got my renewal premium today from Adrian Flux, its £1034 !! ( i used to own a plus that was much more valuable, newer, I was younger, that cost me £426 back in 2006-7! ) I spoke to them and was told it was because they had taken 4 years off my no claims, because I had phoned them 10 months ago to let them know I had tapped someone from behind ( I mean tapped, we were crawling in traffic, I caused no damage to her car, but as there was already damage to her rear bumper, I did'nt want her blaming me, so called Adrian flux to warn them ) I spoke to the women afew days after the incident, and she said she wont be taking things any further, so I thought that was it, until today. Does anyone have any experience on these things, and can they really reduce my no claims, even though no claim has been made against me ? I wish I hadnt been so honest now, cant believe it may be costing me £500, not a happy bunny, any advise would be greatly appreciated

If you haven't made a claim then I would have thought that they cant reduce your now claims bonus. But seeing as you've notified them that you were in an accident then they can put up your premium accordingly. Whether or not they should is a different matter, especially as it didn't come to anything.

does anyone know, if I decide to leave Adrian Flux, if they can still deduct the 4 years no claims they have 'held back'? as that would only leave me with 3 ! thanks RichB

Seems a bit of an odd situation, technically as you haven't had a claim against you, you should be able to keep all of your no claims, although you should (as you quite correctly did before) declare the accident when asked by any prospective insurers.

You need to ring Flux up (no mean feat I know) and get them to clarify the situation as they will need to provide proof of your no claims. Reducing your no claims by four years seems a bit arbitrary to me?

If you get no joy, give Greenlight a try and explain the situation, they may not mind.

thanks Ed, waiting for Flux to email me back, they are 'looking into the claim' which annoys me even more, as no claim has been made ! seems to me they have seen an opportunity to make some more money out of me.....

I think that the issue here is that as you've reported the accident they will consider that there is a potential claim there until a 'reasonable' time has passed. That there has been no actual claim is not relevant to them.

If you've still got the contact details for the person you hit you could ask them very nicely to write to your insurance company stating that there was no damage or injury and that they are not making a claim against you.

unfortunetly, I deleted the women's contact details from my phone about 2 months ago, thinking the matter well and truly over ! I agree about the potential claim situation, and leaving a reasonable time to allow for this, but surely after 10 months, and the fact i've been with them for 5 years, that they would work with me and give me the benefit of the doubt.....and if a claim is made, then address the situation in my following years policy, not charge me double because something might happen.....

AndrewR is right - for example, I believe you have 3 yrs to make a PI claim, which may be what they are twitchy about?

3 years ?! thats rediculous, any number of further accidents could happen to her car in that time and be attributed to me ! and in the mean time i'm stuck with sky-high insurance costs for a claim that hasnt even happened ! Is this potential claim 'pending time' law, or just an insurance brokers policy ? sounds like a rule thats set up to make money for the brokers to me....crikey im angry!!

That's what I was told when I had my incident with the uninsured motorbike...that's personal injury, not the car though!

I have never heard good things about Flux. Speak to Greenlight as suggested. It has always been the case that you could find premium increasing following an accident, regardless of a claim or not

Its strange they should take four years no claims from you.
I had a recent similar bump but with more damage and only two were taken out of my four.

All you can do is see how many years no claims they will honour and shop about.

they took 4 because u probably had 7 before... insurers allways have a set max of 5, they do offer more but if you make a claim then it will be 5 they take it down and deduct 2ncb from that

if that makes any sence...

so you could in theory have 12ncb but the min u have a claim u really have 5 and they deduct 2 from that.

now iv delved abit deeper and asked afew question, it has gone from a pending claim, to a actual claim, although I was never informed. iv asked for exact details of what has been claimed for, as the bumper was already damaged before i touched it, havnt a clue where I stand on contesting it though, or proving it wasnt me that caused the damage. cant help but think that the insurance companies have cooked this up between them to make money (i could never prove that tho!! )