Last years premium was £450.

Unfortunately a few weeks back my friend reversed into me and we’ve both contacted out insurers to inform them. It’s his fault and he’s told them he’s accepted liability. There’s no two ways about it. My car is currently in the garage having the repair work done.

Anyway, renewal quote comes through in the meantime as its due in a few weeks time…. £950!

Rang them, because the claim is still open they have to assume worse case scenario and that it was my fault. Wtf.

Finally speak to someone that acknowledges that we’ve now received admission of liability from my friends insurance company. Yay….

“Ok sir, your policy has been updated to show a non fault claim. Your new premium is £979”

What’s wrong with the world. I’ve been paying a premium for “protected no claims” too. Worth bugger all that seems.

The end

Get a quote from another insurer?

Have just done that, £469. That’s better.

Anyway they said they’d investigate and come back to me. Will be interesting to see their maths

Unfortunately it doesn’t matter that you’re not at fault. Statistically if you’ve been in an accident, you’re more likely to have another because:

1) Your mate could drive into your parked car, again. The risk isn’t you, it’s the places you park.
2) You’re one of those people “10 years without even a scratch, but I’ve seen loads of accidents in the rearview mirror”.

My OH had a small bump, negligible effect on her premium, made her uneconomical to insure as a named driver on mine (our premiums are usually pretty similar, both drive low spec Fords). No rhyme or reason, but somewhere in the statistics there’s obviously a pattern.

Yea I see what you mean. We were actually en route to the Fort William World Cup. We stopped in a lay by in Glencoe for some scenery admiration when it happened. I was waiting to pull out of the lay by and he reversed into me thinking I had already gone. Was my other friends stag do for the weekend.

Can’t see that happening regularly!

I had this, wife had a bump and liability was accepted by the other party and their insurance. However, as the claim hadn’t actually been settled they were loading the premium.

In the end, I left my wife off the policy for a couple of months and after some pressure, they agreed to waive the admin fee to add her back on once it was all settled.

The ‘protected no claims’ thing is a fiddle I’m certain. Another anomaly I’ve found is the premium quotes I’ve been getting actually go down when I add my wife on. Surely adding another person on would increase that risk, we’ve both not had an accident in the last whatever years so there is no difference apart from our sex & age by 3 years. They clearly haven’t seen my wife behind the wheel of a car to think she lowers the risk!

Surely adding another person on would increase that risk,

A female is statistically less likely to have an accident.
If you assume that the pair of you travel together often, and she will drive, then your chance of an accident drops.
This takes no account of individuals driving history or skills.

Any way, I’m just smug about paying £160 this year, on powerful people carrier, business use and £70 cash back…..

So they just rang me back. “Ok sir, you don’t really want to hear this…. It’s now £3,645.17”.

Jesus wept.

“No wait, it’s £926”.

So long Hastings…. Hello Churchill at £469

They really don’t want your business, do they?

What have they found out about you?

I had this when I moved address, co-op refused to insure me, 11 years no claims, no accidents in 20 years of driving, point blanked cancelled my insurance because I had moved house. Ended up after a few tweets and complaints they paid me my entire premium back of £349 for the previous year as an apology but still no insurance.

All my quotes came in at £3500, I drive a Citroen ds3, finally found esure who charged me £950, thought bugger I need insurance, admitadley I forgot my tow bar so called them the following day, got a reduction of £400 just for having a towbar. Turns out I’m in the top 10 whiplash claims postcode but as I have a towbar I’m less likely for a fraud impact as it causes more damage.

Insurance is a big scam, what the co-op did was appalling.

Granted I drive a 3 litre 6 pot so it’s never going to be cheap but those quotes were insulting. Rang them again and spoke to someone else just to make sure there isn’t a typo or something. It’s now £760.

Cheapest online is now £457 so that’s that sorted. Cancelled my auto renewal. Bunch of crooks

You almost always get shafted on renewal, think there’s only been one occasion I can remember in 18 years of driving (9 years no claims bonus) where its not been worthwhile switching companies.

my premiums have been reducing for last 3 years.

They did creep up with M&S – until I moved away, then returned.
Switched to NFU and they’ve been very helpful – speak to folk in an office, face to face – great when I went to buy a new car, they gave me a cover note and faxed through certificate when I was at dealers.

Statistically you are more likely to claim for an accident if you’ve recently had one, whether you claimed for the first or not, and regardless of who’s fault it was. It therefore costs them more to insure drivers that have had a recent accident or claim so the premium is higher. The logic…. Although very frustrating, is sound. Think about it, if you’ve had a claim you usually end up out of pocket a bit, being less flush you are Less likely to fund further repairs yourself and more likely to claim on insurance in the event of an accident.

It is all a big con, just accept that we are all losers in this insurance game and move on.

£469 is cheap if you declared the accident

If it’s just a tiny bump why even bother to claim? Take the hit\get your pal to pay up?

Of course I declared the accident. It’s a non fault so impact on premium should be minimal hence why Hastings are off their rockers

Repair cost is circa £800. His car is a 25 year old Audi 100 worth less than the cost of repair

I have every sympathy with you OP, but the question is, why the bloody hell did you tell your insurers? Unless your mate did a lot more damage than it sounds like, it’d be a lot cheaper to sort it out yourselves and a hell of a lot less hassle.

Hang on hang on. I’ve had a non fault claim a few years ago which had zero effect on my premium so why wouldn’t I tell them? This time around I’ve managed to renew my insurance elsewhere with zero increase to my premium. Only if I stayed with Hastings would my premium increase. I also pay zero excess and I’ve had a swanky S Line Audi for a week as a courtesy car whilst the repairs are done (pick my car up tomorrow).

So cost of repair £800 plus Audi for a week which has cost me nothing.

Even shopping around online earlier the premium doesn’t change at all whether I declare the incidents or not. I can only assume this is because they are confirmed as non fault.

Before anyone says it, yes both incidents are declared in the £457 premium that I’ve just paid for the next 12 months.

All good no?

I had to put a claim down as own fault once as my car got dinged whilst parked, I wasn’t there at the time, someone basically hit it and drove off, it didn’t do much to increase my premium.. insurance is pretty unthavomable to me.

My etos is simple, shop around every renewal. If you get a lower quote take it.

But neil n, your scenario doesn’t apply if I’m fully comp, with protected NCB and they’ve known me a few years.

When re-insuring my motorbike I had a letter come through that I owed someting like £6 for an ‘extra premium’ or words to that effect. So I called up and asked.
Apparently I’m recorded on the database as having an accident that I’d not declared, which puzzled me greatly as I’d already told them about the one accident (non fault) that I had had.
A bit of digging and it turned out that it was from a car insurance claim on our car, registered and insured in my wife’s name with me as a named driver where the car had been hit by a stolen car whilst parked up.
So, nobody in the vehicle, not my car, not my insurance….. But I have to pay more. 😐

OK, for £800 of damage, I’d probably be claiming too, to be honest. Although if it was someone I trusted, I’d give the mate the chance to pay that himself. It’ll probably cost him £800 in increased premiums over the next few years.

That swanky Audi you got for a week? Someone’s paying for that. Yes, it’s your mate’s insurer, but they’re not doing it out of the goodness of their hearts.

Sorry if it sounds like I’m getting at you here, I just share your frustration with insurers of all flavours, and I like to try and keep things out of their hands as much as possible because it only results in more profit for them.