Car insurance - no claims bonus

[HM1]

I had a small accident in October, my first in over 10 years, and paid the excess for the repairs. I've just had my quote to renew my car insurance and still have 5+ years no claims bonus in the quote. I assumed I would lose my no claims but have I kept it as I paid the excess and the repairs cost no more? The car I hit hasn't had any work carried out, I think he may just have taken the money because his car was in such a state already! I was going to phone the insurance company and query it but my husband and my mum both said I should just pay the renewal quote without query as I probably haven't lost my no claims. Do you think this is OK, or could my insurance be invalid if I happened to have another accident this year?

[steve2010]

maybe they have only taken 10% off your no claims as it was a minor accident,or you might be protected on your bonus,i have 6 yrs no claims and pay the extra to protect it and what happens,yesterday i ripped a indicator lens off a tnt lorry.

[jean88]

Agreed, check your policy for no claim protection.

[dzug]

The renewal should somewhere contain a list of incidents that have been taken into account in assessing the premium. Is this one there? Maybe headed Insurance History.

Who paid the other driver - your insurance company or his?

If his company paid, and your claim fell within the excess, then you haven't had a claim and won't have lost your NCB regardless of whether it is protected or not.

If you don't have protected NCB and your insurance company did pay something out for you or on your behalf, and it's not mentioned in the renewal, then check with them. It could affect the validity of your insurance - probably not negate it entirely but they could be iffy about paying for damage to your own car

[HM1]

Thanks everyone, I've just phoned my company and it turns out the bloke didn't claim for the damage on his car so I haven't lost my no claims which is rather fab! (He did mention when we were swapping details that his car was already considered a write-off by his insurance company so that may have had something to do with it!)