IN UK MOTOR DRIVERS car insurance premiums is set to be hiked by more than a third after a minor scrape that wasn't even their fault, a shock investigation has found.
Esure was found to be the worst offender upping its quote price by a whopping 39 per cent, for a claim where the motorist has been blameless but their insurer had to pay.
More Than and Rias raised their quotes by around a third, according to the study of 12 insurer quotes by consumer campaign group Which.
Some insurers increased prices even when a driver didn't claim for damage caused by someone else.
When the repairs had been covered by another driver's insurer, four out of the 12 firms increased the premium.
The biggest hike was by More Than at 33 per cent, followed by Esure at 17 per cent.
AXA raised prices by 14 per cent and Admiral by 11 per cent.
When the driver hadn’t claimed for the incident, Admiral and Esure still charged extra.
It comes as only one in five of drivers were found to understand the industry definition of at 'fault'.
An incident is deemed the fault of a driver if their insure has to pay for it - even if they weren't to blame - for example, of the other party were uninsured or couldn't be found.
Only when the driver's doesn't have to pay out is the incident considered non-fault by the policyholder.
Drivers who have not claimed for damage and paid costs themselves, are still obliged to tell their insurer - even though it can increase premium costs.
Esure raised prices by 15 per cent for drivers who declared a scratch without having made a claim.
A spokesperson for the firm said: "This was reported as an incident, which would include a wide range of different damage scenarios, and wasn’t a specific uplift for a scratch."
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