Sheesh!

[Gern]

I got another question. A couple of years ago, I had a minor bump in a car parking bay at my local supermarket which was absolutely my fault. I spoke to the other driver and we exchanged numbers and insurance details. I asked him to get a quote and I would pay for the damage rather than losing my no-claims bonus. I heard nothing for a week and phoned him. He told me he hadn't had time to get a quote and he'd get back to me. I tried again a week later and he still hadn't done anything.

Anyway, as I didn't hear from him or my insurance company I left it and thought no more about it.

Yesterday I tried to insure another car which I want to buy today. The cheapest online quote was from Admiral for £900, but when I came to pay they're telling me it has gone up to £1300 because of a claim made against me regarding my accident. I checked with my original insurers and they have no record of any such claim.

If the guy who's car I bumped put in a claim with his insurance company, surely they would have contacted my insurers for the damages? I don't understand why they wouldn't want to claim their money back. And if there has been no claim against me, how did Admiral get details of the incident and why are they trying to charge me extra?

Since this incident I have insured three different cars with three different insurers and none of them have commented or charged me extra for previous claims and all have credited me with 6 years no-claims bonus.

[Ian M]

From what I can gather Insurance for cars is insane in the UK. I saw a youtube of a guy that got told his insurance will not be renewed at expiry. They had got tits up. Had approval for £1mil of trade. insured for £6mil trade. so they got shut down.
A policeman in the same video also commented that with over a million UNINSURED drivers on the roads in the UK some one has to pay their insured sum as well. He also explained that the value of the car is often the smallest sum in a claim. A car skids out, takes out a brick wall, a lamppost and a traffic light before rolling and comint to a stop. Yes he bent his car. A wall will need replacing and any damage to the surrounding area. A lamppost will need changing. Cost of that and installation- Then the Traffic light. Those things are not cheap. That was a cheap example. If he had taken out a pedestrian, a couple of cars and a lorry.... The point being that insurance does not just look at the 450quid wreck that is going to be insured but the potential thousands of pounds in "street furniture, wages, compensation, other parties."
This can all be boiled down to a simple way of explaining. They are greedy buggers. Profits in the hundreds of millions, but still the price goes up.

[Mr Bowcat]

Unfortunately for car insurance "Profits in the hundreds of millions" is simply untrue, most insurers are currently losing profits from car insurance.

Gern, possibly in your case Admiral were the insurer for the third party at the time, so they have a record of the claim where others do not.

[Gern]

Gern, possibly in your case Admiral were the insurer for the third party at the time, so they have a record of the claim where others do not.[/QUOTE]

Alas no, so it's still a bit of a mystery. Still, I've got to ring them tomorrow to cancel the deal so maybe I'll get more info then.

PS I'm cancelling the deal for a really odd reason. I can't do mobile banking from my cheapo cheapo mobile so I transferred the money to my brother's account. When we tried to pay for the car via a credit transfer, my brother's bank refused to transfer the funds to the dealer! If the bank doesn't trust him for some reason, I'm not taking the risk.

[Ian M]

Unfortunately for car insurance "Profits in the hundreds of millions" is simply untrue, most insurers are currently losing profits from car insurance.

Just saying what I saw Bob

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCz5xs4UDNs

Oddly this was also Admiral group...

[Mr Bowcat]

Fair enough, take it with a grain of salt though.