How good is Direct Line?

Super_Stomper

I'm getting the impression that you need to change your insurers every year to get the best deal.
In January I changed my Contents Insurance from 'More Than' to 'Insure For Retirement' (underwriters Equity Red Star) cos they offered almost half price. Now my Buildings is due (Halifax - far too expensive) I thought I'd get some quotes for dual insurance. I4R gave me quite a good quote (pro-rata'ing my Contents so they both want renewing at the same time: who wants to faff about getting quotes around Christmas time?) but I've read that their customer service is very poor and they have to be pestered to pay out. CIS have given a slightly dearer quote but I know they are reliable, but Direct Line are giving me a REALLY good deal for a much lower excess.
Does anyone know how good Direct Line are at responding to claims?

SuziQ

I stopped using Direct Line a couple of years ago,but should have done sooner! I had a rentokill van run out of control and rear end me a few years ago,I was pregnant at the time. There was enormous damage ti the car but DL insisted in having it repaired (I knew I would never feel safe in it again after knowing what impact it had absorbed.) DL were useless. They said if I wanted them to collect the car for repair I would have to wait a week as they were so busy,but if I was prepared to drive the car to the repair shop I could have it done immediately. I was a community nurse and lost without a car,they wouldn't supply a curtesy car so like a fool I drove the wreck to the repair shop 10 miles away-had to get a bus home! They were useless chasing up the other womans insurance, advised me to hire a car and they would chase the other insurance for the costs as damages-it took me 9 months to get that back! Then the repar shop they used didn't order the replacement parts from Germany,said they wouldn't hurry if DL didn't push them and I had a hellish battle with the other insurance company over how long I hired a car for,because they said the repair had taken a stupid long time (which it had!)
Then a couple of years ago, a driver in a wreck of an old van ran back into me at some traffic lights on a hill. He got out of the van abusing me as if it was my fault,and I had a few witnesses from a bus garage come out and help me. I took the reg as he refused to give me insurance details and drove off swinging his lager can-I only had scrapes and a damaged number plate. I telephne DL when I got home,and after several months nothing had come of it and I must admit I gave up as I was sick of phoning. I cancelled my insurance some time later,then suddenly out of the blue I got a letter from DL demanding return of the part/premium refund for '3rd party claim against me'. It turned out they had got the wrong year anyway,but as it happens the guy who had hit me had claimed against me,got a doctors report claiming whiplash etc,and they had paid him out rather than get the full account from me 'as it was cheaper'. He had lied about where the accident took place and everything else,plus at the time I had witnesses. They claim they had sent me a letter asking for info and I hadn't replied-they admitted they didn't write again,hadn't tried to phone me,no reg letter etc-so he had got his crappy van repaired in some way and £2,000 off DL when they didn't even take a proper statement off me. When I phoned and complained they said it 'didn't make commercial sense' to sen a registered letter,had just assumed I was refusing to co-operate etc even though I had reported the incident phoned many times about it and had been a cusotmer for over a decade.

I would never use them again!

I feel so much better for getting that off my chest lol!!!

Door_knockers_will_die

I think we all find out how good insurers are when we claim. My only ever claim was with MoreThan car insurance several years ago, when a taxi ran into me. I had paid MoreThan for lifetime protected insurance, and they said I wasn't at fault in any way.... but when it was time to reinsure, they declined to quote. Unbelievable !

Like Super Stomper I am finding it best to change Home Buildings and Contents insurers every year, although I would really like to stay with one insurer. Direct Line are coming out cheapest, but that worries me. I can see why people don't bother with home insurance. Spent all afternoon getting quotes and no wiser than when I started. Halifax ripped me off for years, and then offered to half the premium when I finally moved. they said I should have asked earlier.

Simplyshush

Having had the same insurer (Direct Line) for nine years and doing the automatic renewal - sheer laziness but i thought as i was paying through the nose, I had a very good policy. Not the case! Just tried to make a claim with Directline having suffered a power cut for over three days, loosing contents of F/F, engineer call out charges etc. They dealt with the claim with utter arrogance, making it as difficult and drawn out as possible and at the end, apart from deducting an excess of £150 they also deducted compensation given by EDF which didnt even covered any of the related expenses which were NOT on the insurance claim. I would never, ever deal with Directline again nor would I recommend them to anyone - cheap to begin with, at the point of automatically renewing the charges will soar (the cost does not indicate you have the best policy) but would not recommed from the point of view that if you do have to make a claim they leave you feeling like they actually take some sort of pride in finding something in the small print which will reduce their liability.

Clive_Woody

I have had two car crashes with Direct Line and have to say they have been superb with handling them both. First one was my fault, second was some muppet kid in his dad's Corsa pulling out in front of me. Very impressed with how they followed the whole process through.

missile

Super_Stomper wrote: »

Does anyone know how good Direct Line are at responding to claims?

They can't be any worse than Aviva and Asprea?
I just changed to DL Plus home policy. Not the cheapest, but it seemed to offer a far better cover than the others I looked at :j

Simplyshush

Looking at the policy, I was aware that the policy was expensive but I presumed I had good quality insurance. When it comes to renewing you will certainly notice a difference in the price. In the meantime, I hope you dont have to make a claim. My renewal notice was issued prior to the claim and they re-issued this after the claim with revised figures - an additional £8.00 per month. It's taklen nearly six weeks to settle my claim, numerous phone calls to them, letters requesting paperwork which was already sent and in the end they deducted £150 excess from my claim and then a further £150 as they have 'assumed' I received that sum from EDF power as compensation. I found this outrageous, my claim almost amounted to £400, I received a cheque for £53 and the additional sum of £150 being deducted on top of the excess, despite being out of pocket for engineer call out charges amounting to a further £230 and various other expenses not included in the claim. I have purchased insurance elsewhere, Ive gone for the cheapest but offering the same cover as Directline and I am saving a whoping £400 a year by combining contents and buildings with the same company. I have learnt that loyalty does not exist in this current market, it is better to change after the initial year and I am firmly convinced that all insurance companies treat all claims with the view that there will be some 'get-out' clause somewhere in the small print anyway.

Quote

Six weeks to sort out a claim and your insurance going up after a claim has been made?

Mercy me, whatever next?


Stick to your username, sunshine.

dragonfly1_2

Rang to discuss the new premium amount that was sent to me for my car insurance due for renewal very soon. I am the main driver, my husband and son (who is at uni) are named drivers. My son who is nearly twenty and has been on the policy for 9 months already drives my car when he is home from uni but that is only during the holiday periods as the university is long way from where we live.
When I rang to discuss the premium amount they asked me where he was at uni and I told them (seemed very much like an informal chat at this point). They also asked how often he comes home and I told them. They then put me on hold and came back to say he could no longer be insured on policy because he was living at home for less than 6 months of the year! I asked why this was because they had insured him for the previous 9 months and nothing had changed since then, he was at the same uni with the same breaks etc. They just said that it was their policy. The policy is with MoreThan and I am currently in discussion with them but have to calculate how many days he will be at home over the next year by working through the University term dates.
I have never heard of this before and thought I would let people know of this worrying new car insurance problem!

silvercar

I've just had a claim with direct line plus home insurance policy and they paid out within 3 weeks! It was with the home emergency cover part of the policy and as they couldn't get someone out to me speedily, they authorised me to sort and they reimbursed with no excess.

**confuzzled**

Just to add my 2 pence ................Direct Line for Home Insurance are fab(can't comment on car insurance, not had an accident but god forbid if I do, I'll let you know;))
We moved to our house in Aug 2007 by Oct 07 we had to claim after a house fire:o wasn't expecting much as we'd not been with them that long thought we'd be laughed at! However, not so, the assessor was great, very relaxed about being in our chargrilled home:o, assessed all damage and within about 3months we had a brand new kitchen and whole house was re-decorated:eek: Totally not expecting that! All in all very good, very professional and got everything done quickly! we even moved back home before Xmas 07 and was totally finished by Jan 08:T
Also they're really good for renewing, got their renewal through and it was about £30 for both B&C:eek:Thought that's taking the pi$$ a bit! compared loads of new quotes and turns out they were the cheapest again at £16 p/m so phoned them expecting an argument and disappointingly they put my renewal at £16.17 with no arguments:rolleyes::D