More of a "what if" really.

If I was involved in a prang & my dashcam proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that I wasn't in any way to blame, would I need to declare this to my insurance?
Could I simply deal directly with the other driver's insurer?

I ask because the last time I was involved in a prang, the other driver was completely at fault & his insurance paid for everything.
All my insurance did was ? I don't really know.
But still, when it came to renewal, I had to declare a claim which then increased my premiums.
This, to me, means that my insurance were getting paid many times over.
By taking out insurance, I am paying them to act on my behalf.
Because the other driver was at fault, his insurance paid for all repairs etc - so I assume they would also pay for any/all costs incurred by my insurance.
And at renewal time, I'm expected to pay out extra premiums for this 'claim'.
If it was my fault then I would expect some sort of increase.

Insurance is a gamble. They take your money, based on perceived risk. Their risk could run into millions if you drive through a crowd of people or a local shop.

If you have been involved in any collision, you are perceived as a higher risk than anyone who has not had a collision. You were just in the wrong place at the wrong time, but compared to many others, they were not in the wrong place at any time ... yet. So this is the reason they increase your premium, because history shows a higher risk.

If your insurance company handles your repairs/claim, even though they may get full recompense for the repair costs, they do not charge each other admin costs.

If you do not declare a collision, having handled it successfully yourself, you may find yourself uninsured if your company finds out and considers it a false declaration. Arguing the finer points of whether they asked about claims or collision is unlikely to be successful when they hold the purse strings.

The Motor Insurance Database contains a lot more info than just whether your car is insured. Insurance companies add records of claims, so your collision is likely to be recorded anyway, for your insurance company to see at renewal time. If when questioned, you don't mention it, they may consider that you are deliberately trying to hide something, then could react in any of several ways.
* Prompt you to remember.
* Increase your premium more than they might have otherwise, but keep quiet about the non-declaration, to perhaps use a a lever to reduce/refuse a claim later, but keep the premium.
* Refuse insurance. Then you're definitely in the goo.

It's a win-win. They win, or they win.

Yeah, I thought as much.

It really amazes me how they can work out the percieved risk.
I know one of the criteria is postcode. I have a subaru dealer, a forecourt and a Sainsbury's local within 5 mins walk. They've all been done over.
In the 30 years I've lived here, we've never had a break in - anywhere (you'd hear on the gossip grapevine).
So, my premiums are increased because of these high risk businesses which are quite a way off.

Heads - they win, Tails - I lose!

We need to go back to basics.

Does your policy state you need to notify them in the event of an accident? Most do, in which case you need to inform them.

At this point you can then tell them its notification only and that you plan on dealing direct with the 3rd party insurer if you wish - to be honest this is what I do as you stay in control, equally if you don't know what your doing then you could be taken for a ride (although your own insurer could do this anyway, so its much of a muchness).

Regarding increased premiums, as harsh as it sounds, its the way the cookie crumbles. Unfortunately some insurance companies do seem to see even none fault accidents as a higher risk and increase premiums accordingly. However this isn't all companies, so is always worth a shop about come renewal

I remember dads none fault accident back in 2009, the morning of the accident he'd actually paid for his renewal, about £85ish. 3 weeks later when the Panda was replaced with an identical one (only 60 days difference in first date of reg, colour etc the same) he went to insure it and they were trying to charge about £135. Just because of the none fault accident. Luckily we got them to confirm this reason in writing though and from memory recovered it from the 3rd party as an uninsured loss :devil:

Most Easterly Pandas said:

We need to go back to basics.

Does your policy state you need to notify them in the event of an accident? Most do, in which case you need to inform them.

At this point you can then tell them its notification only and that you plan on dealing direct with the 3rd party insurer if you wish - to be honest this is what I do as you stay in control, equally if you don't know what your doing then you could be taken for a ride (although your own insurer could do this anyway, so its much of a muchness).

Regarding increased premiums, as harsh as it sounds, its the way the cookie crumbles. Unfortunately some insurance companies do seem to see even none fault accidents as a higher risk and increase premiums accordingly. However this isn't all companies, so is always worth a shop about come renewal

I remember dads none fault accident back in 2009, the morning of the accident he'd actually paid for his renewal, about £85ish. 3 weeks later when the Panda was replaced with an identical one (only 60 days difference in first date of reg, colour etc the same) he went to insure it and they were trying to charge about £135. Just because of the none fault accident. Luckily we got them to confirm this reason in writing though and from memory recovered it from the 3rd party as an uninsured loss :devil:

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I'll try to remember this for next time.

Having recently spent a week and a half worrying whether or not my Wife's insurers would pay out for a car she had owned for 5 days I'd declare everything.


We made our claim and everything was going ok until they asked whether or not we had any other undeclared "incidents". My Wife pointed out that my car (Insured by my employers) had had a minor incident at a supermarket where someone drove into me but there was no damage to either vehicle. Alarmingly this was sufficient for them to hold up their decision and review our policy. Luckily they only asked for an extra 20 odd quid to update the policy and agreed then to settle the insurance.


After 27 years claim free motoring it has been an eye opener to say the least. Must add that Wife's claim was as a result of vandal damage on our property so I didn't think my minor incident would have received any attention, but I imagine as their is no one for the insurers to claim off they will automatically look for an easy get out.

Proff999 said:

Having recently spent a week and a half worrying whether or not my Wife's insurers would pay out for a car she had owned for 5 days I'd declare everything.


We made our claim and everything was going ok until they asked whether or not we had any other undeclared "incidents". My Wife pointed out that my car (Insured by my employers) had had a minor incident at a supermarket where someone drove into me but there was no damage to either vehicle. Alarmingly this was sufficient for them to hold up their decision and review our policy. Luckily they only asked for an extra 20 odd quid to update the policy and agreed then to settle the insurance.


After 27 years claim free motoring it has been an eye opener to say the least. Must add that Wife's claim was as a result of vandal damage on our property so I didn't think my minor incident would have received any attention, but I imagine as their is no one for the insurers to claim off they will automatically look for an easy get out.

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Actually new rules came into force in 2013 that mean an insurer can't just refuse a claim for non-disclosure. They have to decide whether the non-disclosure was merely an oversight or whether it was a wilful or reckless non-disclosure.

Where there's a genuine oversight the remedy is restricted to whatever would have happened had the disclosure been made. In many cases it would just result in an increased premium - which seems to have been the case in this instance.

Thanks Chris, didn't know that and not sure AA staff did, we were told on a couple of occasions that our policy may be void and that we may have received nothing.


Many thanks for clearing that up.

Proff999 said:

Thanks Chris, didn't know that and not sure AA staff did, we were told on a couple of occasions that our policy may be void and that we may have received nothing.


Many thanks for clearing that up.

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They still could have done, the new regs are not a get out of free jail card for consumers, and if the insurer would have declined cover in the first place had they been aware of the none disclosed info then they could still look at potentially voiding a policy.

It does however mean they need to ask everything they want to know, and if they haven't asked for the information they can't hold it against you.