Will a non-fault accident affect my insurance?

Your no claims bonus and your premium aren't the same thing

A no claims bonus, sometimes called a no claims discount, is a discount that builds up for each year you go without a claim. The premium is the price itself, worked out from how risky the insurer thinks you are: your age, the car, where you live and park it, the miles you do and your accident history.

When an insurer pays out and then gets every penny back from the other side, nothing has been lost on your policy, so the discount stays where it was. The accident is still part of your history, though, and history feeds into the price.

Does a non-fault accident affect my no claims bonus?

Usually not, once it's settled. "Settled" is the important word. While your insurer is still trying to recover its money, the claim is open, and an open claim can be treated as a fault claim at renewal until the costs come back. Once they do, your bonus should be put back.

Claims tend to stay open, or end up counting against you, when:

• the other driver disputes what happened and liability takes months to agree
• the blame ends up split between you
• the other driver can't be traced, so there's nobody to recover the money from
• the other driver turns out to have no insurance

For the last two, look at your policy. Many fully comp policies include an uninsured driver promise, which protects your bonus and excess if an uninsured driver hits you, though it usually depends on you having the other vehicle's details. Claims like these go through the Motor Insurers' Bureau, and our guide to being hit by an uninsured or hit-and-run driver goes into more detail.

Why the price can still go up

Insurers price on risk, and some see any recent accident as a sign of more risk to come, whoever caused it. You might park on a busy road, or commute through a junction where people get shunted every week. Different insurers weigh that differently, which is one good reason to compare quotes at renewal rather than accept the first figure.

What you can't do is leave it off the form. Insurers share claims and incident information through an industry database called CUE (the Claims and Underwriting Exchange), so they'll usually see it anyway. A wrong answer can give them grounds to cut a later payout or cancel the policy. Answer the accident questions as asked, and say clearly that it was non-fault and settled.

Do I have to tell my insurer about a non-fault accident?

In most cases, yes. Policies generally say you must report any accident, whether or not you claim, and that includes ones where someone else was plainly to blame. Telling them is not the same as claiming. Give them the date, what happened and the other driver's details, and tell them if a non-fault claims service is handling the repair and recovery. If you're still at the roadside, our guide on what to do after a car accident covers the details to collect.

Claiming through your insurer or keeping it off your policy

There are two usual ways to handle a non-fault accident.

The second route is for accidents where the other driver has been identified and is at fault. If liability is in real doubt, or the driver has vanished, your own insurer may be the better way, and we'll say so when you call. The two kinds of car aren't the same thing either, as courtesy car or replacement car explains.

Protected no claims bonus: what it does and doesn't do

Protection is an add-on that lets you make a set number of claims within a set period without your discount dropping. It protects the discount, not the price. After a claim, the base premium can still rise, and the protected discount is then taken off a higher figure.

Where we come in

If someone else caused the accident, call us before you claim on your own policy. We'll run it as a non-fault accident claim: nothing goes on your policy, there's no excess, independent engineers agree the repair costs and you get a replacement vehicle similar to your own. We claim the costs back from the at-fault insurer, along with anything else you're owed.

Our bodyshops are in Basildon, Essex (01268 590 722), Dartford, Kent (01322 930 719) and Sydenham, South London (020 8659 2221). If you'd rather start with a price, upload photos of the damage, and you can read our Sydenham Google reviews before you decide.