Car accident, let their insurance sort it or my own?

GoldenShadow

Just wondered if there is any reason to use theirs over mine or vice versa?

Someone crashed into the back of me as I gave way at a roundabout yesterday.

Their insurance company rang me three times before I even had chance to speak to my own. My company have said no one can dispute and say it is my fault in any way, and that their company are probably ringing me to say let us deal with it for you, but I've not spoken to them yet.

They are insured with Churchill and I am insured with Hastings if that makes any difference. Part of me thinks they will want to do it cheap as possible but then part of me thinks they will just fix it and that's that. Part of me wants it to go to whoever will do it faster but I know I won't know until its referred onto whoever is dealing with it.

I don't really want a hire car anyway (I'm 22 and my excess is £270, as this isn't my fault I don't have to pay it). I just feel car jinxed right now. My OH's car got reversed into in autumn last year when parked up. We got hit by a lorry in his car (I was passenger) on a roundabout five weeks ago, and now this!! I don't want a shiny, newer car to be responsible for I don't think what they have to offer regarding hire cars matters. Is there anything else I should consider?

Does it matter at all if I let their insurance deal with it or mine?

ETA: A search of Albany on here (who Hastings will refer to) doesn't give me much faith. Is it only in regard to hire car I should worry, ie. if I'm not having a hire car from them do I still need to be cautious?

neilmcl

There's no reason not to deal with the 3rd-party insurer, in fact it's preferable to do so. Get it repaired at a garage of your choice.

You say you've been hit by a lorry only 5 weeks ago, has this damage been repaired and/or claimed for or is this still outsanding?

GoldenShadow

neilmcl wrote: »

There's no reason not to deal with the 3rd-party insurer, in fact it's preferable to do so. Get it repaired at a garage of your choice.

You say you've been hit by a lorry only 5 weeks ago, has this damage been repaired and/or claimed for or is this still outsanding?

This was the OH's car (which is still being repaired because they sent it back with the bodywork fixed but the tracking still hideously out, seemingly no one looked at the steering wheel as they drove it 15 miles back to his house), not mine.

I have a friend who works at a body shop locally, can I literally request it gets sent there? Damage to my car consists of scratches and scuffs along the length of my rear bumper and that seems to be it, nothing major at all… Its a 56 plate Seat Ibiza so not a new car either.

Stoke

Churchill... oh dear. Be wary. That dog seems to have a nasty underbelly.

InsideInsurance

For non-injury claims people will almost universally agree that its best to deal directly with the TPI if at all possible.

All insurers have to "assist you" in mitigating your losses and so all insurers will do pretty much the same job unless you have a HNW policy with the likes of Chubb or Hiscox (certainly not hastings)

Personally, I'd argue that Direct Line Group (owners of Churchill) are slightly higher up the pecking order than Hastings but inevitably these things are always dependent on who you speak to, who the chap at the garage happens to be who does the job etc

mattyprice4004

Stoke wrote: »

Churchill... oh dear. Be wary. That dog seems to have a nasty underbelly.

What an incredibly useful post without any additional information as to why they may be 'nasty', what to look for and any links to prove your point.

nash1977

First read your terms and conditions, in particular:


"You or any insured driver must not admit liability for or negotiate the settlement of any claim unless you have your insurer’s written permission."

You can have the car repaired at the bodyshop of your choice, but authorisation will take longer as you are not using one of their approved repairers.

force_ten

My car was recently involved in an accident and i took it straight to the main dealers to be assessed

I left the car with them and rang my insurance to tell them where the car was and i wanted the repairs carried out by the dealer, the insurance were happy to do this and have worked with the dealer to get things sorted ASAP

but my excess went up by £200.00 for using a non approved repairer

InsideInsurance

force_ten wrote: »

but my excess went up by £200.00 for using a non approved repairer

Aviva?

If there was a TP and they'd been both at fault and good about things then it could have gone via the TPI and no excess at all to pay let alone an inflated one

AdrianC

Look on the bright side - if their insurer's ringing you to get it fixed, they're admitting full liability. They just want to keep their costs down.

Also, because you don't have a contract with them, they can't write it off without your agreement, if it's a close call as to whether it's worth repairing or not.

GoldenShadow

Well, Churchill have been an absolute nightmare to deal with

First person I spoke to was all yep you want a different garage that's not our one of choice? Fine. All good. Then I got a call back because she forgot to ask all the info, and this guy gave it the hard sell and convinced me to use their garage because it would be oh so much quicker.

Its 21 miles away and I live in a city which has everything here. The distance annoyed me because it made me inclined to think it was cheaper to use this one miles away, and my OH's car got sent for repair to a garage of similar distance when someone reversed int it. He had to send it back twice as they did such a crap job, and we got it back last week after the lorry incident but had to send it back once more that time because they didn't bother to fix the tracking. That just made me want a garage which was closer so I can go down there myself if I have to type of thing.

So, then the guy said I'll give you their number, and gave me the number of the garage I gave him..! Then he said ooh um oh well they will ring you anyway. Waited three hours, nothing (the timeframe they said). Rang the garage after four hours and was told they had no record of me whatsoever. Rang Churchill, and they had instructed my local garage and not the one they recommend, even though the guy convinced me to use that instead :mad:

Then they put an urgent message through and it still took from 4pm Thursday til 1pm Friday for them to ring me. The other person's car is booked in for 6th March, and I was going to have to wait til 12th March, just for it being a couple of days later. That also annoyed me greatly, so not only have I been in a no fault accident, but they want me to wait so much bloody longer to fix my car when they are the ones who failed to instruct the garage to contact me in the first place :mad:

If Albany didn't have such a ridiculous reputation I would be using them right now (ie. going through Hastings). As it stands, I had another paddy and am intending to use a local garage where one of my friends works. Basically, because I know they will do a good job and its local enough for me to pick it up myself instead of it being dumped on my doorstep when they're done. An engineer from Churchill is coming Monday, and will no doubt dispute the local garage's quote heavily.

They've quoted £700 (including VAT and labour) to fix what looks like a scratched rear bumper. There are marks on my numberplate, so new one of those, bumper has minor crack on exterior and more cracks underneath on the inside apparently. They said if I had done it myself, they could repair it, but realistically in an accident claiming via insurance its a matter of putting my car back to what it was, and they can't guarantee repairs like they can a replacement, so they would opt to replace it instead. The metal bar under my bumper has also shifted, and they said some places might be inclined to leave it as its not too far in, but realistically they would replace it because again, their view is to return my car to the state it was in before the crash, not to just make it look OK cosmetically again.

We will see what Churchill say on Monday. The local garage have told me they sent the quote, and I rang Churchill who say they have been sent the quote, so lets hope the engineer actually has the quote when he looks at my car! My OH is going to be around just in case anyway (much more car savvy than me).

I've spent a ridiculous amount of time on hold ringing Churchill this week and its always an 0845 number. They even rang me up calling me the name of the other person on the claim too, didn't even ask security questions until I jumped in and said umm, wrong person.

One man from Churchill started asking questions like what my excess is, whether my insurance is fully comp/third party, how long I've been driving. I just said I don't remember to everything because I don't know why on earth Churchill need to know things like that about me, when their driver has admitted liability? It had nothing to do with hire car because all that and the excess for that had been explained already.

I hate having to deal with insurance companies