Insurance problem

brightside229

brightside229

brightside229

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Newark
Hopefully some one will have encountered this before, or know something.

2 years ago my girlfriend was involved in a car crash, she was a passenger, not her car, not her insurance, she had a claim which paid out, again not on her insurance.

She went to insure her car online, and it declined, she called the company, hastings, who said its because she did not disclose the crash which is showing on her file as a fault claim put on by her previous insurer, a company called ageas, which she never contact about the crash, nor had any correspondance about the claim. she also received her full no claims at the end of the year with no mention of the crash.

She called ageas today who say yes its on her file, but should not effect her insurance and refuse to remove it, saying they cannot.

This year it has increased her premiums by just shy of £300.

Where does she stand? should she of had a fault claim added to her own insurance?
 
Burnsy2023 said:
Have you only spoken to them on the phone? If so write a complaint to them either by letter or email.

If you don't get a satisfactory answer, escalate to the Financial Ombudsman. http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/consumer/complaints.htm
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I haven't spoken to them at all, girlfriend rang them, and then rang me after nearly crying because she was so upset they would not remove the claim for her, shes not that good on the phone and did not know what to say and just took their word for it that they could not remove it, i told her to ring them again lodge a complaint and get a refference number and i will get in contact with the ombudsman about it when i get home.

But before i jump ahead of myself just trying to work out if its fair and normal for her to have a fault claim put against her. Seems ludicrous to me, but i have heard how strange insurance can be, its like me being hit by a car while walking my dog, and then finding out that i then have to pay higher premiums because its gone on my insurance record as a claim
 
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brightside229 said:
i will get in contact with the ombudsman about it when i get home.
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You will find that you have to follow the companies complaints procedure before you contact the ombudsman about it otherwise they will reject any correspondence until you have.

So as you said yourself get your GF to phone them and ask them about there complaints procedure, then get her to lodge a complaint in writing remember to send anything written at least recorded/signed for, and if you phone them note the date/time and name of the person you are talking to.

It may take some time but unfortunately you will have to play the game there way to start with.
 
So she claimed off the insurance of the driver's car she was a passenger in for injury I assume? or even the car the crashed into them?

Either way, I cannot see how that would go against her in anyway.

I've been a passenger in a car crash and had a payout and never did it do anything to my insurance
 
Sounds like someone at Ageas has recorded something wrong. Never heard of this before & her insurance should not have been involved at all, the only thing i can think of is the third party was also Ageas and they recorded the claim on the wrong file.
 
well she has spoken to them again and they have refused to do anything again, and have said to just contact hastings as its up to them if they want to charge more premiums or not, which is a bit of a joke really. Going to message their complaints department tonight when i have all her details as above and then if we still dont get anywhere then go ombudsman route.
 
brightside229 said:
But before i jump ahead of myself just trying to work out if its fair and normal for her to have a fault claim put against her. Seems ludicrous to me, but i have heard how strange insurance can be, its like me being hit by a car while walking my dog, and then finding out that i then have to pay higher premiums because its gone on my insurance record as a claim
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Insurance companies are a joke. I crashed my car into a sign on a roundabout (backend slide and I tried to counter steer it). Anyway I rang my insurance to make a claim, I found out I had a hidden excess for being under 25 making it £600, I did take it for a inspection and the bloke advised me to fix it myself for that cost so I told my insurer that I did not want to make a claim but it still went on my file as a claim and my premiums were higher for a number of years. I tried to get it removed but got no where. I did not know then what else I could do but do as above.
 
As stated above there is zero reason why you would be required to disclose an incident where you were not the driver. In essence it's exactly the same as you walking down the street and being hit by a car! (I'd refer back to the proposal form that you will have signed/accepted and see how the question surrounding disclosure of claims is worded!)

holdin09 said:
Insurance companies are a joke. I crashed my car into a sign on a roundabout (backend slide and I tried to counter steer it). Anyway I rang my insurance to make a claim, I found out I had a hidden excess for being under 25 making it £600, I did take it for a inspection and the bloke advised me to fix it myself for that cost so I told my insurer that I did not want to make a claim but it still went on my file as a claim and my premiums were higher for a number of years. I tried to get it removed but got no where. I did not know then what else I could do but do as above.
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99% of the time insurers will have additional excesses buried in the policy wording for young drivers - although in my experience if the policy is actually in the young drivers own name then the excesses should be spelled out on the policy schedule!

Additionally I'd imagine the reason your claim stayed on your file was because the council did/could claim for the damage to the sign - so irrespective of your decision not to claim for your own damages, the claim would have been left open to deal with the third party property damage aspect!
 
I had a strange one maybe 7-8 years ago now while insuring a new car.

Randomly a "fire damage" claim appeared on my record for my old car, just out of no where, I never even made a claim the whole time I had the car. I told them it was wrong and they just removed it. But I suppose the system is different now that there is a central database for them to abuse :/
 
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Burnsy2023 said:
No.
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Strictly speaking I don't think this is correct - technically she has been refused insurance on the basis of a non-disclosure - this is actually different to an insurer not quoting for her due to her personal circumstances (unacceptable vehicle, postcode, occupation etc)

However, I'm not sure how anyone would actually check this and if she was to mention it, I can guarantee it will cause lots of problems with the insurer in question!
 
Ageas are just a broker, my fiancée works for their John Lewis department. I'm pretty sure that it would be the underwriter who is actually responsible for any record on her file.

I've had some interesting conversations with her over what underwriters take into account and I was shocked by some of the wild and crazy decisions.

Being crashed into makes you more of a risk, being a passenger in a crash, according to them, probably makes you more of a risk. I wouldn't be surprised if being sneezed on by somebody who once had a crash makes you more of a risk, but I repeat, it's not the broker who make that decision, it's the underwriter.

If you'd like, I'll ask her about your situation when I get home?
 
If they quote policies and procedures at you wave the Data Protection Act at them. Any personal data they hold about you that is factally incorrect they have a legal obligation to delete or to correct. Shouldnt cost you penny either.
 
ScottiB said:
Ageas are just a broker, my fiancée works for their John Lewis department. I'm pretty sure that it would be the underwriter who is actually responsible for any record on her file.
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Ageas Insurance are an insurer, not a broker. (although they also own Ageas Retail that have other sub-brands)
 
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ScottiB said:
Ageas are just a broker, my fiancée works for their John Lewis department. I'm pretty sure that it would be the underwriter who is actually responsible for any record on her file.

I've had some interesting conversations with her over what underwriters take into account and I was shocked by some of the wild and crazy decisions.

Being crashed into makes you more of a risk, being a passenger in a crash, according to them, probably makes you more of a risk. I wouldn't be surprised if being sneezed on by somebody who once had a crash makes you more of a risk, but I repeat, it's not the broker who make that decision, it's the underwriter.

If you'd like, I'll ask her about your situation when I get home?
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Ageas are not brokers - they are an insurance company.

Being a passenger means jack **** in terms of extra risk - that's horse poo.

OP - complain - someone has messed up - it's wrong to have her injury claim on her own car insurance record - it shouldn't be there as she wasn't driving.
 
I thought I knew it all too... :rolleyes:

seriously OP, don't take advice from people who aren't trained to give it, especially when it comes to something as important as this.

Feel free to contact the FOS, Citizens advice or even the FCA. Just try to speak to someone who knows what they are talking about and not keyboard warriors.
 
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