Advice re Car Accident claims & your own experiences please.

mpython

What a day!

Had a small prang this morning on the way to work. I was stopped at red traffic light but the Jeep behind didn't. Hardly a scratch on his Jeep but rear of my Peugeot 206 caved in. We exchanged details & I contacted our insurers (Direct Line) who asked me to take it to one of their rota repair centres. Their ball park estimate was £3k, car is only worth around £3k. The garage offered to get me a hire car whilst mine was off the road which would be claimed off the other guy.

Got home & there was a message to call his insurers (Norwich Union). The other driver has admitted liability (doff my cap to an honest gent) & Norwich Union offered to 'take over' the claim. They'd get my car repaired & get me a car whilst it was all dealt with. Norwich Union said that if I let the garage get me the hire car and there was a dispute over rates I could be liable for whatever Norwich Union wouldn't pay. Another arguement they used was that by withdrawing my claim it'd protect my insurance premium with a clear record.

So I then phone Direct Line to see if this was all OK with them but they said that they'd deal with it all as I'd already notified them. Direct Line said that if I dealt with Norwich Union direct I'd be treated like a 3rd party & if there were any problems they wouldn't be able to help.

To be honest, my first reaction is I can't believe how helpful everyone appears to have been, but I'm not sure what each of the parties' motivations are. I sort of like the idea of Norwich Union handling it so our premiums aren't impacted and I can't understand why Direct Line want to stay involved, surely they don't take a cut off any monies? But there again, I don't want a big arguement over what the car is worth versus the cost of the repairs.

Any views?

BenL

Sorry to hear about your accident.

Norwich Unions motivation is to save as much money as possible - i'm not sure but Direct Line maybe bill NU afterwards for their involvement.

You will still have to tell insurers in the future for the next 3 years that you have had a non fault accident do Nu are spinning a bit of line to you.

In my 1st claim when someone hit me I could still drive my car and I took up the 3rd party insurers offer of them handling the repair - it all wne through no problems.

I had reported the accident to my insurer who was Direct Line by coincidence but then went no further with it via them. After 3 months they wrote to me to say they were closing the claim.

I got my car repaired by a local Ford dealer and the 3rd party insurance co paid up to them and for a hire car.

This time my car was undrivable so my ins co had to recover the car for me. They had it in their possesion at one of their agents so the claim was handled via them.

The 3rd party ins co this time was again coincidentaly NU and they offered to handle the claim from their end but I said no as the car was undrivable and was sent to my insurance co partners.

They also rang to check for injuries about a week later offering one of their solicitors to handle any injury claim. This i also turned down and we went with a no win no fee.

Both myself and partner were injured slightly - I tore muscles in my shoulder and had neck pain etc and my g/f had a bad knee and still isn't happy being in cars.

Both ways of claiming have worked out ok for me so whatever you decide I don't think you'll have any problems.

My latest car was written off and once the decision was made by my ins co they offered me the money and then I got a call from the hore car place asking for the car back.

I got them to call NU and they stumpted up for the hire car until my cheque was cashed + a few days to allow me to look for a new car.

Hope this long winded story helps.

Not wanting to sound like "everybody does it so you might as well" but if you hurt or anything get a firm of solicitors on to the case.

I do now regret not doing it on my 1st crash but this time we have about £5000 in joint monies recieved and just had to go to a Dr for 30 mins who examined us.

If you are going down this route i'd also get to your local GP now and get them to check you over and put it on your record - these will be requested by the insurance co to assess your claim.

Ben

Astaroth

It sounds like the garage has recommended you to go with an ABI Credit Hire car company... there should be no issue with going through them as their rates are all pre-agreed with all the members of the ABI (which NU is). However it may be simplier all round to allow DL to continue to deal with the damage to your vehicle and then let NU provide the replacement vehicle directly.

DL have no motive to be involved other than to show you what good service they can give... they will only get their outlay back from NU and not any of their adminstration costs for handling the claim (though the more business they put through their approved repairers the cheaper they can negotiate rates for cases where their client is at fault or the TP is unknown)

The garage want you to go through them as they get paid to do the repairs and will be getting a kick back from the credit hire company (though when I worked on DL claims the garages werent allowed to do this so I dont know if they are breaking the rules or DL has changed them)

NU want you to deal direct as it will reduce the amount of the claim (in particular the hire car bill) - credit hire for a 1.6L vehicle used to be around £30 a day where as an insurer hiring directly only pays about £15.

Ultimately the choises are yours. With DL you have a contract and the protection of the FOS if things dont go right where as with NU there is no contract stipulating what they must or cannot do and the FOS will not get involved if there is a problem. For a replacement vehicle I would be more inclined to take NU up on their offer.

mpython

BenL & Astorath

Many thanks for sharing your experiences, much appreciated.

I think i will stick with Direct Line route but ask Norwich Union to supply the hire car direct. Apprantly the DL rota garage is also on NU's list so they'll be able to check quickly my car can't be secured or driven long distances (can't get the spare out from the crumpled floor).

Thanks again

BargainHunterCat

mpython wrote:

What a day!

Had a small prang this morning on the way to work. I was stopped at red traffic light but the Jeep behind didn't. Hardly a scratch on his Jeep but rear of my Peugeot 206 caved in. We exchanged details & I contacted our insurers (Direct Line) who asked me to take it to one of their rota repair centres. Their ball park estimate was £3k, car is only worth around £3k. The garage offered to get me a hire car whilst mine was off the road which would be claimed off the other guy.

Got home & there was a message to call his insurers (Norwich Union). The other driver has admitted liability (doff my cap to an honest gent) & Norwich Union offered to 'take over' the claim. They'd get my car repaired & get me a car whilst it was all dealt with. Norwich Union said that if I let the garage get me the hire car and there was a dispute over rates I could be liable for whatever Norwich Union wouldn't pay. Another arguement they used was that by withdrawing my claim it'd protect my insurance premium with a clear record.

So I then phone Direct Line to see if this was all OK with them but they said that they'd deal with it all as I'd already notified them. Direct Line said that if I dealt with Norwich Union direct I'd be treated like a 3rd party & if there were any problems they wouldn't be able to help.

To be honest, my first reaction is I can't believe how helpful everyone appears to have been, but I'm not sure what each of the parties' motivations are. I sort of like the idea of Norwich Union handling it so our premiums aren't impacted and I can't understand why Direct Line want to stay involved, surely they don't take a cut off any monies? But there again, I don't want a big arguement over what the car is worth versus the cost of the repairs.

Any views?

Right, firstly Norwich Union are trying to be proactive by dealing with your claim. Firstly it saves them money and secondly it makes them look good and they will probably try & get you as a customer!

You may find you get a better service going with the Third Party's insurers because they will pull all the stops out to keep you happy because you are an innocent party.

With regards to car hire, they are just being careful. This is because a few years ago a number of credit hire companies sprung up which were trying to rip off insurance companies by massively over-charging for hire cars (think £100 a day for a Nissan Micra). I would simply tell them how much yours is costing or alternatively let them sort out a hire car for you because they will be able to get you a nice equivalent one at a discounted price which they will be happy with.

Either way, because the Third Party admitted liability your no claims discount WILL NOT BE AFFTECTED because even if your insurance company pay for repairs, they will reclaim all the money from Norwich Union so it is neither here nor there. The only benefit of going with Norwich Union is that you will not have to hand over your excess when the car is repaired and then wait for it to be refunded by Norwich Union.

Personally, if the Third Party insurer offers to look after me, I'd go for it, because they can and will treat you a bit better because you are the innocent party and they will be prepared to hire a car for you which your insurance company may not be able to do under your own policy.

Just make sure you let both Direct Line & Norwich Union know what you want to do...neither of them are really going to mind!!