Insurance!!!

[Worty]

I was driving in a two lane section of a junction approaching traffic lights. I thought I felt a glancing blow to my car and assumed the vehicle next to me had sideswiped me. I pulled over and the driver didn't stop. When I looked there was no apparent damage. I informed the Police thinking they would act to find the driver as I had the reg number and I thought they'd left the scene of an accident. They told me to inform my insurance company which I dutifully did. When the Police contacted the driver, they (the driver) said they'd not hit anyone and had no idea what I was talking about - the Police said there was nothing to investigate as there were no witnesses. As there was no damage to my car and she wasn't admitting an accident had taken place, do I need to declare the 'accident' on future insurance proposals, especially as no claim was made by anyone. To me, it is a non-incident, as no-one is admitting fault and no damage was done to anything so no claims or liability is present. I guess what I felt may just have well have been a slippery road or gust of wind??

I was advised by someone in the trade to insist my insurance company wipe the incident from their claims database and CUE.  For those who don't know what CUE is, it is the national claims database which insurance companies check on to see claims history.  My insurance company refuses to wipe it off as they'd started to investigate the claim - which isn't my concern.  Don't want to have to put down this non-incident on future insurance proposals and pay the extra premium!!  Any of you have any comments??

[RogerSB]

Unfortunately Wortluck I think the damage has already been done. All insurance is a mine field. I've always understood that once you report anything to an insurance company, even if you cancel it afterwards, they'll still treat it as if you have made a claim. Also something a lot of people don't realise is that if you pay extra for no claims protection and make a claim they won't reduce your no claims bonus figure (e.g. NCB of 75%) the following year but they'll increase your premium because on record you've made a claim, then they deduct the 75% NCB from that, so you'll still end up paying more.  As I said, this is how I understand it works, I may be wrong - I hope I am.

[A10 JWO]

It would be nice to find a whistle blower on here from one of the big insurance companies. I was told by one many years ago that all mini roundabout road traffic collisions will be treated as knock for knock, that way all premiums go up for a few years and the insurance companies all please their share holders. I  hate insurance companies.

[Worty]

Cheers guys.  I hate insurance companies with an unusual passion

I did have a bit of a row with my insurance company about this, they are very unreasonable people.  The whole business is a scam as far as I'm concerned.  The problem is, with two cars and the bike, all my premiums go up costing me around an extra £50 per year for nothing.  The only thing I can do to mitigate the cost (and because I fix the cars myself) is to go TPF&T which makes it £50 cheaper per year than on Comp with no 'incidents'.   Also, why the hell is the notification period 5 years, why not every year or two - b******s.

Having had a bump five years ago, I now have another 5 years of being ripped off.  Oh yeah, and the wife got busted by a speed camera which didn't help - that happened four years ago.  Odd how Plod only keeps offences for 3 years (or 4 for reference) but insurance insists on 5.  Anyone with any inside info please make yourselves known!!

[A10 JWO]

I have read that Bikesure are cancelling policies if the lock up is too far from your home address with no refund. Read this on an owners club well known forum. ( British of course ). They are doing this after taking the premium 

[Worty]

Unbelievable.  I'm not going to go down without a fight on this.  Submitting a letter of complaint to the CEO of said company and will escalate to FSO if necessary.  Over time, I've managed to avoid telling insurance companies of 'incidents' on at least five separate occasions, these all involved people and occasions where a 'private' arrangement was made.  What they don't know doesn't exist - right!  Should have kept my mouth shut on this one too.

[lawnmowerman]

I have read that Bikesure are cancelling policies if the lock up is too far from your home address with no refund. Read this on an owners club well known forum. ( British of course ). They are doing this after taking the premium 

I reckon the Insurance Ombudsman would be interested in that. Unless of course it is in the thirty pages of small print!

Jim

[Swarfcut]

 Wortluck...The vested interests are gathering....The Police thought they were onto an easy pull, so told you to inform the insurance company "just in case". Then the other driver convinced them no incident had taken place, and I assume the Police did not inspect your vehicle. So, with no damage why did you get into this scenario? 

 You made the mistake of reporting this to the insurance company, and this will follow you like a shadow.  At the next renewal get Comparing the Meerkat, you owe no loyalty to the Company, and they will be even more vindictive if you rock the boat more by making complaints, even though you feel you are in the right.  Shit happens, a fact of life. If you want cheering up have a look at "Honest John", www.honestjohn.co.uk      a website full of other folks' motoring disasters, and a good source of free legal advice if you need it.

 Swarfy.