Should I claim through my insurance or third party

tberry6686

Brief background : Partner waiting to turn right at junction, shunted from behind by a van. Police attended along with ambulance. 1 independent witness and van driver charged with driving without due care and attention.

Car is almost certainly a write off (entire back end is caved in, ripples in roof, rear passenger doors pushed forward, even the drivers seat is bent). Partner is in hospital overnight with neck and back pain and concussion.

As this is a pretty much slam dunk case would it be better to claim from the third party insurer directly or go through our own insurance bearing in mind that there may well be an injury claim as well ?

Our insurer is one of the budget ones with the usual budget reputation. The third party is with directline, in case that makes a difference.

tasticz

is your policy one of those policy that end if the claim concludes to car being written off? if so you should claim via third party directly or google claims management companies. also it is very likely your insurance will pass you to a claims management companies themselves.

if it isn't then its your choice try third party directly but most of the time they will try and scr*w you over at every possible chance. as for injuries do not use their solicitors find one yourself or use your legal cover

tberry6686

Thanks for your comments. was thinking a similar thing.

I'm not really worried if the policy ends with the car written off as it only has 2 months to run and as we have another 2 cars available are in no rush to replace this one. (was actually considering selling it anyway).

InsideInsurance

tasticz wrote: »

if it isn't then its your choice try third party directly but most of the time they will try and scr*w you over at every possible chance. as for injuries do not use their solicitors find one yourself or use your legal cover

Views on directly claiming from the TPI depends where you are coming from. Insurers will say they offer fair settlement and often more than when claiming through another party as there isnt the consideration of their fees. Of cause claims management companies or solicitors claim you will lose out by going direct (and they certainly do).

For the vehicle damage/ hire car it really is up to you. Most here would say to deal direct with the one caveat being you lose the protection of the FOS -v- dealing with your own insurers.

For the injury then there is more of a case for appointing your own solicitor however remember that no win no fee/ conditional funding is no longer fully paid for by the TPI and so the solicitor will keep some of your compensation should your claim be successful. If you do have legal expenses cover on your Motor insurance then it should cover the costs of a solicitor leaving you to retain all of the monies won.