Whats the point of having insurance (1 Viewer)

[garry63]

Hi all
Been having a lovely time in irland past 2 weeks. Been down the narrowest of lanes, had to squeeze past lorries, motorhomes, in narrow high mountain passes no problem.
Driving down standard N Road lorries and coaches passing normal speed on opposite side of road, waving at fellow motorhomers not a problem. Then whilst on a long straight a line of vehicles, the last 3 a motorhome,van then motorhome are approaching, all pass bar last one. Almighty bang and there goes my full mirror everything just leaving metal bars sticking out. flip me that was loud whats happened!!
Luckily is i thought the other motorhomer had pulled in so I turned around and stopped behind motorhome and inspected damage.
Mine lost mirror a few scratches on door a couple of scuffs( poss polish out)
His lost mirror smashed quaternary light.
He was Irish man and family in hired motorhome all apologetic obviously no experience with such a large vehicle ( even so road width no excuse to hit me plenty wide enough)
Exchange insurance details, not more we could do, whats the point of ranting at him gets no where even though wanted to punch his lights out
I phoned my insurance ( what bollox) they asked did I want to claim on my insurance, no I replied it was his fault, ok then I should ring his insurance to claim, no should that not be your job to claim, well if I wanted to claim i will have to pay my excess and risk higher premiums they may try to claim back but its still on my record as claimed
WHATS THE FEKIN POINT OF HAVING INSURENCE only to pay others that claim against you not to help when you've been wronged
The only good point is that the other guy who was on here had a waking access on his hire agreement
Whats your views

 

[CJK]

Hi all
Been having a lovely time in irland past 2 weeks. Been down the narrowest of lanes, had to squeeze past lorries, motorhomes, in narrow high mountain passes no problem.
Driving down standard N Road lorries and coaches passing normal speed on opposite side of road, waving at fellow motorhomers not a problem. Then whilst on a long straight a line of vehicles, the last 3 a motorhome,van then motorhome are approaching, all pass bar last one. Almighty bang and there goes my full mirror everything just leaving metal bars sticking out. flip me that was loud whats happened!!
Luckily is i thought the other motorhomer had pulled in so I turned around and stopped behind motorhome and inspected damage.
Mine lost mirror a few scratches on door a couple of scuffs( poss polish out)
His lost mirror smashed quaternary light.
He was Irish man and family in hired motorhome all apologetic obviously no experience with such a large vehicle ( even so road width no excuse to hit me plenty wide enough)
Exchange insurance details, not more we could do, whats the point of ranting at him gets no where even though wanted to punch his lights out
I phoned my insurance ( what bollox) they asked did I want to claim on my insurance, no I replied it was his fault, ok then I should ring his insurance to claim, no should that not be your job to claim, well if I wanted to claim i will have to pay my excess and risk higher premiums they may try to claim back but its still on my record as claimed
WHATS THE FEKIN POINT OF HAVING INSURENCE only to pay others that claim against you not to help when you've been wronged
The only good point is that the other guy who was on here had a waking access on his hire agreement
Whats your views

You have my heartfelt sympathy. I feel scarred after nearly two years of not so much battle with, but neglect by our insurance company over a (clearly) no fault accident and admitted liability. Being naive, I had simply no idea about the whole food chain of accident management companies, car hire companies, damage assessors and lawyers that contribute to the insurance racket and ratchet up costs that we, the policy holders bear the brunt of. We pay unfairly one way or another. In a no fault accident, my advice would be not to involve the insurance company unless you absolutely can’t fix things without them. Good luck.

 

[Widge]

why? Anyone with half a brain knows it is only going to cost you money eventually

as above. Always err on the side of caution. Photograph them & if they look like doing a runner /attempt to incapacitate them .

It used to be available to all but around 2019 they changed the law & removed it I thought that it was removed for everybody?

My brokers always used to sort it all .

the Uk needs to get back to insurance as it used to be.Yes it is gambling .They are gambling that for every claimant there are 99 that are not claiming & they balance it up.If they don't they lose money.shareholders do not come in to it.They aren't there to supply divis for them.
I'm just glad I'm here now where someone is always to blame.
"Knock for knock " is just a scam allowing the insurance companies to all fill their pockets at the expense of the customer.
I only "insure" as it is legally required. It has never , nor would it ever, occur to me to claim on my own insurance.That is like standing up & admitting you are negligent.

So are you saying that if someone reversed into the side of your parked unattended vehicle, causing several thousand pounds of damage then legged it, you would fork out for the repairs yourself, and not bother the insurance company?

 

[The Wino]

So are you saying that if someone reversed into the side of your parked unattended vehicle, causing several thousand pounds of damage then legged it, you would fork out for the repairs yourself, and not bother the insurance company?

If it was under a thousand to 1500 I'd pay myself if over I'd claim. I would expect it to increase my premiums for several years despite protected no claims.

 

[Minxy]

how come because a badger ran out in front of me in my car, why am I now at a bigger risk on my motorbike or driving my motorhome

Because the badger's family and friends will be looking out to get you!

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[The Wino]

About 6 years back I unfortunately hit a badger it ran out in front of me on my way home from work, I had to involve the insurance company as it actually did substantial damage to the front of my mini, insurance came out said it would have to be written off due to the age of the car, I could have it as a buy back and use second hand parts to repair as it was cheaper, which I did £130 from a scrap yard £100 to have fitted and no increase on my insurance……then the stinger came when I renewed my wife’s car the motorhome and both motorbikes insurances (as I’m named on all the policy’s) I had to declare the accident, they all went up as I had had an accident I think over the last 5 years I have possibly paid the best part £1000 in increased premiums across the policies, I can only now get my insurance back to where it was, I have been driving accident free for (apart from the poor badger) for over 40 years and was an ex driving instructor and examiner, past IAM for both private and commercial vehicles and held 16 continuous ROSPA awards, the point being how come because a badger ran out in front of me in my car, why am I now at a bigger risk on my motorbike or driving my motorhome

I'm not really clear did they write your car off and you bought it back and repaired it or did you not claim on the insurance and fix it yourself?

 

[Coolcats]

I believe it is not uncommon for large vehical users to self insure, i understand the post office do, or at least used to. But I think they are obliged to have a large security bond available to be used in the case of payouts, but probably still cheaper than paying an insurance company for thousands of vehicles.

Agreed I think London busses did this as well but it may now be different

 

[Coolcats]

Hi all
Been having a lovely time in irland past 2 weeks. Been down the narrowest of lanes, had to squeeze past lorries, motorhomes, in narrow high mountain passes no problem.
Driving down standard N Road lorries and coaches passing normal speed on opposite side of road, waving at fellow motorhomers not a problem. Then whilst on a long straight a line of vehicles, the last 3 a motorhome,van then motorhome are approaching, all pass bar last one. Almighty bang and there goes my full mirror everything just leaving metal bars sticking out. flip me that was loud whats happened!!
Luckily is i thought the other motorhomer had pulled in so I turned around and stopped behind motorhome and inspected damage.
Mine lost mirror a few scratches on door a couple of scuffs( poss polish out)
His lost mirror smashed quaternary light.
He was Irish man and family in hired motorhome all apologetic obviously no experience with such a large vehicle ( even so road width no excuse to hit me plenty wide enough)
Exchange insurance details, not more we could do, whats the point of ranting at him gets no where even though wanted to punch his lights out
I phoned my insurance ( what bollox) they asked did I want to claim on my insurance, no I replied it was his fault, ok then I should ring his insurance to claim, no should that not be your job to claim, well if I wanted to claim i will have to pay my excess and risk higher premiums they may try to claim back but its still on my record as claimed
WHATS THE FEKIN POINT OF HAVING INSURENCE only to pay others that claim against you not to help when you've been wronged
The only good point is that the other guy who was on here had a waking access on his hire agreement
Whats your views

Don’t claim on your insurance unless you absolutely have to, having been the victim of a break in and two vehicles stollen. The premiums skyrocketed as an example the MoHo insurance went from around £400 to over £3k even though it was no fault it was marked as a fault on file because the insurance companies could not reclaim their loss…So someone has to pay to help them reclaim what they paid out. During the first year the cheapest I could obtain insurance for the MoHo was £1200.

I have no idea how insurance has become so punitive to the ‘victim’ but once you understand this game don’t claim unless you absolutely have to.

 

[McLouis]

It's the reason it's a legal requirement. I actually have shares in Aviva and get a fantastic return of a dividend of 6.7%. It is a bit better than I'd get in a bank account but not guaranteed it's not what I would call a huge payout to shareholders! If anyone thinks that insurance is a goldmine why not buy shares?

Yep I do the same, I think the dividend is up a bit this year as well!

 

[SpeedyDux]

You have my heartfelt sympathy. I feel scarred after nearly two years of not so much battle with, but neglect by our insurance company over a (clearly) no fault accident and admitted liability. Being naive, I had simply no idea about the whole food chain of accident management companies, car hire companies, damage assessors and lawyers that contribute to the insurance racket and ratchet up costs that we, the policy holders bear the brunt of. We pay unfairly one way or another. In a no fault accident, my advice would be not to involve the insurance company unless you absolutely can’t fix things without them. Good luck.

Speaking of neglect and unfair treatment by the insurance company, this was also our experience.

We were misled in relation to a minor slow collision that Duxette had while driving the car alone, in slow moving traffic. No damage to our car. The 3rd party agreed that the damage to his car was a barely noticeable scratch on his back bumper. He said repeatedly at the time and afterwards that he wasn't going to claim on his insurance. Actually, I got the impression that this bloke was putting on an act as some kind of White Knight and that his real agenda was to groom the Duxette into going on some kind of date with him, because he fancied her. A chancer. She seemed to like him until I explained to her what was really going on. Then, she stopped answering his many phone calls and texts.

We had logged the incident with the accident management company that acts as an intermediary with our insurers. We never heard any more about it and it seemed to have gone away.

Until renewal time! We discovered that, unbeknown to us, the 3rd party had made a claim. Without reference back to us, our insurance company had settled it for £947. No details or breakdown given to us. No chance to argue that this 3rd Party claim was excessive for a mere scratch that probably would have polished out with a bit of T-Cut. I surmised that he might have backed into an obstacle after this incident and used this claim to cover the cost of repairing much worse damage to his bumper. It didn't stack up otherwise. Or, it must have included several days' car hire while his was in the paint shop for minor rectification. It reeked of scam and cost inflation.

The renewal premium had soared to more than double - evidently the insurance company wanted to recoup all their outlay from us. We also discovered that due to this one small claim other insurers were refusing to quote at all, and some were quoting premiums in excess of £3k. Ludicrous. We felt we had been put on some kind of blacklist. As well as having been let down by our insurers who had caved in without letting us know or comment.

We are still suffering from high premiums on renewal for the car, after 2 years with no more claims or incidents. As I explained above, it also affected my MH insurance premium this year. The adverse consequences seem endless.

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[gus-lopez]

So are you saying that if someone reversed into the side of your parked unattended vehicle, causing several thousand pounds of damage then legged it, you would fork out for the repairs yourself, and not bother the insurance company?

In the Uk ? Yes but it would be unlikely to happen as I rarely leave it anywhere , it is covered by multiple cameras so hopefully I'd get a number & can hunt the **** down.

here in spain where it would add nothing to future premiums ,I might well claim

So someone has to pay to help them reclaim what they paid out.

No ,they have to swallow it like they always used to relying on income from the majority to pay for the claimants

We discovered that, unbeknown to us, the 3rd party had made a claim.

Vehicle insurance same as hire cars/vans, I always state when taking it out ,before ,during & after that nothing whatsoever is to be paid to anyone ,nor in the case of hire pcns' is anything other than name & address to be forwarded & on no account is any type of payment to be made to anyone without contact with me first.

 

[POH]

I only have insurance because it's a legal requirement, otherwise I would be willing to foot the bill for any damage
Paul

that's all well and good BUT what happens when you run into someone and have a 4+grand bill plus your own damage and heavens above you run somebody over imagine the cost of that !! that could mean the loss of your home .

 

[Dave and Jan]

Insurance? Necessary but a rip off. Prices governed by age, postcode, gender, occupation etc. Extortionate renewal premiums dropped £hundreds if you shop around. If you have more than one vehicle you have to notify all insurers of an accident, blameworthy or not, even if they don’t insure the vehicle you had the accident in. NCD generally only applies to one vehicle so why should you have to do that? Premiums have doubled in the last three years.

 

[The Wino]

Insurance? Necessary but a rip off. Prices governed by age, postcode, gender, occupation etc. Extortionate renewal premiums dropped £hundreds if you shop around. If you have more than one vehicle you have to notify all insurers of an accident, blameworthy or not, even if they don’t insure the vehicle you had the accident in. NCD generally only applies to one vehicle so why should you have to do that? Premiums have doubled in the last three years.

And yet the insurance companies don't make huge profits or pay huge dividends so where is the money coming from if there was going to be a big cut in premiums? I think it's like lots of things people would like them to be cheaper but if they work in that industry think prices are fair ( and I have never worked in insurance!).
I blame high premiums largely on the cost of repairs and the no win no fee solicitors bumping up claims. I'm pretty sure when I go to Spain that they don't bother repairing a lot of small bumps I don't know if that's because they aren't bothered or they have a big excess or whatever but it must help reduce premiums I also suspect that accident payouts for injury are way lower. It's the same with pavements in the UK if someone falls over there's a lot of debate about was the paving level etc in other countries I think they would just say it's your fault look where you're going!

 

[Miggs]

Much has been said about premiums going up if you declare a non fault incident so a little while ago I did some dummy online quotes to see for myself.
First with no incident and second declaring a non fault accident. The two companies I used gave identical quotes for both scenarios!

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[SpeedyDux]

Much has been said about premiums going up if you declare a non fault incident so a little while ago I did some dummy online quotes to see for myself.
First with no incident and second declaring a non fault accident. The two companies I used gave identical quotes for both scenarios!

Discounting to attract new business? Beware of the bait-and-switch when renewal time comes round.

 

[jerryz]

I CONFRONTED THE GOVERNMENT ABOUT CAR INSURANCE - YouTube

 

[gus-lopez]

I'm pretty sure when I go to Spain that they don't bother repairing a lot of small bumps

Very true . Once past 3 years of age many only have t,p,f/t* not full comp. so will not claim.
Then again neither do most dealers repair much.They expect you to buy 'as is'. manY do ,then claim for all the repairs a short while after taking out insurance if the vehicle could get full comp..
To combat this vehicles under 10/12 years old that you can obtain full comp insurance for ,when switching companies, they require the agent/broker to submit front, back, sides, roof photos to ensure condition of vehicle

I don't know if that's because they aren't bothered

as above many only have t,p,f/ t*

or they have a big excess or whatever

Last time I wanted to increase the excess the agent went to great pains to explain that the 'excess' was for each facet of the vehicle. I.e front, back, drivers side, passenger side, roof ,Underside so if you had a 300€ excess & it was totalled then the excess was multiplied by 6= 1800€

* vehicles over 10 years old ,occasionally 12 with some companies, will not be offered full comp insurance. Even motorhomes.

 

[The Wino]

Very true . Once past 3 years of age many only have t,p,f/t* not full comp. so will not claim.
Then again neither do most dealers repair much.They expect you to buy 'as is'. manY do ,then claim for all the repairs a short while after taking out insurance if the vehicle could get full comp..
To combat this vehicles under 10/12 years old that you can obtain full comp insurance for ,when switching companies, they require the agent/broker to submit front, back, sides, roof photos to ensure condition of vehicle

as above many only have t,p,f/ t*

Last time I wanted to increase the excess the agent went to great pains to explain that the 'excess' was for each facet of the vehicle. I.e front, back, drivers side, passenger side, roof ,Underside so if you had a 300€ excess & it was totalled then the excess was multiplied by 6= 1800€

* vehicles over 10 years old ,occasionally 12 with some companies, will not be offered full comp insurance. Even motorhomes.

I can see why insurance is a lot less then especially if there's not the no win no fee mob .

 

[Jo May]

Watch this and read some of the comments.
The whole insurance business is corrupt.

I am going through a bit of a nightmare at the moment.
Currently an official complaint in against the police. Response to that 2 weeks overdue - unsurprisingly perhaps with recent troubles. But I sent the IOPC a nudge yesterday.
This video does not surprise me one bit. The whole thing stinks

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[Tony50]

Having insurance is classed as
"A act of good faith" between the Insurance company and the Insured in other words it's a agreement that you will inform the company of any change in circumstances.
How insurance companies look at an accident that's not your fault is " it's never 100% the other person's fault"
Because if you/your vehicle wasn't there to damage it wouldn't have been hit so a percentage of fault must be yours !?
It's bliidy daft but that is how it was explained to me!!

 

[gus-lopez]

I can see why insurance is a lot less then especially if there's not the no win no fee mob .

it isn't " a lot less" though. In fact although it is creeping up again now it was far,far dearer than the Uk for many years .You have just caught up.
When I left the uk 22 years ago I was paying 150 quid for full com on a commercial vehicle with unlimited mileage & 24 hour usage & 26 years ncb.. car was not much over 100 with unlimited mileage any driver & around 20 years ncb.
They accepted Uk ncb here on a new Transit tourneo connect with a premium of 746€ I think it was Any driver no mileage limit .hardly dropped at all over the 6 years I kept it.Replacement mpv was 540€ .
This van was initially 480€ then dropped to 450€ when I converted it / rose to 530 last year & 641€ this year.48 years ncb now.
But no knock for knock

 

[CJK]

Speaking of neglect and unfair treatment by the insurance company, this was also our experience.

We were misled in relation to a minor slow collision that Duxette had while driving the car alone, in slow moving traffic. No damage to our car. The 3rd party agreed that the damage to his car was a barely noticeable scratch on his back bumper. He said repeatedly at the time and afterwards that he wasn't going to claim on his insurance. Actually, I got the impression that this bloke was putting on an act as some kind of White Knight and that his real agenda was to groom the Duxette into going on some kind of date with him, because he fancied her. A chancer. She seemed to like him until I explained to her what was really going on. Then, she stopped answering his many phone calls and texts.

We had logged the incident with the accident management company that acts as an intermediary with our insurers. We never heard any more about it and it seemed to have gone away.

Until renewal time! We discovered that, unbeknown to us, the 3rd party had made a claim. Without reference back to us, our insurance company had settled it for £947. No details or breakdown given to us. No chance to argue that this 3rd Party claim was excessive for a mere scratch that probably would have polished out with a bit of T-Cut. I surmised that he might have backed into an obstacle after this incident and used this claim to cover the cost of repairing much worse damage to his bumper. It didn't stack up otherwise. Or, it must have included several days' car hire while his was in the paint shop for minor rectification. It reeked of scam and cost inflation.

The renewal premium had soared to more than double - evidently the insurance company wanted to recoup all their outlay from us. We also discovered that due to this one small claim other insurers were refusing to quote at all, and some were quoting premiums in excess of £3k. Ludicrous. We felt we had been put on some kind of blacklist. As well as having been let down by our insurers who had caved in without letting us know or comment.

We are still suffering from high premiums on renewal for the car, after 2 years with no more claims or incidents. As I explained above, it also affected my MH insurance premium this year. The adverse consequences seem endless.

Yes, sad to say, I’m not surprised at this and very sorry you’re now suffering. During my largely fruitless waits for our insurer to answer the phone, I googled all kinds of hideous stories, too many of them similar to yours. Small accidents with ‘a kind man’ or a ‘lovely lady’ ending in financial disaster.
In our case, it took a year to get our van back but then there were still about £1,200 of extra repairs needed in the habitation area that we were told to claim separately for. Another nine months on I discover, trying to re-insure the MH, that there was still an outstanding claim on an at fault accident (though ours was no fault), To cut a long and tedious story short, I’ve withdrawn our costs just to clear the thing and restore our status. The whole notion of insurers ‘looking after you’ is a complete fallacy.