car insurance claim

LadyIndecisive

Is anyone thinking the missing £100 is the excess, or is that too obvious!?

dacouch

You are possibly right Ladyindecisive, we were having a discussion about paying lower prices if an item is bought at an auction and then the fact the client had lied to the Insurer and the possible implications of it.

If they deducted exactly £100 it is probably not the excess as NU normally have a minimum of £120 excess and if he has bought it through Ibuyeco I imagine he has gone through a comparison site which normally means a much bigger excess of probably £270.

Going back to the fraud discussion there is a chance that if he does declare he lied that NU will pay the claim but then not offer renewal but in my experience they won't but most other Insurers would decline to offer renewal so that would need to be taken into account

sgandtg

I've got a £250 excess.

NU originally (and subsequently on 2 seperate occasions) offered £1700. However, after I refused the offer they insistsed on having the receipt from the auction. So, I decided to stick while I was ahead and accept their original offer. I phoned them up to advise that if their offer of £1700 was still available, I'd take it as I only paid £1600 plus £140 auction fees. I specifically remember saying to the woman that I wasn't going to argue over £40 and that I'd take their £1700 offer. She then said that she would sort it for me. She never let on that she was only going to process £1600 and thats where the missing £100 comes from.

Anyway, I'm going to contact their complaints section as they have consistantly failed to contact me after advising that they would look into this and call me back. Whats more frustrating is that they have also advised that they will send me a letter confirming that they haven't paid the excess of £250 so that I can claim off the other insurer but I still haven't received this despite speaking to 3 people.

Assuming the blame is attributed to the other driver, is it a straightforward case of writing to the other insurer asking for the payment? Or, will I get a standard reply telling me that they are not liable?

dacouch

In theory you should just send the other Insurer a copy of the letter saying your £250 excess was deducted from your settlement and you expect payment within fourteen days as their client was negligent as he hit you in the rear.

sgandtg

Thanks for the info.

Will be contacting NU tomorro for the letter re the £250 excess and will send this on to the other insurer.

sgandtg

Just an update.

Phoned Norwich Union on Tuesday and spoke to a Customer Service Rep. She advised that she'd phone me back after looking into this. Got a phone call yesterday advising that she'll send me a letter confirming the excess wasn't paid and advised that she'd send me a cheque for the other £100.

Both of these arrived today. :j

So, am gonna send her a box of chocs to say thanks (given that 3 others couldn't do this).

One last query - it's cost me £25 to change my insurance policy from the old car to the new one. Can I claim this off the other insurance company? And does anyone have a link to a standard letter that I could send to the other insurer asking for the excess back?

Thanks for all (well, most!!!) of the responses.

Quentin

You could include the £25 in your letter claiming the excess.

Something like

Dear Insurance Company

Your Client: xxxxxxxxxxxx Ref No: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Uninsured Losses Arising From Incident dated xxxxx

Following the incident for which I hold your insured responsible, I am writing to ask for reimbursement of my uninsured losses as follows:

Insurance Excess £xx

Admin Fee charged to replace written off vehicle £xx

Total £xx

Please can you let me have your payment for this sum within the next xx days, as you will appreciate I have already paid these sums.

Yours etc

LadyIndecisive

It might be better to send a thank you letter via the team leader/manager - many companies are funny about staff receiving gifts and a thank you letter would be more useful in their next appraisal.

Not sure you'll get the admin charge back, could be classed as 'too remote'. Worth a try though.

Quentin

What you could do is also include a claim for any other out of pocket expenses you incurred and can verify - phone calls, fuel for trips to the garage, taxi/bus fares etc. There is no reason you should be out of pocket by a penny over someone else's negligence. And a claim for compensation for the inconvenience.

You often find the insurer will try a blanket "We do not refund miscellaneous admin costs" or something similar, so be prepared to pursue it.

dacouch

sgandtg if you want to thank the person at NU send a nice thank you letter, companies like NU have annual appraisals for their staff and go over performance, training etc and any letters of thanks are often brought up. If you take the time to send a letter it will help the persons appraisal and may even contribute to them receiving a pay rise etc!

They will appreciate receiving a thank you letter personalised to them as most customers do not tend to do this so it goes a long way with them