Body/Trim: My beloved car saved me - assessors now want to write it off

[Dirty Rooster]

My premiums did not go up even from a 50/50 ding dong with a lorry that I had some years ago,
so be lucky!

[lillia]

Originally Posted by RAN60

Your premiums will go up next year, regardless of fault, and this goes for all insurers. It ridiculous and sickening. The explanation i had was "because you have been involved in an incident you are classed as being at a higher risk".

I explained that there was no question of fault or liability and i was just driving normal when a car hit me, the reply was "your still seen as more of a risk"!

It's funny that you mention this, because this is one of the things I definitely remembered to ask about last week. The lady said that "it was possible" that it would affect my next premium and when I protested, saying that I could not understand why it would when I had not caused the accident, she sort of blew it off and said "oh, it may not, but we say this to all our clients when they call to report an accident or make a claim!"

So I sincerely hope that this does not happen, but I shan't hold my breath. To be honest, I would feel guilty switching after having made a claim; however, I am not one to throw my hard-earned money away unnecessarily, so I'll take the advice given here and shop around as much as possible, looking at performance/customer satisfaction, money and the fine print. We'll see when the time comes!

[Colin curry]

I have not paid for no claims protection for over twenty years as at that time It may be different now it turned out to be worthless. I didn't loose any no claims but upon renewal total premium went up so still got 60 percent off but from much higher figure. No claims protection. Just another way to make more money and keep you with them.

[nickbw898]

Insurance is still a good deal. I have had the maximum ncb the last ten years but my premium this year is 1/3rd what it was six years ago for the same risk/cover by shopping around. I go for reputation not cheapness. Treatment of protected ncb varies widely from one underwiter to the next.

[John_C]

Originally Posted by Colin curry

I have not paid for no claims protection for over twenty years as at that time It may be different now it turned out to be worthless. I didn't loose any no claims but upon renewal total premium went up so still got 60 percent off but from much higher figure. No claims protection. Just another way to make more money and keep you with them.

That doesn't make sense. It did exactly what it says it would - protect your no claims bonus. If it hadn't been protected you would have lost some or all of your no claims bonus and paid even more.

After an accident of any sort your risk profile changes. This isn't some random thing, it's based on cold, hard maths. Some insurers have different levels of risk as their core market - in the comparison engine age that's pretty much the only differentiator they have left. Some insurers load your premium even after a "non-fault" claim while others don't give a monkeys.

The key is to always shop around every year, accident or not.

[billtomo]

In February 2012 my s60 ( MY 52 96k FSH)was stolen and written off ( n/s doors sill and rear qtr) I was offered £1700 by admiral . I told them I'd contact them in 24hrs after I'd thought about their offer.i rang the next day and told them there were no comparable vehicles to mine available and I'd want £3000 .30 seconds later they agreed ,result for me ,but I'd never trust an ins company's again.they're their to make money off us so fight your corner regardless .

[Colin curry]

60 % full no claims off 1000 pounds = 400 pound premium.60 % off 1500 pounds = 600 pound premium. They don't reduce your no claims bonus they increase your premium by a lot more than it would have been without accident. Just the same as reducing your no claims discount.

[Brendan W]

You would think that something required by law would be open to full public scrutiny. Not by company but the industry as a whole lest the sensitve commercial issues get trodden on - poor dears. Last time we had a go at that over here the insurance industry was dragged kicking and screaming into revealing that 18-25 yr old males were the most profitable segment. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.

[John_C]

Originally Posted by Colin curry

60 % full no claims off 1000 pounds = 400 pound premium.60 % off 1500 pounds = 600 pound premium. They don't reduce your no claims bonus they increase your premium by a lot more than it would have been without accident. Just the same as reducing your no claims discount.

If your no claims bonus wasn't protected you'd still have been presented with the £1500 premium but would have got less discount on it, so would have been asked to pay even more. Without the protected no-claims it would have been more like 30% off 1500 pounds = 1050 pound premium.

You'd also pay more in subsequent years as you have to build your no-claims up again.

If you couldn't get a better premium from another insurer either I can understand why it felt like it was linked. It really isn't the same thing though.

[lillia]

Thanks for the advice, I'll certainly be shopping around come renewal time! And I'll make sure they know it as well. Although I feel that in what I like to call the insurance cartel system, they're all sharing information and using this to bump up premiums (pardon my cynicism, I'm normally a very positive person). But we shall see. I'm perfectly prepared to give my current insurers first refusal if I think the premium they are demanding is fair, bearing in mind that I nearly left them earlier this year because they actually attempted to raise it!

The car was taken to the garage yesterday morning for the repairs to be carried out. I am expected to get it back by Friday. As they are an established MOT testing facility, I thought I would kill two birds with one stone and get that done while they had the car there as well. The car has never failed an MOT and only ever received 1 advisory note in its life (3.5 mm rear tyres), which even the tester said was probably unnecessary, but just a precautionary note. This morning I received a call to say that the MOT has failed, not because there was anything mechanically wrong with the vehicle, but "because it has got illegal registration plates." I nearly fell over. I thought what??? The man on the telephone said that the car has got "honeycomb" plates and that although it may sound pedantic, it's an automatic fail. I had to ask him to explain what honeycomb plates were. He did. He also said that MOT rules change all the time and that "some people" tend to order these plates online because automatic number plate reader cameras find them hard to read, etc... I informed him that these are the plates that have always been on the car and that up to last year, the car passed its MOT with flying colours with them on - at a pretty pedantic Volvo specialist - and no-one mentioned a thing. Furthermore, I had photographic evidence that these plates show up pretty clearly on automatic plate reading cameras in both daytime and at night. He said that perhaps the previous testers had missed the detail on the plates. For all these years??? Honestly, I never gave the plates a second thought. I was worried that they might fail the car on the famous Volvo wheel arch rubbing issue.

The long and the short of it is that (1) this is the first time ever that I have ever had the MOT done at somewhere other than a Volvo dealer or specialist, (2) my original MOT did not actually expire until the 22nd of this month so I have been thinking "why did I not wait, why did I have to be so damned organised and efficient?" Ah well. (3) I have now had to fork out extra money to buy new registration plates that I shall never, ever need to use after today and so I am quite steamed up about it. This man crashing into my car has cost me a lot of pain, time, inconvenience and yes... money. I can't wait to see what will happen to my premiums next year!

Just to note: I am not mad at the tester, he is just doing his job and protecting the company's MOT testing licence, but still. All these years and now this. It's enough to drive a person to drink (I shan't).