Hello Moneysavers!
I am looking for some advice regarding a situation I had with Admiral.
About a year ago I was involved in an incident where a pedestrian crossed the road without looking if there were any cars coming, and I didn’t manage to avoid him in time. Luckily, by the time he was hit, I had slowed down significantly and he didn’t suffer any significant damage, just some light bruising. I had a dashcam installed which showed that I was not speeding, and that the pedestrian was hidden behind a street light post so was not visible until he started crossing.
I contacted Admiral later that day to inform them of what had happened, and stating clearly that I did not wish to make a claim, just to report the incident.
What happened next is that Admiral put a placeholder claim in my file for £70k+ damage and I lost my No claim bonus. They said they did that just in case the pedestrian decided to put a claim. A year later, after they reviewed the dashcam footage and did some investigation, they decided to return my No Claim Bonus, as the other party never presented a claim and witnesses in the scene had also confirmed in the police report that it was the pedestrians fault.
However, my file is still showing a claim for £70k+ in damages that never happened, as neither the pedestrian or I did a claim. As you can imagine, the year I was without any No Claim Bonus, my insurance went up a significant amount (almost doubled in price), and even now that I had my No Claim Bonus returned, it is still up significantly.
So, my questions are:
– Should I be offered some kind of refund for the year I was without No Claim Bonus, as nobody made a claim?
– Should Admiral remove this claim from my file as no one has put one and it is causing my premium to go up?
– Has anyone been in a similar situation and could give some advice from their experience?
I checked other quotes to change insurer, but the problem is that because this is in my file, no matter where I go they see this big claim.
Thank you.
P.S. I can’t recommend Dashcams enough, this is the only time I have needed it, but just for this it has proved the best investment ever, as if not I would have been probably blamed by the pedestrian. I fully recommend everyone to have one, as “theoretically” it should also help bring your insurance down slightly.
