Car insurance - am i losing my mind?

[rak5a]

I need to renew and it asks if I have any claims. Two years ago someone pranged me in a car park. Her fault, she admitted it and the small bodywork repair was covered on her insurance. When I took out the policy last year I said I had no claims (as there were none against me, or on my insurance) and then after I booked the policy I got a call basically saying they could see the incident and therefore my premium went up (with an extra charge for not reporting it when applying!). I just paid it as I couldn't deal with arguing, but now I'm really questioning if I am supposed to report claims like this (we had another one in a supermarket car park this year!) when applying through the comaprison sites. I can't seem to find a clear answer online. When I say 'yes' to claims, it doesn't give the option to say if it was my fault or on my insurance. So why should I get penalised for someone hitting me? Surely, this can't be right??

Sadly I think you have to report them. Really annoying but I think it changes your risk profile. It does seem really unfair though and I might be wrong.

Any accident however minor needs to be reported to your insurance company if either parties are making a claim through their insurance. Even if the accident isn't your fault.

This is why I will always try and sort it out privately when possible. Neither of you comes out well when you report it, why should you have to pay more because some idiot doesn’t look where they’re going. And yes, I know, legally you should report it etc, well many people don’t report crimes against them because the repercussions for them aren’t worth it. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Look at the wording of the question on comparison sites. It'll ask something like any claims or accidents, even if non-fault. Not disclosing a claim is fraud.

I've also had this recently - went onto the comparison websites, said I had no claims (which I didn't) and some box opened up telling me about a crash I had 3 years ago. A crash that wasn't my fault, and I wasn't even in the car at the time! Pushed my premium up by about £150.00. I went directly to my old insurers, and entered that I'd had a no-fault crash - premium was still high but nowhere near £150 higher. It's so so unfair

Also be aware if you have a bump and no-one claims. If you or the other person tells the insurer (as you are meant to) you still have to declare it, even though no actual claim was made.

This happened to me. I had a small bump with my neighbour (my fault). He had some scratches so I told my insurer but then he didn’t bother trying to claim! I didn’t need to either but just the fact the accident is recorded gives them leeway to up your premiums.

I wish he had told me he wasn’t going to bother claiming and I wouldn’t have told them but I was so sure he would.

Okay, that seems to answer my question pretty categorically. But then it seems so weird to confirm that I have X years of NCD (which I still do!).

Yes you do. I have fully comp insurance and well over 15 years of NCD so when some knobhead took my front bumper off in a car park and didn't leave any details, I claimed on my insurance. But its down as a no fault claim on my record so my premium goes up "because someone has to pay for it". I'm not sure how long I have to keep remembering to include it on any insurance renewals but its really annoying.