Boring insurance advice
Discussion
Hi,
I had a 5 years no claims bonus. However midway though the year I backed into another car (minor damage.....promise). After speaking to the guy who owned the stupidly parked car we decided on me just paying the money required for getting it shiny again. However he came back at me with a ridiculous quote from a garage and so I decided to just go though insurance.
So I registered the incident with my insurance and left it with them to take it forward. However, nothing was ever done, no money was paid out etc. It just died off.....he probably sucked up his pride and paid for the repair himself rather than go through it all.
My no claims bonus has now been hit and knocked down (just seen my renewal paperwork). My question is, should my no claims bonus be reduced because of this? I registered the incident as the initial first step, but it never went anywhere from there. No money was passed around.
I had a 5 years no claims bonus. However midway though the year I backed into another car (minor damage.....promise). After speaking to the guy who owned the stupidly parked car we decided on me just paying the money required for getting it shiny again. However he came back at me with a ridiculous quote from a garage and so I decided to just go though insurance.
So I registered the incident with my insurance and left it with them to take it forward. However, nothing was ever done, no money was paid out etc. It just died off.....he probably sucked up his pride and paid for the repair himself rather than go through it all.
My no claims bonus has now been hit and knocked down (just seen my renewal paperwork). My question is, should my no claims bonus be reduced because of this? I registered the incident as the initial first step, but it never went anywhere from there. No money was passed around.
Generally when you report an incident like this the insurer will open a claim in anticipation of the other guy deciding that he does want to make a claim after all. This means that your NCB will be reduced. If there's still no sign of an actual claim after a reasonable period (say 6 months) they'll close the file, restore your NCB and mark the insident as notification only, no claim made.
Obviously this is a pain in the backside if your renewal comes a round while the incident is still open, but if/when they close the file they should refund any difference in premium which you paid because of the unresolved claim.
If you decide to change insurers then you'll have to declare the open claim, and get them to confirm whether they'll give you a refund if/when it's resolved. You'll also have to be willing to do some legwork yourself in term of passing on paperwork as your current insurer won't automatically inform the new one when it's all resolved.
Obviously this is a pain in the backside if your renewal comes a round while the incident is still open, but if/when they close the file they should refund any difference in premium which you paid because of the unresolved claim.
If you decide to change insurers then you'll have to declare the open claim, and get them to confirm whether they'll give you a refund if/when it's resolved. You'll also have to be willing to do some legwork yourself in term of passing on paperwork as your current insurer won't automatically inform the new one when it's all resolved.
Aretnap said:
Generally when you report an incident like this the insurer will open a claim in anticipation of the other guy deciding that he does want to make a claim after all. This means that your NCB will be reduced. If there's still no sign of an actual claim after a reasonable period (say 6 months) they'll close the file, restore your NCB and mark the insident as notification only, no claim made.
Obviously this is a pain in the backside if your renewal comes a round while the incident is still open, but if/when they close the file they should refund any difference in premium which you paid because of the unresolved claim.
If you decide to change insurers then you'll have to declare the open claim, and get them to confirm whether they'll give you a refund if/when it's resolved. You'll also have to be willing to do some legwork yourself in term of passing on paperwork as your current insurer won't automatically inform the new one when it's all resolved.
Thanks.Obviously this is a pain in the backside if your renewal comes a round while the incident is still open, but if/when they close the file they should refund any difference in premium which you paid because of the unresolved claim.
If you decide to change insurers then you'll have to declare the open claim, and get them to confirm whether they'll give you a refund if/when it's resolved. You'll also have to be willing to do some legwork yourself in term of passing on paperwork as your current insurer won't automatically inform the new one when it's all resolved.
This was all done about 8/9 months ago now, so it is going back a while. I take it my best bet is to speak to my insurance and try and get it rescinded.
Cheers
Your insurers will have incurred administration costs even if they've paid nothing out. Essentially you submitted a claim and it's a No Claim Bonus. You could ask them if there something you could pay to reset things but this may not work. If you go elsewhere you will need to declare the accident as its a material fact. Pay a little extra for protected NCB in future.
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