Motorists failing to address an issue on their car insurance related to accidents could leave them without valid cover. Drivers must declare to their insurer if they have an accident or crash of any scale or size. If the owner of the car is found to be trying to hide minor accents from their policy pricier then they could be risking invalidating their car insurance. Insurers could cancel your premium and it could actually result in you having higher premiums in the future.
The cost of repairing a vehicle of an accident may be cheaper than reporting it and using the insurance excess.
While it may cost less, drivers are required to inform their insurer of problems regardless of size.
A poll of UK drivers found that almost two thirds (58 per cent) were willing to take a risk with their insurance and would not inform the insurer of an accident if the repair costs were less than the excess.
The research by LexisNexis Risk Solutions claims that just one fifth (21 per cent) of people would ‘definitely’ or ‘probably’ report a minor incident.
Shockingly, only a third would report an accident involving another vehicle.
Surprisingly it found that younger drivers are more honest and likely to fess up to a fault.
Almost half (42 per cent) stated that they would inform their insurer of a minor accident compared to just 15 percent of motorists over 45 years old.
Another group unlikely to let their insurer know about an accident were those who hadn’t made a claim ever or in the past five years.
The reason for this was over a fear that they could lose their no-claims discount.
However, while drivers are required to declare the damage to the insurer, they aren’t obliged to make a claim through and can pay for the damage themselves.
James Burton, product director of LexisNexis Risk Solutions, UK and Ireland, commented: “Consumers understandably feel nervous declaring information that could result in premium increases.
“This is a real concern as many motorists could be invalidating their policy, when instead they need to look at the bigger picture where factors such as the size of the claim, driving history, fault and policy details more often determine premium increases after claims.”
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