Insurance excess

Hoonercat

I had an accident on my motorcycle recently and the repair bill comes to £1800 which I am claiming on m own insurance as liability is being disputed (assesor has agreed the repairs). I also need to replace my crash helmet and other items of clothing which aren't covered.
I have a £350 excess to pay which I cannot afford given that the helmet needs replacing first, can I instruct the repairer to leave some of the cosmetic work (£350 worth) until I can afford to get it done? The insurance co will still be paying the same amount (£1800 minus the £350 excess) so I can't see why this would be a problem.
I have emailed the insurers but have not had a reply, just spent 15 minutes on hold trying to phone them also:mad:

Quentin

Doubt your garage will play ball over this! It would involve them falsifying the paperwork they send in to the insurer.

(But worth seeing if they will come to an arrangement with you - you never know!)

Hoonercat

I wouldn't ask them to falsify the paperwork. The insurance co will pay £1450 (£1800 minus my £350 excess). I am supposed to pay the extra £350 of repairs, surely I can tell the garage not to carry out £350 of work if I cannot afford to pay it? Either way the insurers still pay £1450 so they will not be out of pocket.

Hoonercat

Just spoken to insurers and they've said that if I cannot pay the excess then I'll have to put off the repairs until I can afford to pay it. So I'm being penalized for being skint:mad:
Wonder if this would be the case had I not payed some of the costs upfront so I could get the bike back on the road, saving the insurers storage charges.

ic

The excess is to pay the first £350 of any work ("the claim"). Asking them to reduce the amount of work will only save the insurance company money - not you, you still have to pay £350 to the insurance company. Remember that this is a consequence of you opting for the excess in return for a cheaper policy.

Hoonercat

£350 was the lowest excess I could get, there were cheaper policies available.
The excess is payable to the repairers rather than the insurance co. I fail to understand why this should be a problem for them, I will still have to pay the £350 at some point to get the rest of the repairs done.

vaio

I’m with you on this one, I can’t see any reason they won’t give you the option of having a devalued bike and cash in your pocket to compensate you for the reduction in value.

Maybe try another phone call and get further up the call centre food chain as the option of a cash settlement is available where they give you an agreed amount of cash which you then use to repair (or not) your bike. If you can talk them into this then you can have the bike partially repaired and live with the cosmetic issues until you have more money.

Another option (although I wouldn’t hold out too much hope) is to have a read of you policy and see if you can make an argument that the helmet is an essential legally required safety item which should be included in the claim much the same way that seat belts, air bags and baby seats are on a car claim.

You could also try and argue that it is an accessory which again should be included in the claim