Car insurance claim - I'm almost in tears here....

RACHIE77

Due to an accident which happened at the weekend we needed to claim on our car insurance as our car was a write off.... We paid £2450 for the car less than a year ago and have just spoke to the insurance company and they have offered us £800 as compensation for the car!!!

I'm near to tears as we have a £250 excess and what sort of car can we get for £550?? We had a nice BMW up until now....

Where can I go from here? Can anyone help?

Rachie

Browntoa

look on loot , local papers etc for equivalent cars of the same age and condition, print them out and send with your refusal of the offer if it supports your valuation of the car

RACHIE77

Browntoa wrote:

look on loot , local papers etc for equivalent cars of the same age and condition, print them out and send with your refusal of the offer if it supports your valuation of the car

Thank-you - I thought i might have to do something like that but it just means that things are going to take time now and we need a car in the meantime! oh well, guess its got to be worth a go... I knew they could be mean but wasn't prepared for that mean!!

thanks Browntoa

fatboyonadiet

www.parkers.co.uk might help or maybe try posting on the Honest John forums, DO NOT accept their first offer, I very much doubt your car had dropped that much in value, they're trying to fob you off with this offer.

RACHIE77

Just phoned the assesor and he's going to look into it, I've told him the cheapest car I can find on autotrader.co.uk is £1,600 with similar cars even going for £2,700.... guess I'd want to accept anything around £1,800+ so I just gotta wait for him to get back to me now.... grrrr ;(

P.s. thanks for all replies

sal

Challenge it!

Never accept the first offer. Write to them, list any improvements you may have made, e.g. cd player, tyres etc. Give examples of equivalent cars for sale. I know someone who easily doubled the payout offered for their write-off.

They will do their very best to avoid paying up but dig your heels in, they are not unbeatable. I was refused a claim on my holiday insurance, I read the policy again and hidden in the small print they were right to refuse, but I objected to their unreasonable clauses and hey presto - I was awarded a full payout without even any excess applied. What a great feeling that was.

Stick to your guns.

Sal

MarkR_2

Will add another voice,; Dont let em get away with it Rachie!
The Insurance company happily took your premiums,now its their turn to pay some money they want to mess about, its just not on! Direct Line messed me about terribly a few years ago, but after contacted the ombudsman suddenly arranged to get my car repaired, had dragged on for weeks prior ( I only went with em cos they were cheap! )
Another good site for car valuation is http://www.whatcar.co.uk/Valuations_Search.asp
In my experience it tends to give the price you would like your car to be worth, wher as Parkers tends to be more realistic what you would get for it in reality, so the What Car price would probabley be a better one to quote to your insurance company, playing them back at thier bartering game. Good luck

Paul_Varjak

When my car was written off, Cornhill offered me the top price straight away so I accepted.

By 'top price' I mean halfway between what you could sell it to a dealer for and what you could sell it for privately (depends on condition). So, it will be somewhat below the prices you have seen in any private ads and a lot lower than you have seen in trade ads.

Make sure that the assessor has got the car details correct and ask him what condition he thinks vehicle was in before crash!

MaccyB_2

Can I ask who you arre insured with so I know to stay clear!!

Sofa_Sogood

Can't help as usual Rachie, but big hugs.

And take the other peoples' advice yeah?

Good luck.

Anya

Make sure you add onto your claim things like petrol. When our car was written off I had just that day filled the tank, so I added it onto the claim. All the little things add up so as someone said before - try to think of any work you've had done fairly recently. Were you all ok afterwards? We used compensation from whiplash to pu towards a new car. It is annoying that when you insure your car for so much - you don't get that much back if anything goes wrong. Our car was similarly insured for about £2000, but we only got £1000 back for it. Definitely argue your case. If the accident wasn't your fault, you could look into getting a hire car until you can get a replacement, the other party's insurance should cover this. Chin up and hope you get it sorted soon!