Car insurance: no-fault claims are the Elephant in the room
If someone drives into the back of your car while you are stationary, you wouldn't expect to be penalized by your insurer would you? At least, I didn't – but that's exactly what happened to me. The incident happened last summer when a van driver turned into the entrance to the car park I was parked just outside of (in a marked bay), damaging the rear bumper and paintwork of my VW Golf. The van driver admitted fault and we swapped insurance details. I contacted my insurer, Elephant.co.uk, which is part of the Admiral group, and it swiftly sorted out repairs to my car and, sometime later, claimed successfully from the van driver's insurer. I asked before I made the claim whether it would affect my premium – although I assumed it wouldn't as I wasn't at fault – and was assured it wouldn't. Yesterday I was given a renewal quote and it has risen from approximately Car insurance renewal has been rising steadily, but I hadn't expected an increase of quite that much. In fact, I had assumed that my six years no-claims bonus would ensure I was paying roughly the same, which had been the case for the past five years.