Purple Moonlight to call him a fraudster?

[ikarl]

To be completely clear, my car wasn't actually in a 'normal' car park. I was at the ToughMudder event in Dumfries and as such my car was parked in a 'temporary' car park in a field.

I left more than enough room to the car to my left (doors could be opened fully without contact to the other car) - however the car to the right of mine parked just close enough for their door just to 'kiss' mine when it was fully open. Honestly, if they had parked 1cm over, the door wouldn't have touched my car.


With regards to insurance, this is my first non-fault claim but I have also made a fault claim within the last year.

When I run through quotes for all my policies with my fault claim, and then run them through with the non-fault claim added it works out to £261 more this year over my policies (some insurers don't change their prices for the non-fault claim but they're much, much higher than the other quotes in the first place)