Are dashcams actually worth it?

[mickyh7]

Ron99 said:

Buggyjam said:

...But. After reading about the way the insurance system doesn’t reward not at fault makes me wonder if all it’s doing is doing the insurers Donkey work for them. You’ll still pay more in premiums regardless.....

Almost two years ago, someone reversed into my then-two-year-old car in a car park, causing £2.5k of damage. Without a dashcam it would have looked like I rear-ended them and at best I would have got a 50/50 outcome, if not my insurer just rolling over and accepting the probabilities were that it was a rear-ending rather than being reversed into.
The following day my insurer had viewed the dashcam video declared me to be not at fault and put a 'no fault' claim on my record.
A few weeks later my insurance was up for renewal and there was negligible difference from the previous year.

Out of curiosity, I priced-up online quotes just to see the difference between 'no fault' and 'at fault'. My insurance was about £375 for 20k per year but would triple if the claim had been 'at fault'.
Our household runs multiple cars (usually three or four) so that would have worked out to between £2000-£2500/yr more in total for insurance. Over the four-year declaration period that could have been close to £10k more for insurance.

So a dashcam potentially saved me a fortune (policy excess and four years of higher premiums on multiple cars). It also saved my sanity because it would have been horrible if I had been blamed for something I didn't do.

As for telling tales on other drivers, I do that maybe once every two years (40k miles).
In 2014 I reported a taxi for dangerous driving (nearly had a head-on with them as they came charging round a blind bend on the wrong side of the road).
In 2016 I reported an HGV for trying to run me off the road.

Edited by Ron99 on Sunday 17th December 23:08

Just out of intrest, what would make a total stranger try to run you off the road for no reason?
I don't feel we get the whole story lots of the time.