Hastings Direct Car Insurance

vall_2

I registered a claim with Hastings Direct (someone ran into the back of my car), and they seem to have passed everything on to Helphire who are now asking me to sign a 'Vehicle Repair Finance Agreement' before I can have the car repaired. Does this mean that I'm applying for credit and will it show on my Credit Rating? They insist I'll have nothing to pay, but when you read the information sent out it sounds as I'll have to pay everything if they cannot recoupe the money from the other person within 49 weeks. Is this usual or am I correct in being woried about it?

Oscar_The_Grouch

When you have an accident that is not your fault, you have 4 main choices:

1. Repair the car yourself and claim off the other person's insurance
2. Get your insurer to repair the car and claim the money back from the other side
3. Claim directly off the other person's insurance for the cost of repairs
4. Use a "Credit" company to do the repairs "free of charge" and have them claim off the other person's insurance.

HelpHire are option 4 above. What they do is take your car off you, give you a hire car, keep you in the hire car for as long as they think they can get away with and then bring your car back to you, fully repaired. They then claim the full cost of repairs, the hire car and a lovely big additional percentage for their time and effort.

Essentially, if you use HelpHire, the cost to the insurance company is well in excess of the cost of them repairing your car themselves.

Help Hire also pay a BIG fee to Hastings Direct for the referral, so everyone apart from you and the insurance company for the other person "make" out of this.

If you want to go down that route, sign the credit agreement and hope for the best.

Otherwise, ask Helphire to confirm the telephone and reference numbers for the other person's insurance company, give them a call and ask them whether they would prefer it if you claimed direct from them. They will probably give you a kiss.

Quentin

You have another choice: Instruct a claim handler to deal with your claim. They will handle everything for you, you won't have to pay your excess and they will ensure that all your uninsured losses are recovered for you.

adamc260

Quentin wrote: »

You have another choice: Instruct a claim handler to deal with your claim. They will handle everything for you, you won't have to pay your excess and they will ensure that all your uninsured losses are recovered for you.

That's pretty much an accident management company which deal on a credit hire/repair basis also?

Call the third parties insurance company up direct and ask if they will repair your car and get you a hire car, like an above poster said they will love you for it!

Most the big insurers outbound third parties nower days.

Woby_Tide

Some things I've learnt on this.

If you look at the Helphire figure for car hire and the ABI approved figure, they differ a lot and you could technically be liable for the difference if the other insurer opposes it.
As soon as you move away from your insurer covering the claim, the Ombudsmen/Regulators don't care as it is no longer your own policy you are claiming on
Third party insurers are as bad as you're own insurer
Approved body shops are in the main, crap

I almost think there is some value in taking a claim on your own insurer to gain some protection in the repairs process, even if you take a hit of a claim on your insurance. The fact is even no fault claims form a third party end up costing on your renewal so you don't appear to gain whichever route you take

adamc260

Woby_Tide wrote: »

Some things I've learnt on this.

If you look at the Helphire figure for car hire and the ABI approved figure, they differ a lot and you could technically be liable for the difference if the other insurer opposes it.
As soon as you move away from your insurer covering the claim, the Ombudsmen/Regulators don't care as it is no longer your own policy you are claiming on
Third party insurers are as bad as you're own insurer
Approved body shops are in the main, crap

I almost think there is some value in taking a claim on your own insurer to gain some protection in the repairs process, even if you take a hit of a claim on your insurance. The fact is even no fault claims form a third party end up costing on your renewal so you don't appear to gain whichever route you take

Call the third party insurer and use your own garage, no problems then?

Oscar_The_Grouch

I agree with Adamc260 - Plus, the third party insurers will provide you with a hire car for the duration of repairs for free (they will actually pay the bill for you as part of their responsibility under the claim) and will also offer you the use of their approved repairers with the usual 3 year guarantee on parts that comes with this.

Moby_Tide

adamc260 wrote: »

Call the third party insurer and use your own garage, no problems then?

Well not necessarily. You lose the ombudsman protection still and a lot of policies seem to remove some guarantees and hire car periods reduce on non approved repairers. But always worth investigating yes

Oscar_The_Grouch

Looks like we posted at the same time Moby!!

I agree with the Ombudsman issue, but there is the protection of Sale of Goods and Services Act with regard to the repairer.

Also, one of the first things I instigated in my last role was that all complaints by third parties should be recorded on the same log as customer complaints and dealt with as if working to FSA timescales and DISP regulations (other than offering the assistance of the Ombudsman). I argued that TCF required root cause analysis of complaints and that poor service by claims handlers and external contractors on third party repairs could be missed if those complaints were not recorded too. It was surprising how many cases there were!!

adamc260

Moby_Tide wrote: »

Well not necessarily. You lose the ombudsman protection still and a lot of policies seem to remove some guarantees and hire car periods reduce on non approved repairers. But always worth investigating yes

If your not at fault for the accident your entitled to a replacement for the duration of the repair period, simple as.

If a customer calls me up saying 'I want the audi main dealer and a hire car' then its 'not a problem, which one and when'

vall_2

Thanks for all your replies. I'll get in touch with the other person and his insurers. Will Helphire still want something for the inspection of my car, though?