Insurance premium adjustment mid term

[MrJuice]

My 23-24 premium was £1200

Accident in Jan 2024 was still being processed in September 24 when I needed to renew. Claim is treated as fault claim

Renewal was £3000. Ouch

Jan 2025, I'm informed the claim went in my favour and NCB will be restored.

I call insurance company and initially they reduce premium by £350 by changing the claim to a non fault claim. Great. Call them again and ask then to change NCB to 12y from 3y and premium goes down by about £100

Total refund of £450 has been received

On the one hand I'm happy to receive anything but on the other hand, is £450 reduction enough of a reduction?

I suspect I just have to accept whatever is given but just checking

[Jamescrs]

The only way you can compare it is trying a comparison website and putting in the details with the claim resolved and see what quotes come out.
The thing is even then you can’t really negotiate a better discount with your existing insurer, you would likely have to cancel your policy and start again with a new insurer because they can basically quote whatever they like.

[TwigtheWonderkid]

MrJuice said:

My 23-24 premium was £1200

Accident in Jan 2024 was still being processed in September 24 when I needed to renew. Claim is treated as fault claim

Renewal was £3000. Ouch

Jan 2025, I'm informed the claim went in my favour and NCB will be restored.

I call insurance company and initially they reduce premium by £350 by changing the claim to a non fault claim. Great. Call them again and ask then to change NCB to 12y from 3y and premium goes down by about £100

Total refund of £450 has been received

On the one hand I'm happy to receive anything but on the other hand, is £450 reduction enough of a reduction?

I suspect I just have to accept whatever is given but just checking

When you renewed, you should have asked at that time, "if the claim gets settled in my favour, how much will I get back?". That's the only way to have known if the refund is right.

[Dingu]

There isn’t really enough of a reduction as a concept, nobody can answer that.

However if you run a new comparison you may discover you are better off cancelling your current policy and paying the cancellation fee and taking a new one either due to other companies rating your non fault claim less or rates falling in general.

In the same way as when you compared last time (sept 23) and some will be cheaper (£1.2k) and some will have been more when you compared at that point (likely deep into the 4 figures).

[E-bmw]

Perhaps they have done a mid-term adjustment with the new scenario rather than started from day 1 as they should have.

[Shuff4]

I had an increase of around 16% this year, nothing changed apart from an additional NCB,
And that was the cheapest I could find by staying with the current insurer.

Yours has unfortunately doubled but you are unfortunately a higher risk (even though non fault) which is what insurers work with.

[MrJuice]

yep, all good points

I did check at the time of taking the policy in Sept 24 if the premium would be reduced if I "won" the claim and they confirmed it would. Didn't get a figure though so will just have to accept what is given. Lesson learned.

Very good point about clarifying if the discount has been applied from the outset of the policy or from last week. I shall check. I was surprised they had not applied the additional NCB when they added the non fault claim so it is definitely worth checking to see if both have been back dated to Sept 24.

thanks again

[Shuff4]

When taking out my latest, I was browsing the insurers site, they had a table showing discount % for NCB, and it was minimal, think around 3% per year NCB, topping out at around 25/30% discount for ‘maximum’ NCB.

[AyBee]

TwigtheWonderkid said:

When you renewed, you should have asked at that time, "if the claim gets settled in my favour, how much will I get back?". That's the only way to have known if the refund is right.

No it's not - get some more quotes and go from there. If the saving is sufficient, I'd either be asking them to match it or shifting my business elsewhere. You'll only lose 0.5 years of no claims.

[MrJuice]

I checked with insurance company and they had applied the non fault claim and additional NCB from policy renewal date. so no further discount will be forthcoming.

I think I will try a few comparison sites when I get the time but given I am nearly half way through the policy now and the admin fees that will be applied, not sure how much of a discount (if any) will be available by changing mid year

[Jayho]

Would all depend on what the refund is for the remainder of the policy and how much compare the market was. Even if a new policy is greater than your refund, you'll have to balance out that it's for 12 months cover rather than remaining 6 months.

Last year when I sold my daily I spent a few months looking for a new daily. I had frozen my policy from when I sold my car and had about 3 months of driving my summer car only. When I phoned up to change my policy over to the new car I had expected a refund or at very minimum no change as I was going from a much quicker car to a more mondain car. For the remainder of the policy they were wanting was something silly. Over 50% increase of my annual policy price for the remaining 2-3 months of the policy. I ended up cancelling the policy, getting a refund of £150 and started a new policy (ironically with the same company) for £180 for the year.

[TwigtheWonderkid]

AyBee said:

TwigtheWonderkid said:

When you renewed, you should have asked at that time, "if the claim gets settled in my favour, how much will I get back?". That's the only way to have known if the refund is right.

No it's not - get some more quotes and go from there. If the saving is sufficient, I'd either be asking them to match it or shifting my business elsewhere. You'll only lose 0.5 years of no claims.

How will that tell you if the refund is correct? All that tells you is you can maybe get it cheaper elsewhere.

[AyBee]

TwigtheWonderkid said:

AyBee said:

TwigtheWonderkid said:

When you renewed, you should have asked at that time, "if the claim gets settled in my favour, how much will I get back?". That's the only way to have known if the refund is right.

No it's not - get some more quotes and go from there. If the saving is sufficient, I'd either be asking them to match it or shifting my business elsewhere. You'll only lose 0.5 years of no claims.

How will that tell you if the refund is correct? All that tells you is you can maybe get it cheaper elsewhere.

Which will give you an indication whether the refund is in line with market or taking the piss...

[BertBert]

AyBee said:

Which will give you an indication whether the refund is in line with market or taking the piss...

Only if you think that every insurance company apart from the one providing the cheapest policy is taking the piss

[TwigtheWonderkid]

AyBee said:

TwigtheWonderkid said:

AyBee said:

TwigtheWonderkid said:

When you renewed, you should have asked at that time, "if the claim gets settled in my favour, how much will I get back?". That's the only way to have known if the refund is right.

No it's not - get some more quotes and go from there. If the saving is sufficient, I'd either be asking them to match it or shifting my business elsewhere. You'll only lose 0.5 years of no claims.

How will that tell you if the refund is correct? All that tells you is you can maybe get it cheaper elsewhere.

Which will give you an indication whether the refund is in line with market or taking the piss...

Even if it's "taking the piss", doesn't mean it wasn't the right refund for that policy. I maintain that when I said my way was the only way to have know if the refund is corrent, and you replied with "no it's not", you're just plain wrong. Yes it is. How the hell does getting a cheaper quote with insurance co B tell you is insurance co A have got their refund right???

[AyBee]

BertBert said:

AyBee said:

Which will give you an indication whether the refund is in line with market or taking the piss...

Only if you think that every insurance company apart from the one providing the cheapest policy is taking the piss

Not sure where you took "cheapest" from. He paid £3k and got £450 back. If he goes online and the majority are £1,200, then it's fairly clear that they're taking the piss and he should cancel and go elsewhere - it's a fairly simple concept. He could also get a quote from his existing insurer for a year and see what that comes out with. The question was whether the refund was correct - the only way he can determine that now (having not asked when he took the policy out) is by getting other quotes and seeing what they come back with.

[MustangGT]

AyBee said:

Not sure where you took "cheapest" from. He paid £3k and got £450 back. If he goes online and the majority are £1,200, then it's fairly clear that they're taking the piss and he should cancel and go elsewhere - it's a fairly simple concept. He could also get a quote from his existing insurer for a year and see what that comes out with. The question was whether the refund was correct - the only way he can determine that now (having not asked when he took the policy out) is by getting other quotes and seeing what they come back with.

Not so. The only way to see is to see the existing policy contract regarding refunds, also to see how much the policy premium was loaded at inception.

Any other quotes are totally irrelevant to the question of whether the refund was correct or not.

[TwigtheWonderkid]

AyBee said:

BertBert said:

AyBee said:

Which will give you an indication whether the refund is in line with market or taking the piss...

Only if you think that every insurance company apart from the one providing the cheapest policy is taking the piss

Not sure where you took "cheapest" from. He paid £3k and got £450 back. If he goes online and the majority are £1,200, then it's fairly clear that they're taking the piss and he should cancel and go elsewhere - it's a fairly simple concept. He could also get a quote from his existing insurer for a year and see what that comes out with. The question was whether the refund was correct - the only way he can determine that now (having not asked when he took the policy out) is by getting other quotes and seeing what they come back with.

You still haven't told us how any of that will tell him if the refund is enough. If the quote with the accident settled would have been £2550, then £450 refund is spot on having paid £3000 with the claim outstanding.

Edited by TwigtheWonderkid on Tuesday 21st January 14:39

[AyBee]

TwigtheWonderkid said:

AyBee said:

BertBert said:

AyBee said:

Which will give you an indication whether the refund is in line with market or taking the piss...

Only if you think that every insurance company apart from the one providing the cheapest policy is taking the piss

Not sure where you took "cheapest" from. He paid £3k and got £450 back. If he goes online and the majority are £1,200, then it's fairly clear that they're taking the piss and he should cancel and go elsewhere - it's a fairly simple concept. He could also get a quote from his existing insurer for a year and see what that comes out with. The question was whether the refund was correct - the only way he can determine that now (having not asked when he took the policy out) is by getting other quotes and seeing what they come back with.

You still haven't told us how any of that will tell him if the refund is enough. If the quote with the accident settled would have been £2550, then £450 refund is spot on having paid £3000 with the claim outstanding.

Am I being stupid, or are you? He wants to know if his insurance is in line with market - the only way to tell if that's the case is to find out what the market price (including from his existing insurer) would be for someone of his risk profile now that the accident is settled. He can then go back to his existing insurer with his findings and potentially get a further reduction, or vote with his feet and go elsewhere if he finds that the market price is substantially below what he's paying...

[TwigtheWonderkid]

AyBee said:

TwigtheWonderkid said:

AyBee said:

BertBert said:

AyBee said:

Which will give you an indication whether the refund is in line with market or taking the piss...

Only if you think that every insurance company apart from the one providing the cheapest policy is taking the piss

Not sure where you took "cheapest" from. He paid £3k and got £450 back. If he goes online and the majority are £1,200, then it's fairly clear that they're taking the piss and he should cancel and go elsewhere - it's a fairly simple concept. He could also get a quote from his existing insurer for a year and see what that comes out with. The question was whether the refund was correct - the only way he can determine that now (having not asked when he took the policy out) is by getting other quotes and seeing what they come back with.

You still haven't told us how any of that will tell him if the refund is enough. If the quote with the accident settled would have been £2550, then £450 refund is spot on having paid £3000 with the claim outstanding.

Am I being stupid, or are you? He wants to know if his insurance is in line with market -

Nope, he wants to know if he should be getting more back from his own insurance company. Unfortunately, as I said, that ship has sailed. The only way to have known that was to have asked them at renewal what refund he would be due if the claim was settled in his favour.