Evening All,

I bring you a tale of festive woe, and insurance company incompetence.

Way back in November 2010 I was involved in a collision with an HGV, the driver of which changed lanes without seeing/looking and side-swiped my car, causing substantial damage (and then continued on up the road pulling over only when I caught up with him at traffic lights...). The incident was settled without any drama, the trucker's insurance paid up, all good. The only technicality was the other half, who cracked a rib and persued an injury claim, which was eventually settled in late 2012. There was no dispute over them paying out, just over how much, with solicitors taking as long as possible etc.

At the time of the prang I was incured with the Co-op, my insurance the following year was with Swiftcover, who happily accepted my NCB letter (protected but clean) in the usual way, no issues. I've now just taken out a new policy with an outfit called 1st Central, via Confused.com, and they have emailed me stating that a standard database check has shown the 2010 incident as a 'fault claim', and as such they are upping my premium. It gets a little odd here, as they are saying the claim is registered with somebody called 'Cornish Mutual', yet the third part insurer was Allianz at the time, and from them I have a letter admitting liability - are they just a 'front man' for this other outfit?

The total rise is only about 70 quid on a policy costing £500, and £50 of that is apparently admin fees. Seems a very small rise for what they are essentially claiming is quite a significant matter. It's irrelevant of course because their info is wrong, but it seems a very small amount all the same. So, the obvious question is, what the hell has happened here? And how do I get it rectified? I can only think that perhaps the injury claim is somehow recorded as some kind of 'fault claim', but that seems strange? Has anybody else ever had this problem, I can't imagine I'm the only one knowing how inept the industry is. I haven't yet spoken to 1st Central, I only saw the email today and of course they're shut until tomorrow, so perhaps they'll be extremely helpful - but I'm expecting a headache with this :-/

Thanks All.

Edited by happy polo on 01/01/2013 at 17:36