- This topic has 19 replies, 9 voices, and was last updated 4 years, 11 months ago by
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So, multi-car pile-up on the motorway (no serious injuries thankfully). I stop, but as I’m easing into the middle lane to bypass the mess another vehicle hits me and I’m shunted into the car at the rear. No dispute as to this among the other involved parties so fairly straight forward…or so I thought. Going through the details with the insurance company a couple of hours later, the reg of the car that hit me doesn’t match the actual vehicle involved.
If the bloke turns out to be uninsured I still get paid out (fully comp), but minus the excess (not a huge deal). More importantly, I’ll lose many years no claims, even though I’m not at fault. Is this standard or are my insurers being arses?
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No, I just see it like this you take out insurance, make a claim, then whine because the policy is applied even though the insurance company offered sensible protection for something that has genuine value – then you quote someone who was completely irresponsible by driving whilst unfit to support your juvenile whining – grow up.
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@callum You must admit that the concept of insuring your insurance is a bit ridiculous?
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A foolish person didn’t protect his no claims discount and made a claim, so he’s lost his no claims discount, his choice. His risk probably has gone up, but now he has the pleasure of of paying 100% of that premium rather than 50% (or whatever NCD he had and has now lost) and that applies if he shops around for a lower premium too. Penny wise pound foolish.
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@callum No, not really. I’ve had two accidents in 30 years of driving. One my fault and one not. If I’d paid to protect my NCB for all those years for the sake of one claim I’d be seriously out of pocket.
Paying to insure your insurance only makes sense if you’re in the habit of driving like a nob.
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The value or insuring your insurance is simply to remove the anxiety provoked by losing the NCB. Like all insurance it doesn’t make overall financial sense (on average the insurers charge more than they pay out). Unlike third party insurance there is no moral or legal imperative to have it.
In this case the, anxiety is frequently significant (we wouldn’t be having this discussion if the OP hadn’t been worried about it in the first place). I once worked in a call centre shared by claims handlers, even in really bad accidents (where people were seriously hurt) it appeared that losing NCB was a lot of peoples’ main concern.
The NCD is really a dumbed-down cipher for actuarial risk calculation but it is well understood by the market and an industry norm. As a concept it must distort the market to some extent and there will be winners and losers in this distortion (compared with a fully realised risk assessment). I guess what you are actually paying for is insurance that pays out the difference between the full NCB and accident adjusted NCB policy costs but I’ve no idea how this actually works (especially if you transfer insurers carrying the full NCB).
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@callum But then if you make a claim, you keep your no-claims but your ‘risk’ goes up – so your premium does as well. So even protected no-claims doesn’t stop a premium increase after a claim (irrespective of fault).
Of course, if you’ve been a loyal customer for years that is also an excuse for increasing premiums. I’m a very low risk driver (1 small claim by the Mrs, no points, don’t drive much) and found my insurers were taking the mick. Shopping around reduced it by half.
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Even unprotected you don’t lost all your no claims, I’ve got about 15 years, apparently I’d lose 4 for a claim.
But no claims doesn’t work like you think. So if you have a clean record and 5 years no.claims, the discount comes off the base price, and then penalties for age, location, job etc go on.
If you have speeding or previous claims they put those extras on too. So ultimately no claims or not it only discounts a fraction of your total insurance.
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If the vehicle turns out to be uninsured your insurance company should be able to recover the costs from the MIB (motor insurance bureau) However this won’t cover everything and therefore you will need to claim however I believe you can claim your excess back through the MIB.
Different insurers behave differently and not all cover is the same cheapest is not always best. Direct Line for instance make a point that incidents with uninsured or unidentified 3rd parties do not effect your NCB (provided it doesn’t happen too often)
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