A classic admiral ploy

[TSx]

I don't really see who you can go after?

 

Admiral have recorded the details of an incident you were involved in. This will not affect your premium during the current insurance contract so you have no argument against them. The terms and conditions that you agreed to will have said that they will record information - there is nothing in the law to say that their terms and conditions have to be 'in the public interest'. They have to meet certain fairness requirements but this wouldn't come anywhere close - it's no different to a bank recording your payment history.

 

If you go to a new insurer, they can ask whatever questions they want - within the law - if they ask if you've had any incidents or claims, you have to answer yes to this, because you have - it's then up to them if they increase your premium as a result.

 

That said, you are free to pursue via the FOS (which costs nothing), but I can say with certainty that they will not request Admiral to remove the details of the incident from their records.

 

Edit: it may not seem fair, but sometimes life isn't. The 'law' which would apply to an insurance company contract in terms of fairness is the UTCCR 1999

[unclebulgaria67]

That is correct so in any way the consumer loses so is it fair?

 

Much in life is not fair.

 

Unless you are willing to spend thousands going through the whole courts process, which might include using the European court, then I doubt you will change the Insurance industry. They will argue that they need all information to be disclosed so they can calculate the risk premium. I suspect that Judges will agree with them. Don't bother trying to claim future premium increases from the third party, as that won't be successful either.

 

Probably cheaper just to accept the situation and make sure you shop around giving the correct information about this accident event. As a word of warning, Internet point of sale systems run by Insurers/comparison sites don't always offer the best price, when you have an accident event to disclose. Because this accident was dealt with directly with the third parties Insurers, you may find it better to phone Insurers or a local brokers to gain the best premium. This is because you can explain what happened and the Insurers staff can make sure the information is recorded properly.

[Wulfyn]

When it comes to calculating the premium for your insurance a large number of factors are considered (which you will know because of the long forms you need to fill in). When it comes to claims there are generally 2 types of claim, confusingly called "Fault" and "Non Fault".

 

 

A "Fault" claim is any claim where the full cost of the claim is not recovered from the 3rd party insurer. This can include claims against uninsured drivers, unidentified drivers, or actions like theft where the vehicle is not recovered and there is no one to claim against. None of these are your fault, hence the name is misleading.

 

A "Non Fault" claim is any claim where the full cost of the claim is recovered, which is what happened to you. This also generally includes windscreen claims.

 

 

Each insurer will have their own view on what these are predictive of. When you have a claim your insurer does not increase the price in order to recover their losses. This would be a counter-productive action because if they do this then you will go to one of their competitors. Think of it this way, imagine you were rolling a die and every time you did so you got paid £10. If you roll a 1 then you have to pay a fine of £40. As you will roll a 1 on average every 6 rolls you would expect to collect £60 in 6 rolls and pay a £40 fine for a total profit of £20. It makes sense to keep playing this game because it is in your favour. Just because you roll a 1 and have to pay a fine doesn't mean you should stop playing. This is how the insurance company sees it.

 

The reason why the premium increases is because statistically people who make a claim tend to make more claims. So that would be like rolling the die and getting a lot of 1's being predictive that the die is loaded.

 

 

This is true of "Non Fault" claims as well. It is a bit of a surprise but a large number of "Non Fault" claims is predictive of a future "Fault" claim. Certainly not as much as a "Fault" claim is, but it is there. The good news is that most insurers will see one or two "Non Fault" claims and not apply any loading to your premium as that is not a strong enough predictor. But 3 or 4 or 5? Well then the loadings will start.

 

The advice, as ever, is to shop around for the best deal if you are unhappy. You do have to declare it (many insurers now cross reference what you say against a shared claims database to spot fraud), but as long as you are honest it should not have much of an impact. I strongly suspect that if this is the only claim of any type you have made in the last 3 years then it will not alter your premium at all.

[TM123]

According to the insurance companies the fact that someone else caused an accident that you were innocently and unavoidably involved in means you're more likely to be involved in another accident in future and so are a greater risk.

 

If this is the case then one should be able to claim for psychological damage coursed from the third party insurer. I am assuming this is what is coursing one to have further accidents in the future. How much is this worth then !!!

[Mwynci]

Good try, I wouldn't be trying to get a medical report to confirm that though.........

 

The risk increase doesn't state you are more likely to have an accident, that is the boards interpretation, but it does suggest you are more likely to have a claim. Similar, but not the same.

 

The crux of the argument is to claim the loss you would have to prove without doubt that all insurer options open to you are loading your premium due to the risk increase of having been involved in a non fault incident.

 

Considering a risk profile is the basis for underwriting business, and can be considered confidential, your not going to get this info from insurers very easily, from your current one, at a push yes (or at least the FOS can get it), but if your not a customer, there's not much chance.

 

It's not a very fair situation, but insurance is based on calculated assumptions.