nearly a rant about getting my excess back, but a thanks instead

dmsk

I was about to write for some advice, and to have a bit of a rant, but half way through received a phone call from my car insurer that restored my faith (slightly).

I was involved in an accident in May where I was not at fault. Rather daftly I had £500 excess on my insurance which I paid to get the car fixed. Initially the other party contested fault but recently admitted fault (the whole process takes far too long....but that would be another post). When trying to get my back I was pushed 4 times back in between the insurer (Highway/LV=) and the broker (Ibuyeco/BISL) - each telling me to follow up with the other before finally saying that since I didn't have legal cover I wouldn't be getting my excess back.

What peeved me particularly was that the 3rd party was also insured with LV!

So, I go onto this forum looking for advice, which varied from writing to the 3rd party insurer (also mine!) asking them to refund my excess to threatening court action.

I then receive a phone call from the original claim handler saying that she has picked up the notes and will be getting my excess back. It's that sort of ownership and willingness to follow up that builds reputations and would make me feel loyalty towards a company (especially when price comparison sites rule the car insurance market). I just wish it had happened a lot earlier.

So thanks Dee (the LV claims handler) - but I do find it worrying that many customers still take the first answer they are given, and that according to the lottery of who you speak to your final outcome can differ greatly (in my case to the tune of £500)

InsideInsurance

To be fair, they are correct. If you chose not to have legal expenses (aka uninsured loss recovery) then it is your own responsibility to recover your uninsured losses like your excess.

Insurers will sometimes take a pragmatic view, particularly when they insurer both parties but ultimately you need to decide in the future if you want to pay the ~£30 for LE cover and they will do the recovery of your losses for you or save the money and accept you'll have to do it yourself

Insurers spend a lot of time putting in chinese walls to deal with cases where they insure both parties that you really do have to treat them as two separate insurers and if you need to speak to "their" insurers rather than yours you really do need to speak to a different person/ team. Back in my day cases were never assigned to the same office and we did physically have to phone or write to the other side (obviously using internal mail rather than Royal Mail) exactly the same as if it were a totally separate insurer involved.