Car insurance breakdown charges

jlg1

DirectDebacle wrote: »

Is it not the case that you made an insurance claim and as often happens lost NCD?
.

No, sorry I ddnt make a claim - Zurich CHARGED ME for the breakdown by "putting it down as a claim" the traffic island (which was actually not even an island is was the post in between 2 other posts cement was still wet from day before - I knocked down one ballar which was hollow - the car was a right off because I banged the curb and the ballard hit the underneath of the engine - the island itself was not damaged ) I am conscious when I say trafiic island most people think its the beacon etc.. this wasnt damaged but importantly WAS NOT lit at the time - other people have also complained locally about the "eye sore" as they call it which takes up a complet elane on the left hand side of the road and have hit it themselves on occasions. The damage if you can call it that to the idland was never put down as a claim either (not that I have been told about anyway - they gave it til April 2009 and if nothing was heard back from the local council I was assured on the phone it would be closed) I havent heard a thing since my phone call to get the car recoved on 27.01.09.

I only found this out this week after a year later about the bonus being taken away! - I took a complete loss on the car - the car was scrapped for £20 as Zurich then quoted us as I had said over £1000 for 09-2010 insurance to stay with them. Obviously we couldnt afford that after it being £330 approx.. for my wifes first year of insurance. Who would pay that?

Obviously we would have had to stay with them to claim for the car (which we didnt).so I had no choice but to let the car go and take a loss on it I was prepared to do that.and then heard about the recovery charge which was the icing on the cake.

The only costs that Zurich are out is the breakdown recovery which they did not even give me the option of paying upfront to save our NCD. The MIS Claims office have told me I shoudl have been given that option - that is my point why couldnt they have even asked me to pay it upfront instead of going behind my back and sticking it down as a "claim" without my knowledge?

I hope that makes it more clear?

James

Kilty_2

Your car did not break down.

You had an accident leaving the car undriveable. This is not covered by any form of breakdown/recovery cover whether it is those provided by car insurance companies alongside an insurance policy or those provided by AA/RAC/etc.

You reported the accident to your insurer who then proceeded to provide a service to recover the car - these costs are part of the claim for the accident.

Regardless of whether the third party (the owner of the bollard - the council) recovered costs from Zurich, you still made a claim by authorising the recovery of the vehicle.

As far as whether Zurich should perhaps have given you the option of paying the recovery charges yourself, they probably assumed that the council would claim for damages at a later date - so it made sense to open a claim.

And no, I don't work for Zurich or any other insurance company. In fact I'm still a bit bitter towards them for the pretty nasty letter they sent me on behalf of the third party in an accident when I had already informed my insurer and they were dealing with it.

DirectDebacle

jlg1 wrote: »

No, sorry I ddnt make a claim - Zurich CHARGED ME for the breakdown by "putting it down as a claim"....

I hope that makes it more clear?James

Not really. What you are now saying is there was a misunderstanding between Zurich and yourself as to what action you wished them to take. According to you, you informed them of an accident but you weren't making a claim. You also requested them to remove the vehicle from the scene of the accident to a place of storage.

Zurich will charge you what the recovery charges were and instead of sending you a bill they paid it on your policy and thus you lost your NCD.

If that is the case open a dispute with them and see if they will now accept payment for the recovery and reinstate the NCD. (It may help your case if you request a copy of the claim form you sent them. I am presuming one doesn't exist as you say you weren't making a claim.)

If they refuse then complain to the Insurance Ombudsman.

Other than that I don't see what other advice to give that hasn't already been given.

Kilty_2

DirectDebacle wrote: »

If that is the case open a dispute with them and see if they will now accept payment for the recovery and reinstate the NCD. (It may help your case if you request a copy of the claim form you sent them. I am presuming one doesn't exist as you say you weren't making a claim.)

Should a claim form always be provided or are they omitted in cases where there is no dispute over fault and this is admitted verbally over the phone?

jlg1

Kilty wrote: »

Your car did not break down.

You had an accident leaving the car undriveable. This is not covered by any form of breakdown/recovery cover whether it is those provided by car insurance companies alongside an insurance policy or those provided by AA/RAC/etc.

You reported the accident to your insurer who then proceeded to provide a service to recover the car - these costs are part of the claim for the accident.

Regardless of whether the third party (the owner of the bollard - the council) recovered costs from Zurich, you still made a claim by authorising the recovery of the vehicle.

As far as whether Zurich should perhaps have given you the option of paying the recovery charges yourself, they probably assumed that the council would claim for damages at a later date - so it made sense to open a claim.

And no, I don't work for Zurich or any other insurance company. In fact I'm still a bit bitter towards them for the pretty nasty letter they sent me on behalf of the third party in an accident when I had already informed my insurer and they were dealing with it.

Hi,

Sorry maybe using the word "breakdown" is confusing things I mean vehicle recovery. Yes the car was undriveable - no dispute there! LOL

At the time of asking for the vehicle to be recovered I was not thinking of a claim - I was just wanting the car rcovered and naturally assumed we were at least covered for that only. MIS have told me that whether or not I would have taken a claim further with them they would have recovered the car at NO EXTRA COST - claim made or not and then let me decide what to do.

What I dont get is why Zurich assumed they would recover the costs from the council and NOT TELL ME they were putting a claim in in the first place - this is whats doing my head in?

How can they open a claim without you knowing a claim was opened or shall we say even pending - I never heard another thing about it untill (allegedly) they sent a letter out in AUGUST 09 (I only heard that this week from the broker/) I mean August, 7 months after it happened? to say they had put this down as "fault" against us. I never received that letter either.

I was told on the phone they would give it til April 09 and if nothing was heard back from the council that was it. File closed.

Even at that stage they did not give me the option of paying the recovery charges back either.

So you had a bad experience as well with them? They dont seem to treat customers very well - maybe they shoudl remember it people like us that keep them in business in the first place!

James

jlg1

DirectDebacle wrote: »

Zurich will charge you what the recovery charges were and instead of sending you a bill they paid it on your policy and thus you lost your NCD.

If that is the case open a dispute with them and see if they will now accept payment for the recovery and reinstate the NCD. (It may help your case if you request a copy of the claim form you sent them. I am presuming one doesn't exist as you say you weren't making a claim.)

If they refuse then complain to the Insurance Ombudsman.

Other than that I don't see what other advice to give that hasn't already been given.

Hi yes thats exactly what happened they put it down as a claim without our knowledge.

I have written to the complains department to see what is gonna happen.

The thing is here too - we paid extra insurance last year because of this (we could have stayed with them at the time only for the quadruple quote they gave us) if they do accept now that a claim should not have went through we have wasted £330 last year on insurance - I would like to see if there is a chance we could claim that back (or indeed if we have to pay the charge for recovery - they take that and we get the difference back and the NCD gets reinstated?) I dont want that option but if it comes to it we should be reimbursed for extra insurance paid over this last year because of the NCD discount being wiped. I have been told by MIS Claims its up to my broker to deal with this.

As we were under the impression that a previous pending accident from 2008 was reducing our NCD - we have been told over this past year (by the broker) once that case is sorted (to be sorted over thsi next few months) and we are 100% not liable the extra paid could be refunded - so why not in this case - whats the difference? If it should never have been taken off in the first place then we should never have had to pay that extra last year and also in this years renewal as well?

My broker told me its possible to have your quote "backdated" to that time and the difference sorted out once your bonus is reinstated.

I know this is confusing - I am just about keeping up with it...LOL

Its a case of what we were told and what the broker actually knew as the truth of it.

Also as I have stated earlier in another post - the broker did tell us (back in Feb 2009) this was sorted anyway - so I have had to write to them asking why I was assured by them, that this was sorted out and "not to worry" anymore about it - then we get this bombshell this week?

Its a real can of worms alright.....

James

jlg1

DirectDebacle wrote: »

If that is the case open a dispute with them and see if they will now accept payment for the recovery and reinstate the NCD. (It may help your case if you request a copy of the claim form you sent them. I am presuming one doesn't exist as you say you weren't making a claim.)

Hi,

Yes I forgot to say I dont have a claim form as I wasnt claiming only an accident report form from MIS Claims which gives the details of the accident itself etc....