Named driver claim on my car insurance

GenerationXer

Registered User
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My daughter is insured on my car and recently had an accident. I'm going to now lose my no claims bonus, this will go from 9 years to 2 years. My question is, in addition to losing my no claims should my premium go up a lot too even though I wasn't driving? Are all of the insurers the same in this respect? If I ytake out a policy in the future without her on it will still be penalised for her accident?
 
your premium goes up............because your bonus is reduced.

yes you will have to declare the claim.
 
You will be penalised for her accident because it was on your policy. There is only one policy (yours, in your name), which is the one being claimed against.

Your no claims bonus is a % reduction on the premium you pay. Therefore if the % reduction goes down, the premium you pay goes up accordingly. They are not different things.

And it doesn't matter that you weren't driving, a person named on the insurance policy was driving, hence the policy is affected.

But on reflection, that is a very good question. If, in future, you take out a policy in your own name, without your daughter on it, does it have a different premium than if you add her to it? The answer to the question "Did you have an accident?" is No. But the answer to "Was there a claim against an insurance policy in your name?" is Yes. In any case, as peteb says, you do have to declare it. But can you argue that the person who had the accident (the risk - a younger/novice driver) is no longer on the policy and there therefore the premium should reflect this.

I don't know how nuanced the insurance calculations are, but certainly if I have a policy with a named driver, and one without. I would expect the policy without the named driver to be cheaper. (before any NCB reduction is applied.)

And remember that a No Claims bonus is exactly that, there are no claims against the policy, regardless of fault. For example, if your car is burnt out, or stolen, you can still lose your NCB, even though it isn't your fault, and you may not have been in the car.

Maybe someone more knowledgeable on the point of a future policy will chime in.
 
As you have made a claim you will lose your bonus even though you were not driving, it’s as if you were the driver so yes you will always need to declare that when making any application for car insurance.

Could you settle the damages claim from your pocket rather than theirs ?

Are you in a position to settle the claim from your own pocket rather than theirs ?
 
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I don't know how nuanced the insurance calculations are, but certainly if I have a policy with a named driver, and one without. I would expect the policy without the named driver to be cheaper. (before any NCB reduction is applied.)

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More often than not it's the opposite ie. Reducing premium by adding a (suitable) named driver.
 
Your no claims bonus is a % reduction on the premium you pay. Therefore if the % reduction goes down, the premium you pay goes up accordingly. They are not different things.
Ah OK, that's what I was wondering mostly about. So just the NCB will be affected and that's it? I presumed the calculation of my insurance before the bonus is applied would also be affected. They'd calculate my risk, which would be higher because of this accident, and then apply the reduced NCB.
 
As you have made a claim you will lose your bonus even though you were not driving, it’s as if you were the driver so yes you will always need to declare that when making any application for car insurance.

Could you settle the damages claim from your pocket rather than theirs ?

Are you in a position to settle the claim from your own pocket rather than theirs ?

I suppose I could, but it's over 2k. It's just paintwork so I'm guessing they're looking for a new bumper, I'd also have to pay for them to have a replacement vehicle during repairs. The vehicle is a 40 foot truck so I presume this would be a lot.

I've tried to get an idea of how my insurance would be affected if I made the claim but my insurance company won't even give me a ballpark idea. It's very hard to decide what to do without having a clue which will end up costing me more.
 
If it's just over 2k I'd think it is most economical to do outside of insurance, are the truck owners approachable?
 
your premium will DOUBLE at next renewal, as you have lost your 50% NCB. You will then earn 10% per year thereafter until you have 50% again.
 
your premium will DOUBLE at next renewal, as you have lost your 50% NCB. You will then earn 10% per year thereafter until you have 50% again.
Every insurance company has different policy on accidents

Some allow one claim under €3,000 without affecting ncb, others have a stepback policy which seems to be the case here as op goes from full bonus to 2 years.

I don't think anyone gives any more than 5 years bonus, so it's 5 down to 2 rather than 9. It would be nice as I'm 33 years without a claim. :) :)
 
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