i am the innocent victim

[Parksy]

Dear Sir / Madam
I just thought you may like to highlight my experience on your programm , and could affect others ,
on the 29 March 2012 , a car overtaking a line of parked vehicles scraped along side of my car inflicting minor damage , and the woman in the other car said she wasnt well so an ambulance was called to the scene , and they couldnt find nothing wrong with her , also the police arrived and said to me its his fault its your road , so i drove home , as i got in the door , the phone rung , it was the other persons insurance company ,and they said he has admitted liability so take your car down to days garage in Gorseinon and we will repair it , which i did it all went smoothely , i informed agas my insurance company , and didnt hear any more until i tried to renew my insurance , on the 30/ June/ 12 , i informed agas that i was going to use another company for my car insurance , on the 4/7/12 i got a letter from agas saying you are not entitled to any no claims discount as at the time of this letter we have 1 disclosed incident recorded against this policy , then i opened another from them saying i had 40% no claims discount , so on the 9/7/12 i called agas and asked what was going on , so they put me through to there claims dept , and chloe said to me that the 3rd party is making a claim against you , you will have to get in touch with our xxxxxx which is agas solicitors , so i called RSA first which is the other persons insurance company and they said there is no such claim being made , so then i got onto xxxxxx , and they couldnt find any record of a dispute and said get in touch with agas , so i called them again and spoke to Hannah this time , and she said there is no claim against you , but because an ambulance was called a dispute against you remains for 5 months , so i said i am completely innocent of any blame , yet i have lost my no claims bonus for 5 months , now i cant get my car insured without paying the full amount , so as a pensioner recieving a pension of just £108 per week , i now have no car until the end of August , until i get my no claims bonus back , so have i have gone from blameless to the victim in all this
i hope you mention this on your Series as a warning to others .
Regards ---------------------------

This is a copy of a letter i sent to the Ferret at ITV wales ,

 

[Gafferbill]

......as I understand it in the case of a road accident where an ambulance is called, then the Ambulance Service will send a bill to their patient who is supposed to pass this bill on to their insurers, who will pay it.
If this process has not been done then it may well cause you problems as the Ambulance Service may still be owed money.
Your insurers at the time of the accident should chase this matter up for you and get it resolved.

 

[hortimech]

......as I understand it in the case of a road accident where an ambulance is called, then the Ambulance Service will send a bill to their patient who is supposed to pass this bill on to their insurers, who will pay it.
If this process has not been done then it may well cause you problems as the Ambulance Service may still be owed money.
Your insurers at the time of the accident should chase this matter up for you and get it resolved.

If he does that, he will be making a claim and will lose his no claims bonus, the ambulance bill should be sent to whoever was at fault. in this case, definetly not the OP.

 

[joeby]

the other party admitted full liability , i even called there insurance and they said they are not making any claims , its just my insurance have got sour grapes , my insurance have paid nothing , they are just leaving the case open they said for 5 months in case the 3rd party decide to make a claim , but if i stay with my company and renew my policy with them i still have my 40% no claims bonus , to me its just blackmail , so i have no option but to renew my policy , or leave my car on the drive until the end of August ,

 

[ProfJohnL]

A no claims discount is just that - NO CLAIMS. it is not a A NO BLAME discount. Sadly even if the events were not of your making, any claim involving your car or policy resets the the no claims discount, unless you have taken out a no claims protetction if your company offers one.

 

[colin-yorkshire1]

hi all,
The Prof is quite right of course, and is well worth taking up protected NCB if available, however there are side effects, the companies that offer it are usually at the top end of the premiums list, and often the base premium will be 5% ish higher to obtain one,
but once in place it will give peace of mind in the event of an occurance especialy if you have max no claims upto 75%,
the other side effect is that although you will not lose any NCB a note will be put on the policy that a claim has been made so transfering to another company and retaining the NCB might be difficult and could mean staying with the original company for 5 years untill the slate is wiped clean.
one other aspect should also be considered and that is not claiming and getting a private quote for the repair it may well be that for a small repair the cost of the hassle of claiming is more than the cost to repair it,

 

[otherclive]

It may not be widely known that even if the other party accepts liability a protected NCD could still see your base premium increase. Insurers have a view that you may have put yourself in a position that increased risk, albeit still not responsible for the accident. The classic one being when someone rear ends you. Did you give adequate signals, did you brake a mite too sharply? Not your fault but the accident raises doubts in the insurers mind. You may be seen to be a higher risk and hence your basic premium will increase, and your NCD is applied to a higher premium than if you had not been Involved in an accident. It's the Heads I win, Tails you lose law of insurance.

 

[ProfJohnL]

one other aspect should also be considered and that is not claiming and getting a private quote for the repair it may well be that for a small repair the cost of the hassle of claiming is more than the cost to repair it,

Hello Colin,
I';m not sure its that simple, If the insurance company gets to know about it (Which in this case there is no way that was likely to happen) then they may still consider it to be a claim even if there is no actual financial implication for the company.

 

[colin-yorkshire1]

Hello Colin,
I';m not sure its that simple,

Hi, to be honset John neither am I we are talking about insurance companies after all,
but in the case of damage where the culprit cannot be established, or the damage was self inflicted it would be another route to investigate rather than complicate matters of exess NCB and claim forms.
the occurance we had with the car in the carpark in Bude while on holiday is a typical senario,
the cost of repair and inconvinience in the end was justified comming out of my own pocket considering I would have to have made a claim under my own policy so £200 exess for the claim loss of NCB first year 65% second 50% third 40% and so on. in the end the final cost would have been quadrupled considering I did not have proteced NCB at the time.

 

[Raywood]

If you are making a claim against the other driver you can include the loss of your NCB. You would need confirmation of this from your insurer and might need to project this forward for the next year or mors if it went back two years plus.

 

[Gafferbill]

If he does that, he will be making a claim and will lose his no claims bonus, the ambulance bill should be sent to whoever was at fault. in this case, definetly not the OP.

........I did not suggest the OP should make a claim on his own insurance and you are right about where the ambulance bill should be sent.
My point was just that........ the bill may have been sent to the patient but have they done anything about payment.
The bill could be outstanding and this fact could be causing the OP problems.
I suggested he could ask his insurance company if this was the problem which they should be happy to do as he is a customer.

 

[joeby]

Well all has been resolved , i sent a copy of the letter which i had sent to the Ferret at ITV , to there complaints dept , this morning i got a phone call that my 60% no claims had been reinstated , and i got my 2004 Ford Mondeo TDCI Estate , full comp for another year for £94.00 , so Friday the 13th hasnt been unlucky for me ,
the accident i had was i just driving down the road weather was good and there was a line of parked cars on the other side of the road my lane was clear , as got 3/4 of the way along the road this car appeared and started to overtake the parked cars for which there was no room for him to overtake i braked and had almost stopped because i could see there would be an impact but he never slowed at all , so he took my wing mirror off and there were scuff marks on the door and a dent on my rear wheel , so he tried to make out his wife was ill so called an abulance , but they couldnt find any thing with her , she should have got an oscar for her acting , but the police said its your road he was overtaking , he is at fault , as i always keep a camera in the car i took some photo's , but by the time reached home , the other guys insurance were on the phone and they said he has admitted full liability so take your down to days garage and we will repair , and every thing went as sweet as a nut until i wanted to cancel my policy , but as its turned out i am glad i didnt

 

[otherclive]

Joe,

glad it turned out well for you and the insurance premuim is very reasonable too.

 

[colin-yorkshire1]

Joe,
glad it turned out well for you and the insurance premuim is very reasonable too.

Gordon Bennett' fully comp for £94 that akin to winning the lottery with a ticket you found in the street

try £400+ with 45 years NCB,on a 8year old car and no it's not Ferrari
seriously well done Joe glad it's sorted.

 

[Dustydog]

Hi Joe
Somewhere in your policy document / booklet is a detailed Complaints Procedure.
I suggest you write a letter outlining your complaint and send it to the first name and address quoted under the Complaints Procedure.
They have a set number of weeks to respond. If you are still not happy there will be another address for you to write to and then if you are still not happy you write to the Financial Ombudsman Service. It is essentail you follow the Complaints Procedure to the letter.
They can make your Insurer fully reinstate your no claims bonus and award a pecuniary amount for your losses and inconvenience.

Good luck mate.

 

[joeby]

Hi DD i already done that , i sent the letter that i emailed to ITV 1 , to there complaints dept , and that made them spring into action , but thanks all for your advice

 

[smiley]

Well done... Its a pity that we all have to go to such measure just for someone to listen and do the right thing!!

I'm still in the middle of mine.. What a pain