This blog entry is as a result of an an email from Elizabeth in Leeds who is a Club member.

Her experience echoes that of other members who are baffled when an insurer pays out in what is typically a no fault accident situation. And who worry that their premium or No Claims Bonus might be affected.

What seems to be happening is that whenever there is a liability dispute (which, let’s face it, insurers encourage by telling motorists not to admit liability even when it’s clearly their fault) both insurers are accepting shared costs (called a ‘knock for knock’ basis) rather than taking this further to identify the guilty or fraudulent party.

Simply because it is often cheaper to pay out on this basis than argue the toss…

This is what Elizabeth tells us about her experiences. Her comments about dealing with uswitch remind me why it can make sense to shop in advance and double check a comparison website later I you aren’t happy as obviously deals can change…

“I have recently renewed my car insurance. I tried uSwitch about 2 ½ weeks before renewal and did not much like the premiums. I tried again 2 weeks later and the premiums were 250 pounds cheaper! I chose a company, which I knew was affiliated with my existing one, but it turned out that they are the same company. So I have ended up with the same company, but at the price I found on uSwitch.”

“By the way, I have chosen a high excess because I have found that if you have an accident with a lower excess, it gets added to your premium anyway. The financial penalty for claiming for small amounts is larger than the claim.”

“I had an incident nearly 2 years ago when someone claimed I had hit her car and caused damage. I was not aware of anything and there is no way that my car could have caused that particular damage. She harassed me to the point where I had to go to my local police station. They got her to stop. In the end my insurance company (not the current one) settled in error, having received no proof at all from her. I reported this incident to my current insurer last year, but now it seems to have disappeared from their records.”

“I have had numerous instances where damage has been caused to my car when I have not been there – and of course no one has owned up.”

FOXY’s advice is always to tell the insurance company the full facts and if you know nothing about any accident or you deny any liability ask them to confirm that they have recorded this as a no fault accident. In these circumstances it would seem unreasonable for the insurer to inflate your premium or downgrade your No Claims Bonus as a result.

And whilst the ‘knock for knock’ settlement system seems lazy and unscientific ie  ‘we’re not sure who’s guilty so let’s split it’ we do appreciate that the time this takes to sort out can be more costly than a 50:50 formula.

If any motorist feels her insurance premium has been inflated by a previous accident that was not their fault they should check whether that accident has been scored against them on their policy. If the insurer is unwilling to review this as a no fault accident and perhaps your no claims bonus has been affected, please let us know the details. And shop around for  a better renewal deal.

I should add that this is going to be doubly hard to police in the lead up to insurers imposing gender equality ratings from December 2012 onwards. This is when insurers will be allowed to charge ALL women drivers more than they have been paying despite the statistically safer driving record of young women drivers compared to young male drivers in particular.

There is nothing fair about this ‘equality ruling’ when it comes to common rating genders for car insurance premiums…

FOXY Steph

NB: FOXY Lady Drivers Club includes a female friendly accident assistance service to help members and their family after an accident. Providing you contact them before your insurer, they can advise you of your best option in the circumstances. If you don’t claim against/via your insurer but get our service to claim from the liable third party there can be no doubt of this claim adversely affecting your premium in future.

I have just had my third and final hand and arm plaster removed after a car accident that happened just over 8 weeks ago. I’m feeling mighty relieved and ready to get on with the rest of my life now.

But before I put this to the back of my memory, please bear with me whilst I remind myself about the misery of this and how other female motorists are likely to feel in similar situations.

Even though I run a motoring association for women, I certainly wasn’t prepared, mentally or emotionally, for the trauma of a car accident and painful injuries as a result.

But there was no avoiding the impact when a lady driver pulled out immediately in front of us when we were driving at c40 mph along an A road. What was she thinking of at the time I wonder? Certainly not her personal safety.

So these are some of the lessons I have learned from all this…

1    That what seems to be a no fault car accident isn’t always how the third party tells the story. In fact the other female driver contested liability saying that we were indicating left at the junction she was waiting to turn right from…

2    That some motor insurance companies will postpone a no fault claim resolution even when it’s obvious that it’s ‘their’ motorist that was at fault.

3    That some motorists presumably think that it’s a valid excuse to pull out in front of a fast moving car if it had an indicator flashing (which ours didn’t but even if it had, you can’t trust indicator lights that might have been left on in error…).

4    To have the contact details for a friendly support service like FOXY’s accident assistance service, especially when the accident is clearly not your fault, to get you mobile as soon as possible. We were on holiday in the UK so we didn’t know any garages and we didn’t have friends or family to call on for help. It was obvious the car was going to be a write off and even if it had been repairable we needed wheels to get us home and to carry on. As it happened, a small replacement car was delivered to our hotel before 9am the next morning. Couldn’t have been slicker.

5    To check out all aches and pains at the hospital at the time. I broke my thumb and cracked my sternum which was bad enough so I had to go to the hospital anyway but my husband claimed to be fine at the time. Some seven weeks later after limping for most of this time his Doctor tells him he has ligament damage to the upper part of his brake pedal foot. Not surprising because he was driving at the time and hit the brake pedal hard as you would expect but perhaps if he hadn’t been so brave (or shocked perhaps) he might have got some practical advice about pain relief from hospital staff who probably see these sort of commonplace road accident injuries on a daily basis.

6    How to shower/wash hair/wrap Xmas presents and get dressed with one hand… You might tick of the job but it takes forever, is painful and the end result always looks second rate…

7    How lucky I am to have such a multi-talented husband. I hadn’t realised what a good cook, washer up and ironer he was and I look forward to sharing these chores with him in future .

8    Oh how much I have missed the independence of my own car and being able to drive it but thank you to all my friends who have ferried me around and done little things for me that mean so much…

9    And even when you think the pain has passed (I needed an operation to pin the thumb in place which then needed removing, ouch) and that painkillers are a thing of the past, you still need to take Ibuprofen regularly to reduce the swelling under the plaster which can be so uncomfortable and tight at night it can even wake you up…

10    Just how traumatic the whole episode has been for me and others in similar situations. I won’t forget and I will be forever sympathetic to those in similar situations. Just imagine how awful it would be to be involved in an accident when someone is killed or seriously injured.

Finally, after such a miserable time I now want to get on with the rest of my life.

The first thing we’re going to do is go car shopping for a more sedate BMW this weekend.

Then I can really get motoring in more ways than one… I have so much life and FOXY business to catch up with now.

FOXY Steph

Have you ever faced a fraudulent accident claim that wasn’t anything to do with you? If so, please tell us what happened.

Wendy is a member of FOXY Lady Drivers Club and lives in Hampshire. She wrote to us recently after reading our December Club newsletter including details of a recent car accident and FOXY’s accident management support service.

And whilst we do hear about fraudulent insurance claims we hadn’t heard Wendy’s unusual experience before.

This is what she told us…

“Last year we did NOT have an accident but someone made a claim against us in December for an accident that was supposed to have happened in the previous August. The insurance company paid out against it because my car has a crack in the number plate which they said could have happened in an accident even though I can supply witnesses to prove it was cracked on the drive when my daughter left the hand brake off and it rolled into the garage door. I even have the dent in the garage door!

I never reported an accident because I did not have one. The only related thing we could think of later was when 2 men in the car in front in a stationary traffic queue got out of their car and spoke to my daughter, who was driving on her own. They said they thought she had gone into them but then agreed that she probably hadn’t and there was no damage…”

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The problem is of course that nobody is going to report an accident that did not happen.

But Wendy wants to caution people to report anything out of the ordinary like this in future just in case someone tries to scam you later. At least it may help and may even prevent the same thing happening again?”

Thank you for bringing this to our attention Wendy and I hope enough women read this to be on their guard in future.

Wendy is waiting to see how her insurance premium is affected at renewal time. It will be most unfair if she loses out as a result of a non-existent accident… as claimed by a motoring rat.

FOXY Steph

A family of four have received almost £8000 compensation after a car accident left them suffering from multiple personal injuries. The family were in their Audi A4 in Leicester when the driver of a Vauxhall Vectra failed to give way and crashed into them. The collision was worse because the driver of the Vectra hit the accelerator pedal instead of the brake.

The driver of the Audi was taken to hospital suffering from severe back injuries, whiplash and shock. His wife, who was a front seat passenger, sustained injuries to her back and neck and their two children, aged 19 and 21, suffered whiplash. The driver remained in the A&E Department at Leicester Royal Infirmary for over five hours before being discharged and was unable to carry out his job as a quality control manager for six weeks as a result. His wife was also unable to return to work for three weeks and was put on painkillers for two weeks and required to take extra medicine to reduce muscle spasm.

After filing a compensation claim against the driver of the Vectra, the family won close to £8,000 in compensation although the driver of the Vectra initially denied liability but changed his statement after the case was taken to court. This included over £3,000 for the man’s loss of earnings, personal injuries and emotional damage, some £2000 for his wife’s injuries and loss of earnings plus over £1,300 for each of their children.

FOXY Steph

Find out about FOXY Lady Drivers Club‘s ‘no fault’ accident assistance service included in a FOXY Classic lifetime subscription.

We heard of two stressful motoring stories involving women drivers this weekend.

The first is about a once tidy looking car which has been parked alongside the High Street in a Sussex village for a while and has been the subject of malicious vandalism. The owner doesn’t know who but the car has been dented, tyres damaged and paint stripper applied to devastating effect. Nobody has seen anything of course.

The car is a P reg Ford so she has scrappage options if she’s quick but she isn’t really in the market for a new car. And the tax runs out next month so it’s decision time and a distressed sale price likely…

The second story is the result of a car accident. The Renault Clio in question is shared by two young sisters in Surrey. One had a minor but expensive ‘bump’ and the girls now need a replacement car and a good deal for the sad looking Clio.

In cases like these, the whole family is affected, providing alternative transport, helping deal with tricky insurance claims and providing an occasional shoulder to cry on.

We can now do our bit to ease the load.

FOXY Steph

Find out how FOXY Lady Drivers Club can support women drivers with female friendly motoring advice and information at stressful times