Car Insurance - Legal Cover, is it really needed?

lisyloo

Yes - it was a hire car provided by Enterprise

Sounds like it was discretionary (and the excess waiving).
It's nice to hear some positive stories as there is a lot of insurer bashing on here.
But normally if you claim on your own insurance then you'd have to pay an excess and it would stay as a "fault" claim until the money has been fully recovered from the other side.
Your excess is not an "insurerd loss" so you either need legal cover or reclaim it yourself.

I'm sure in black and white it seems easy to just write a letter and reclaim it yourself but life is rarely balck and white.
What if it was a pedestrian and you didn't know whether they had home insurance to claim from - what would you do then if you had decided to do it yourself?

Would you take the pedestrian to court yourself with the possibility or no insurance or no assets or simply non-payment? or would you become an amateur PI and try to find out whether they had a house/job and were worth suing?

I'm not saying these cases are common but they do happen.
My FIL was hit by a pedestrian.
They legal cover directly refunded his excess as a discretionary measure.
They don't usually want to go after pedestrians who may or may not have assets/insurance.
So it isn't always as black and white as two motorists with insurance.
Cyclists and pedestrian may or may not have insurance, assets or the ability/willingness to pay. Insurance may not help in some cases e.g. the person has no money, but in other cases it might.

I personally prefer to have it (it's normally included for free on my policies) but I think it's perfectly valid not to.

InsideInsurance

lisyloo wrote: »

Sounds like it was discretionary

Sounds like Credit Hire, and certainly DL did used to use Enterprise for Credit Hire. If it is then not really anything discretionary about it and of cause DL will have gotten its commission for the referral.

lisyloo

Sounds like Credit Hire

Ah good point.

Yes I think this is the distinction.
For car hire and personal injury there are fees to be had so there are lots of companies willing to help you even in advance.

However for loss of wages, property damage e.g. clothing, excess etc. there is no commission or fees, so no-one will help you get this back (unless it's attached to a claim involving some juicy fee parts). That's where the legal cover can help if you don't want to or can't do it yourself.

ic

I'm convinced, the legal cover with the insurance sounds the best option. Thanks both .

Christopher7

Its worth having legal cover but not at £27 per year. The cost of the policy to Aviva would be pennies if anything at all.

Aviva will have arrangements with PI solicitors to deal with these cases for free in return for Aviva sending PI referrals to that solicitor. Oh and then for every claim that the Solicitor takes on they pay Aviva around £1000!

Easy money for Aviva and zero risk!

ic

So what is available for less that will provide the same cover?

Christopher7

Look at it like this. If you have an accident, what will you lose;

- Car
If you have comprehensive insurance, the damage to the car is covered regardless of fault.

- Replacement Vehicle
If its non fault, you will inundated with offers to provide you with alternative transport from insurers and credit hire companies.

- Injury
Again you will be inundated with offers of assistance.

- Personal belongings / loss of earnings
You won't get too many offers for assistance but if you took credit hire or have a PI claim then they will most likely reclaim these losses for you at the same time.