Being Ripped Off By Car Insurer?

marcus01235oxon

Anyone have any advice how to proceed?

My partner had somebody drive in to her car. She wasn't driving at the time. Her father was. Luckily he was insured to be driving the car.

The car was/is a small fiesta. Not worth much. The other driver drove in to her passenger side door.

She is with IBUYECO and reported the incident to them. Then they arranged for a company called driver assist to pick the car up and look it over. They came back and said that the damage caused was worth more than the value of the car. Understandably because of the age.

My partner pays IBUYECO extra to have the luxury of a courtesy car. So they arranged for a car for her. She found out that it is a hire car, and not a courtesy car.

She is having to pay £30 a week for insurance on this car. On top of the £75 per month for her now written off car. The accident happened in September, and the claim has still not been resolved.

To make things worse, IBUYECO is underwritten by Sabre insurance. IBUYECO failed to notify Sabre, so she received a call from Sabre expecting her to go over the details again. So it looks like for a month nothing was really done.

The whole time she is having to pay an extra £30 a week to use this car. Sadly she needs the car to get to work. Public transport would make it a mission to get to work, let alone get there on time.

Can she cancel her current insurance on the Fiesta now? or does she have to keep it going until the claim is resolved?

Can she get this £30 a week back?

She has kept every petrol receipt whilst she has had the car, can this be claimed back?

Is she able to claim money back from the insurers for the time that she has been unable to drive her fiesta?

She is in a unfortunate pickle as she needs the car to get to work, but its becoming increasingly expensive to keep it.

Does anyone have any help they can offer on what to do??

withabix

I presume the £30/week is the excess waiver for the hire car? She can purchase this cover for £39.99 per year less £13 Quidco, so £26.99 FOR A YEAR from icarhireinsurance.com (I think there is a 31 day limit on each period of cover)

Why should she expect to claim back the fuel she has put in the hire car? Did her Fiesta run on thin air or an elastic band?

She may be able to claim for uninsured losses from the insurer of the driver who crashed into her car (but not for the fuel she has used).

Notmyrealname

marcus01235oxon wrote: »

My partner pays IBUYECO extra to have the luxury of a courtesy car. So they arranged for a car for her. She found out that it is a hire car, and not a courtesy car.

All courtesy cars provided by all insurance companies are hire cars.

She is having to pay £30 a week for insurance on this car. On top of the £75 per month for her now written off car. The accident happened in September, and the claim has still not been resolved.

She claims all these costs from the third party's insurance but not the petrol, that's just stupid.

marcus01235oxon

I can understand that claiming petrol back seems stupid. The reason i ask is that the Fiesta used considerably less petrol than the hire car. She asked them for an equivalent, but sadly the car she got is more of a fuel drinker.

Does that mean she can claim the cost of the Fiesta's insurance for the time its not been driven? So the £75 from September to October (if they resolve it soon)?

How would she go about claiming the £30 per week for the hire car?

I apologise i'm new to all this car insurance stuff

Quentin

Why should the third party pay her normal insurance premium?

She should certainly get the claim handler to include the £30 extra she is having to pay in their claim.

And she should keep on at them for an equivalent car to solve the fuel problem.

marcus01235oxon

I'll get her to call them in the morning to get the £30 payments added to the claim. And to sort a smaller car.

withabix

Seems very unlikely that a new hire car of any reasonable small-medium size will use more fuel than an old Fiesta.

What hire car has she got?

leedsmodus

Notmyrealname wrote: »

All courtesy cars provided by all insurance companies are hire cars.


She claims all these costs from the third party's insurance but not the petrol, that's just stupid.

INCORRECT

fault claims , usually mean a courtesy car from a repairer if the Insurer tells their policyholder to use their approved repairer. These are usually group a or b cars such as corsa's.

non fault claims ? then yes , Hire cars like for like. Driver assist, and Auto Indemnity, and Kindertons all do this for insurers. They charge the extortionate hire car costs to the third party. If the post writer is out of pocket she can claim these costs back of a 3rd party through her legal insurance or even claiming through a personal injury solicitor if one is being used.

Oh by the way, claims advisor is my trade

londonTiger

i once got the third party to come round and do my landry. and pin up a shelf in my living room. on the way out i got him to empty the bins.

plane_boy2000

My other half had a hire car provide by a third parties insurers after an accident. The third party approached her and requested to settle directly.

Anyway, the hire car provided was equivalent in size (Renault espace while her VW Sharan was in for repair) but it had a bigger engine and was an auto. The difference in fuel was quite big and they agreed to refund the difference in book figure between the two over the mileage driven, so you may be able to get this back.

Lum

withabix wrote: »

Seems very unlikely that a new hire car of any reasonable small-medium size will use more fuel than an old Fiesta.

Why? Those old Fiestas may have a less efficient engine, but they weigh about the same as a wheelie bin* wheras a modern one will be lugging around 30 million* airbags and have a load of efficiency-sapping emissions control gubbins on there. Even an old Morris Minor can do 45mpg after all.

*exaggeration

Also, how bad is the damage to the old Fiesta? is it still driveable?