Insurance companies f*cking you over

The red mist has really descended today because of insurance companies yet again. As if I'm not already mad enough about still not having settled my claim which was made on 11th August things have just got worse.

Before the GT Four smash I had 9 years no claims bonus which sadly I was unable to protect due to a previous claim in 2005. On Saturday I enquired with my insurance broker as to what their policy was in regards to no claims bonus with an open claim. They informed me that it was to step back your no claims by 2 years until the claim was resolved. If you get any kind of blame nothing else happens, if you get proved not to have been at fault you get them back.

This is disappointing but what I expected and would still leave me with 7 years ncb, or so I thought.... I had a voicemail from the brokers to say that due to the claim I would have 3 years ncb. I have called them today to enquire why this is and have been told that because it is my insurance company's policy to only insure you on the first 5 years of your ncb so stepping back 2 years from this takes you down to 3. I said that's fine if that's their policy and I stay with them but surely if I leave I will have only lost 2 years ncb and will have 7 left. Wrong. Despite having had this company send me a certificate under 6 months ago stating what no claims I had so I could insure the Micra I will only have 3 years left.

We had a lengthy row about how I had been misled and coersed into taking out a policy which didn't represent what I thought I was paying with and I said I'm going to phone the Financial Services Authority before I make a complaint.

Phoned the FSA who advised that for an insurance company to only insure you off the first 5 years of your ncb is common policy and that they are within their rights to step you back to 3 years following a claim. This astounds me as that basically gives them carte blanche to f*ck you over. Even still, the FSA advised me to compain and contest this decision if it was not in declared the T&Cs of my insurance which it wasn't.

I have left a voicemail for the complaints department to call me back and guess what! They haven't called.

I can't believe that an insurance company can step you back to 3 years ncb regardless of whether you have 5 years ncb or 105 years ncb because most of them only insure you on the first 5 years anyway.

I would advise anyone to check with their insurance companies how many years of their no claims their insurance is based on to avoid this happening to you.

I will name and shame the 3 companies involved once my claim has been settled. In the mean time, if anyone wants to know who they are just PM me.

ah that sucks balls J. ill be checking mine later....

keep us posted, will be interesting to know if they get back to you...

Haven't heard back from them at all.

Never mind. I've had a quote for a year fully comp on an R33 GTR V Spec Skyline for £1218 by Lifesure brokers and the insurance is with NIG. I'll be able to protect my no claims again in a year when I'm back up to 4 years

All this bad experience with current insurance broker and company and the amount of phoning around I've had to do, and a chat with Kimi's other half this morning makes me think we should start an insurance section on here. Could have things like insurance tips and recommended companies etc. I've joined skylineowners.com and gtr.co.uk in the last couple of weeks while I've been looking for an R33 and they both have good sections for insurance.

Anyone else think this is a good idea?

im up for that. we can all share nightmares and glory, tips and advice. 33GTR eh? hmmmm noice

Jamie, yeah Mark said he had been chatting with you this morning


it sucks balls the trouble you are having
your insurance company are by the sound of it.


I think an insurance area on the boards would be a good idea,
also if you can get some of them onboard they give discounts for being members
of owners clubs too.

Two of the clubs i use are sponsered by Sky insurance & a guy called Ollie
who works for them posts on the forums answering peoples questions,
so maybe worth a idea.

Sorry to hear how you've been pissed about jamie Your insurance company really have been sly there.

An insurance section might well be a good idea. As Kimi mentioned, other boards have similar sections and they seem to prove useful.

Yeah, through skylineowners.com and gtr.co.uk you can get discount with a few companies.

I spent from 9am to 5pm on the phone to many insurance companies yesterday and the service and customer care from some was excellent and from others pityful.

Worth starting an insurance section mod/admin guys?

Your wish is my command

Same thing happened to me mate, when my gtir was stolen.
I had nine years no claims, for financial reasons at the time I only took a tpft policy out. so they wernt protected!
anyways, my insurance company only took 4 of my 9 years into consideration, they took 2 years off me because my car was stolen, so out of 9 years ncb I was left with 2!
it sucks big time!
one good thing tho! after 2 years im Back uptown full ncb! which is only 4 months away

Good work there Mrs Kickass

Looks like this is almost about to come to an end.

The other party has offered to settle out of court for 50-50 blame.

Whilst I am reluctant to accept any kind of liability for an accident that I know I was not at fault for, I recognise the fact that having no witnesses and no evidence could make life somewhat difficult for me in court.

I stand to gain around 2k compo if I accept this and wouldn't have the stress of a day in court in Stoke. Also, as I've had to declare this as a fault claim and it's so bloody long since I made it, it's not going to change anything with my current insurance.

My two penny's worth for anyone who goes through this would be to make sure you take as many pictures as possible if ever you have an accident. Without my pictures showing my car at rest against the central reservation I think this lowlife would have got away with his cock and bull story about me swerving across the road in front of him and ending up in the hard shoulder.

I think 2 grands worth of compo might balance the sting of going 50/50 on this one. Plus as you said, it was that long ago its not going to change anything with your insurance.

Annoying though, that someone can lie and stall proceedings by over two years and still not take full liability