Can you change insurers after a claim?

Bakedwhite

My Mother, a pensioner, unfortunately had a minor car incident and it was brought to her insurer, (a scratch to another vehicle) in the end she paid out herself yet her insurer still logged as a claim/incident, her renewal price was then higher. Then her house insurance after the snow last year when her conservatory collapsed, meant another insurance claim, quite substantial. She was with the same insurer for both policies and they treated her, she feels, quite badly in the process of both issues. She wants to change her insurer on renewal because of this treatment. Is it true you can not change for a number of years? She's been with them for several years and never had any claims prior to this.
Thanks

gimli2112

you can change insurers, the problem you may have is they can be picky when there have been recent claims but if the claims are minor enough there should be alternatives

if there was no insured payment under the motor policy (I missed that you said she paid herself) this should not have any negative impact on her motor proposal to a new Insurer

seamus

No, that's not true. You can change insurers after a claim.

The problem is generally that they want to see you claims-free for a number of years. Usually you won't get an online quote, you''ll have to ring them up, give them the details of the claim, and then they'll give you a quote.

But usually the quote is going to be way higher than the current renewal.

So while you can move to another insurer after a claim, in effect you're usually stuck with your current insurer unless you're willing to pay a much bigger premium.

Bakedwhite

Ok, I see. She will likely change regardless of cost, if she can get the quotes.

The claim with the car was being "investigated" when my Mother had to renew her policy. The status was "claim in progress", so her policy was higher and she had no options at that time, she felt, but to renew with them. My Mother doesn't believe she did the damage to the car when the driver made the claim, the driver went straight to the guards and then her insurance company. The scratch was very small, yet the claimant insisted on her own mechanic fixing it for several hundred euro. The insurance company then investigated and decided it was not worth going to court or fighting and would just pay the claimant, yet there was no real evidence either way. So my Mother paid out of her own pocket so as to keep her no claims. The investigator said she could actually be done for a hit and run if she went to court and really frightened her. Yet the guard she spoke to who looked at the "tiny" scratch (the guards own description) said that that information was bogus from the insurers.