Who to insure with - Hastings, Direct Line or Insure Car Insurance

taliwillow

We are currently with direct line for insurance on one of our cars but as we have never had to make a claim we have no idea what their service is like. Our other car is now due for renewal and the quote from our current insurer (swiftcover) was way too high so we were thinking of taking that policy over to direct line which is about £170 cheaper than swift. The only quotes we have had that are £10 better than direct line are with Hastings Direct and Insure Car Insurance. These two companies also are offering around £40 cashback on quidco.

Does anyone have experience of claiming with any of these companies and would you recommend paying the little extra and missing out on the cashback with direct line or go with the cheaper ones and get the cashback. I know the reviews online aren't great for Hastings and I can't find anything for Insure but I think that most of the time if you are posting a story about a company without anyone asking for your opinion first then it is very likely that you will only be posting it because you are very unhappy with them whereas happy people don't usually think to themselves - 'oh I must go online and post a really positive review of this company'.

So I would love to hear all of your experiences good and bad.

Taliwillow

InsideInsurance

You should also compare the level of cover being given against what is important to you. Hastings certainly have 3 levels of policy with different features.

Do you require Driving Other Cars? A courtesy car from the garage? A guaranteed courtesy car? European fully comp cover?

dwsjarcmcd

Hastings and Insure are part of the same group so I would expect the service from them to be identical

Thankyou

I have been with Direct Line for many years, and never had to claim and was happy with them. Until I had a not-my-fault accident last month, then things changed drastically. It started off ok, or so I thought, they said they would get the car collected and taken to a garage, and the company they sent was there within the hour, being a Sunday as well, I thought that was great. I had a call saying the car had been taken to UK Assistance, which I thought odd as it was picked up by a company called something different. I had no calls from UK Assistance, and I had to ring them a few times before getting someone who said 'we cant do anything as our fax machine is not working' - it seems they cant do any work until they get a fax through from Direct Line, they cannot substitute an email because it is 'company rules' to use the fax. I was told I would be called either Wednesday afternoon or Thursday with the mechanics estimation of what is wrong with the car, Friday comes and still no call, and ringing them again I had the same trouble and got the answermachine at the end of the day - which in itself was a terrible experience. Needless to say I did not get to speak to anyone until Saturday when I was told the car is a write-off and it has been transferred elsewhere. At this point I will add that I have had no phone calls of any kind from Direct Line, to find out anything you have to keep ringing them, going through all the 'options' and when you get to a human being it is no help as they say it is a write off, and when I am asking 'how is it a write off, what exactly is wrong with the car, they do not know and will try and find out. And investigating on the internet I find that UK Assistance is a subsiduary of Direct Line, which is why my car was over 33 miles away from me. And all this is just the start. The lack of information from these people is abysmal, I ended up sending a letter of complaint and that got me information from a nice lady in the complaints dept, who funnily got all the information I required straight away!
Yesterday I was in the supermarket and I got a call from Direct Line, something important about my car can they talk to me, 'I am in the supermarket and it is not that convenient but ok what is it?' - we need to do some checks first, what is your address (now having been burgled two days previously, I am not going to be giving out my address in the middle of a supermarket), I said you tell me what my address is and I will tell you if that is correct. They would not have that and said that they would put on my account that I am uncooperative, I said they could ring me in 90 minutes at home, and they could put that on their computer..............guess what - I am still waiting, and this is 'very important' according to them.

So Taliwillow, I do not have a good experience with Direct Line, I am afraid - yes they are usually cheaper than other quotes, but I think I now have found out why!