Another Albany Assistance car crash query...

dacouch

Who is the other Insurer?

Emm_Eff

The other insurer is NIG who are Royal bank Of Scotland. Just picked up courtsey car from Enterprise, and my car is going in to UK Assistance of Rutherglen. Genuine VW parts, and 5 year warranty on the work.

Incidently, I called Albany on Saturday night to cancel hire car and repair... I got a phone call from their appointed garage this morning looking to pick up the car (I told them no), and a hire car has been delivered to my address and keys put through the letterbox by their appointed hire company!

soolin

Emm_Eff wrote: »

The other insurer is NIG who are Royal bank Of Scotland. Just picked up courtsey car from Enterprise, and my car is going in to UK Assistance of Rutherglen. Genuine VW parts, and 5 year warranty on the work.

Incidently, I called Albany on Saturday night to cancel hire car and repair... I got a phone call from their appointed garage this morning looking to pick up the car (I told them no), and a hire car has been delivered to my address and keys put through the letterbox by their appointed hire company!

Yep, that was my experience of Albany as well.

We told them to go away basically as we were dealing with the third party insurer and two days later we got a call from the garage saying that someone from Albany was trying to remove our car from their premises even though the third party had asked for it to stay there until it was officially written off.

We even got a 'courtesy call' from them a couple of weeks into the incident reminding us that we still had their hire car and asking if we wanted to continue leasing it, even though we had declined a car from them.

Some of the best advice I ever got was from regulars on here (thank you especially dacouch) telling me to tread carefully with them .

dacouch

NIG are not to bad as an Insurer, their only real failing is they tend to be a bit understaffed so calling them can often mean long periods of being on hold.

As they have accepted liability it should be relatively straight forward to get your claim settled and obviously you will have no excess to pay on the repairs.

In addition you have done your bit to keep Insurance premiums down by cutting out the inflated costs that a credit hire would have generated.

If you want to claim for an injury direct from NIG should in theory give you the same amount as if you were using a solicitor (Again you will be saving them a huge amount in legal fees). However there can be times when you won't receive as much without a solicitor. Even though you have gone direct for the repairs you are still at liberty to use a solicitor for your injury.

Emm_Eff

dacouch wrote: »

NIG are not to bad as an Insurer, their only real failing is they tend to be a bit understaffed so calling them can often mean long periods of being on hold.

As they have accepted liability it should be relatively straight forward to get your claim settled and obviously you will have no excess to pay on the repairs.

In addition you have done your bit to keep Insurance premiums down by cutting out the inflated costs that a credit hire would have generated.

If you want to claim for an injury direct from NIG should in theory give you the same amount as if you were using a solicitor (Again you will be saving them a huge amount in legal fees). However there can be times when you won't receive as much without a solicitor. Even though you have gone direct for the repairs you are still at liberty to use a solicitor for your injury.

Thanks, Dacouch. I appreciate the advise.

I actually do feel good about cutting out the vultures, although if I'm honest I did it for selfish reasons.

The hire agreement I had from Albany listed the hire car cost as £79 per day. NIG said it was their legal duty to inform me that they are paying £29 per day for the car they have provided. Quite a difference, and if it's anything to go by I could just imagine the tactics Albany would have gotten up to maximise their yield from all this.

Thanks again.

dacouch

You're right CH companies have been known to add extra days on to hires or cause delays to pad out the hire period. Although these tactics are often not needs by Albany as they take so long to do things anyway so the hire period would have been extended due to them taking so long to arrange the repairs anyway!

What amazes me with Admiral group Insurers is how they routinely get their comprehensively insured customers to do the whole claim through Albany. They are covered for the damage by their policy but Albany pay Admiral commission for the credit repairs and it obviously saves Admiral staff costs and the cost of laying out money for the repairs. Using Albany for this process is such a mistake as they are very very well known for being inept so Admiral end up with lots of disgruntled customers

Emm_Eff

Thought I'd update this thread just to keep you all in the loop as to how this pans out:

Hire car that was arranged by Albany was cancelled on Saturday, yet still delivered as you will have previously read. Well, it's Wednesday night and after many phone calls... it's still outside my door!

My car has been picked up by UK Assistance (arranged by 3rd party insurer) today.

adamc260

dacouch wrote: »

You're right CH companies have been known to add extra days on to hires or cause delays to pad out the hire period. Although these tactics are often not needs by Albany as they take so long to do things anyway so the hire period would have been extended due to them taking so long to arrange the repairs anyway!

Un-necessary delays are grounds for dispute in costs so why would a CHO take longer than they need to, they run the risk of losing out on costs and it does happen. Ever heard of something called loss of use dates and mitigation? It's something that all insurance companies check upon receipt of hire invoice.

dacouch

Ineptness at getting the actual claim sorted out and obviously the longer the car is hired out the more they make so it's in their interests to prolong the claim. They can always can take their chances with the Insurance company disputing the total costs but will normally make more than they would if the claim had been sorted out quickly

TREVISTAGARDENNG

I made a claim through Ecar insurance in April for a no-fault accident on my part and all was a nightmare experience from start to finish. I had a 'free courtesy' car through Albany Assistance and after 6 months they have written to me to say third party will not pay hire charges for this car so a claim has to be made in my name to recover the costs. Has anyone had experience of having to pay the shortfall of the expenses if the third party don't pay up in full?