Hastings Direct

hansi

Antone had dealings with this Company? They seem to provide very competitive quotes for car insurance.

00ec25

I was with them for 7 years (others on here are horrified by that statement)
you buy a policy at a cheap rate but you get a cheap service when it comes to making a claim. I had 2 NO FAULT claims in 2 years, for the second one I did not bother using their "service" and settled direct with the thrid party's insurer as Hastings were awful

that said I had 7 years of cheap insurancne and since that is a legal requiremnt I reckon the savings I made in that period were great

I am no longer with Hastings as they doubled their premium after the second incident even though I had cost them nothing except taking a phone call from me to get the other parties details

I woul;d consider going back to them if they were substantially cheaper than competitors but it is obvious they pick only low risk customers and provide limited support for a claim

in summary
1. cheap? - YES
2. Support you in a claim? - they could do a lot better
3 worth buying? - Yes but only if you do NOT expect to claim
4. worth using again? Yes - but only if they are much cheaper than the second placed one

Hasbeen

Had hasting direct before, no problems, but then again I did not claim for anything.

They are one of the cheaper end insurance companys, usually amongst top ones on comparison sites.

Usually £40 cashback if using cashback sites.:)

hansi

Thanks for that, I mght steer clear of them. Got another quote with Esure through Top Casback. Any problems with them?;)

forgotmyname

Google any insurance company and most reviews will be poor.

The only good ones are probably spam from the companies employee's.

Earthmother_2

I'm just going through the same dilemma. Hastings and their other products (insurepink, peoples choice) are all a lot cheaper. My renewal quote is £400 with Aviva, Hastings quotes start from £257 up to £318. The next name is LV at £322. I don't know what to do, go for the cheapest or go for a big name. The policy excesses are the same.

InsideInsurance

forgotmyname wrote: »

The only good ones are probably spam from the companies employee's.

A little harsh.... there are some that do offer good service but you wont find them anywhere near the top of a comparison site.

At the end of the day you have to balance price and service and decide what is the right level of both for you.

ROY47

As my late dad always said

"You get what you pay for" , buy cheap and get crap service !

he always told me when he worked in a main dealer garage the cars on cheap insurance took a lot longer to repair than those who had paid a bit extra for a good name

but these days almost every insurance company has a bad name when you google them

Williewonthe

Hansi,
Have a look at my other posts.
I'm not the only one to advise people to avoid Hastings. I haven't done a lot of research into the subject but they must be one of the most despised insurers.
My recent experience with them bears out what others say. I was with them for longer than with any other car insurer until I had a fraudulent claim against me. I and my barrister were certain we could win but Hastings did not proceed as the judge said they should have done. He therefore would not even hear the case and found - without us ever getting into court - for the scumbag. So I lost, even though we could have shown that the scumbag was lying.
Thank you, Hastings.

jamhun

You will always read the bad comments about any company on the internet, very rarely will people write about the good service they have received.

James

Williewonthe

Jamhun,

If you are referring to me, sorry, I did have one piece of 'good' service from Hastings: when my windscreen got chipped. They told me who to call to get it replaced.

However, if by good service you mean:
a logical discourse, where the other side (in the case of the fraudulent claim against me - Hastings) listens to you and tries to support you and investigates what you say, instead of ignoring what you say and the PROOF that you send, and
the person at the solicitors dealing with the case for the greatest portion of its duration being a qualified solicitor and being able to think, instead of a paralegal (I think he was) just saying (in a country that is renowned as being the Whiplash Capital) "You can't call the doctor a liar" - completely ignoring my protestations that I was not calling the doctor a liar - he merely repeated what the lying claimant had told him.
Then I agree with you.

What I received from Hastings was, in my opinion, lamentable service.

As it turned out, in the claimant's final submission to the court, he showed that he had lied to the doctor, but because Hastings did not follow the procedure that the judge said they should have done, the case was not heard and I lost.

So there, you have my experience of good and bad service from Hastings. Which has had more impact on my life?