Admiral Insurance, The Scrooge of Christmas.

silkyuk9

My son had a car accident in this bad weather, basically he is in the army and was trying to get home. Well he wrote his car off on the A1.

on his insurance policy he has hire car included so at least he had a car until insurance settled he would have a car to get him home for Christmas. Well, he was given a car and everything seemed ok, the car hire told him that he had this car for 21 days so at least he would be home for Christmas and when the cheque comes at least he will have a bit of time to bank it and wait till it clears and buy a car to see him over.

Admiral moved very quickly to get the car assessed and delcare it was a right off and a settlement was confirmed within the week of the accident.

The underwriter rang and a settlement was agreed, now this is proberly were we should have been awkward and not accepted the settlement figure even though it was fair. Once the settlement was accepted Admiral must have contacted the hire car company who then rang my son and told him the car must be returned. Admiral have said that once they release the cheque the car has to go back, but we are still waiting for the cheque which they said was posted several days ago, probery 6 days ago. Still no cheque.

My son is now without a car and stuck in barracks over Christmas waiting for his cheque so he can buy a car.

I am at work over Christmas so i cant get my car to him to borrow which is over 166 miles away, most of the lads have gone home so no one is sort of near this way up north, the trains are a mess and the weather is bloody aweful.

If he had not accepted the insurance settlement which like i say was the book price he would not be in this situation, Admiral are not bothered. So my son is going to have a great Christmas stuck way out in Rutland Water waiting for the settlement to turn up so he can buy a car.

Admiral you are the scrooge of christmas.

bouncydog1

Could he arrange a temporary overdraft so he can buy a car?

silkyuk9

ive rung admiral to plead mercy and let him have the hire car which he still has but not allowed to drive it and see if they will give it to him for a little longer, just waiting for them to get back to me.

adamc260

The policy booklet does actually state this:

The Hire Car must be returned to AVR
or its designated agent no later than
48 hours after payment is issued to the
Policyholder based on EUI Ltd’s total
loss valuation of their claim OR no later
than the 21st day of hire (whichever
comes first).

http://www.admiral.com/policyDocs/ADAN32%200910%20Comp%20Car%20Hire%20Booklet.pdf

Bottom left corner of page 4

It does also state:

"You may extend the hire by
contacting Albany Assistance Ltd on
0800 085 8134 who will then contact
AVR to make arrangements.
A discounted rate is available to
EUI Ltd customers."

silkyuk9

bouncyd!!! wrote: »

Could he arrange a temporary overdraft so he can buy a car?

Its difficult, hes on guard and really its too late to be sorting things out now, if the cheque had arrived sooner or even a bank transfer, which they only do if YOU ask them for it, its not policy for them to suggest that, he maybe could have bought a car from a local dealer.

im keeping my fingers crossed at the mo, thay might bring good tidings

silkyuk9

adamc260 wrote: »

The policy booklet does actually state this:

The Hire Car must be returned to AVR
or its designated agent no later than
48 hours after payment is issued to the
Policyholder based on EUI Ltd’s total
loss valuation of their claim OR no later
than the 21st day of hire (whichever
comes first).

http://www.admiral.com/policyDocs/ADAN32%200910%20Comp%20Car%20Hire%20Booklet.pdf

Bottom left corner of page 4

yes you are correct, but we could have played them

vaio

Argue it, they haven’t paid the claim and it’s not your fault the cheque is delayed.

What do you think their response would be if you used the same argument when paying your premium? I suspect they would ask for instant over the phone payment

You should either get to keep the car (ideally) or get an instant bank transfer into his account.

Probably wouldn’t hurt to play the distraught mother with squaddies son off to risk his life etc etc (but they are an insurance company so probably won’t do any good either)

Try and get past the call centre to someone who can actually make a common sense decision rather than just repeating whatever the computer says

Good luck

adamc260

silkyuk9 wrote: »

yes you are correct, but we could have played them

The way it is worded suggests otherwise

'Based on EUI's total loss valuation of THEIR claim' ... not your valuation =/

JimmyTheWig

Presumably he can pay to keep the hire car for a bit longer?

Can he buy a new car on credit card, taking advantage of the interest-free period you get? Will normally pay a couple of percent extra to do this, but might be worth it in this case.

Can he buy a cheap runaround banger that will tide him over until he finds the car he wants?


[Incidentally, I agree it is harsh of them to withdraw the hire car before the cheque has turned up, but it sounds like it's their policy so not a lot you can do about it directly.]

silkyuk9

Thank god!!

Spoke to a nice woman callec Wynn, from Admiral, and he now has the car until 27th December. Its brilliant when someone understands the situation and will help you all they can, then on the otherside of the coin you speak to some jobsworth who will do nothing for you.

At least we now will be able to see our son who we have not seen in several months.

Its just like Homealone the movie.