Car Insurance - Without Drive Assist!

adamc260

stevie19uk wrote: »

You are extremely rude. You know nothing about insurance and how it works.

Your staff are pretty rude whenever I ring them, just thought I'd let you know

wr1ght

to update drive assists car was collected some 4 weeks ago now, i had email confirming no new damage to car and clean etc, havent heard anything from them since so hopefully i have touched lucky ( touches wood )

a4gom

Hi I wonder if someone could give me some advice or advise on who i should talk to. I haven't had chance to read the hundreds of posts so there may be a similar case and advice on how to proceed already on here if so I apologise.
I'll keep it brief but basically my story to date goes like this:
10/11/09 My vehicle was damaged by another party whilst parked in my works car park. I was not with the vehicle at the time but was notified straight away by the other driver who accepted liability for the damage. The car wasn’t badly damaged but the bump had put the airbag warning light on. I contacted Esure told them about the damage and explained I was happy to continue to use my own car but they said I shouldn’t drive my vehicle due to the air bag warning and they would put me in touch with their claims handling company who would arrange the repairs and provide a car for me to use. 11/11/09 Drive assist (DA) contacted me and arranged to drop off a replacement vehicle later that day. I was also contacted by a local garage who wanted to inspected the damage to the vehicle, I was still using my vehicle at this point as the replacement hadn’t turned up so called into the garage for them to inspect the damage. The car came and I signed for it, I questioned the hire charges both with esure and DA but was assured it wouldn’t be an issue as it wasn’t my fault. The other parties insurer contacted me a couple of days later and accepted liability offering help, I explained what had happened and told them Esure and DA were dealing with it. 19/11/09 I received a letter received from Drive assist saying the vehicle was damaged beyond economical repair and that I should transfer my cherished number as soon as possible, this I did, posting my transfer application the next day. On the 23/11/09 I received a letter from Incident Management Solutions (IMS) with an offer of settlement and request for my documentation. I called IMS regarding the documentation and the fact I was happy to accept the offer but my V5 etc was with the DVLA, I asked whether I should send what I had and forward V5 when it was returned or send all together when available, I was instructed to do the latter.
After approximately 1 week I had a number of telephone calls with DA and IMS chasing the progress of the paperwork, I explained it was still with the DVLA and that I had called but they said it could take 14 days after receipt, call back then. 14/12/09 I called the DVLA again and they told me it had been dealt with and was in the post. 16/12/09 I received the letter confirming the transfer of the number and details of new number for the vehicle. 17/12/09 I completed total loss Agreement Form provided by IMS and returned it to them by 1st Class recorded delivery complete with required documentation and letter from DVLA confirming the transfer and the new number.
I expected settlement of the claim, removal of the damaged vehicle and collection of the Courtesy car would happen the next week as up to that point dialogue between myself and DA had been regular and I was under the impression they wanted to bring the matter to a close as soon as possible. This however was not the case, I heard nothing the next week, we were then into Christmas period, I tried to call IMS and DA on the 29th but had no response to my calls, I expect they were closed for the holidays? On my return to work on the 04/01/10 I emailed DA to see what the position was but got no response to my mail, after a couple of days I contacted IMS who said they would look into it, when they eventually got back to me they said they had passed the information to DA who would be in touch with me shortly. I then contacted DA who said it had been passed to their finance section for approval, they would process the cheque and I would be contacted as soon as it was ready giving me 7 days notice that they would be collecting the courtesy car. I said I was happy for them to take the car but they said that this was the procedure. A few days later I still hadn’t heard anything so called DA again, they said they would look into it and get back to me. Eventually on the 12th I received a call telling me the claim had been settled, that my cheque was in the post and that the car would be collected on the 19/01/10. I received the cheque, the courtesy car was collected and another company came and took away the damaged vehicle. I thought this was the end of it until I received a letter from Drive Assist two weeks ago telling me they had been unable to recover all the costs and that they would be appointing a solicitor on my behalf as the costs were my responsibility! Yesterday I received another letter confirming they have appointed a solicitor, today I received a letter from the solicitor with all sorts of forms to complete and a conditional fee agreement to sign. (no win no fee)
If only I’d been more aware!!
I had agreed to the car been written off and to the value of the car 2 weeks in but DA managed to stretch it out for another 8 weeks! I needed a car and couldn’t buy another until I had been paid out. Having never done this before I trusted Esure and assumed everything was ok. But obviously not. Now I’m stuck where to turn, should I sign up with this solicitor? Presumably if I don’t DA will expect me to pay the outstanding charges?
HELP PLEASE!

wr1ght

Did you get the option to take out a policy in the instance they couldn't recover the costs? it cost £10

A_B_2

a4gom - Im in a similar situation, someone wrote my car off in Dec 08. Claim settled fairly quickly, Drive Assist provided me with a car over Christmas/New Year and my insurance assured me that I wasnt going to have to pay for any of the costs as it wasnt my fault etc. Heard nothing until May 09 when DA wrote and said they didnt manage to reclaim the costs and could i sign a "statement of truth" to say I knew i was liable for the costs! I didnt sign. Went quiet again, then I got a letter Aug 09 saying I would be hearing from a solicitor they appointed on my behalf. I then contacted the financial ombudsman - the only way to get a response from M&S who I took the insurance with.
I never heard from the solicitor but I did get another request to sign the statement of truth! Have written several times to M&S to get to the bottom of it all! Its over 18 months after the incident which wasnt my fault and I dont see how I should end up out of pocket!
I'm not sure you should sign anything to do with DA's solicitors!! I havent heard from them yet but if I do I will seek my own legal advice! I dont trust them! Like you, I have never been in this situation so I had no idea what to expect!

moneytree

Thank goodness for the internet and in particular MSE.

I've also been involved in a crash, which wasn't my fault, called my insurer yesterday they arranged for my car to go to the garage to be assessed and gave me the number for driver asssit.

Spoke to Drive Assist a few times today and got a really bad feeling about them, specially when I asked about their success rate in claming money back from the third parties. They said they didn't have figures. I argued that surely a company which is based on claming back on so called 'no fault accidents' would know the figures off the top of their heads. Eventually I got put through to a Manager who also claimed not to have the figures or an answer as to why they were 100% sure I'd win my claim BUT there was a slight chance I might not, surely some contradiction?

Decided to do some googling, ending up here and have decided my gut instinct was right.

Thanks everyone for your postings about drive assist.

SophieE

I've just come across these posts - and several more after feeling a little suspicious of Drive Assist and 'Googling' them.
They should have been dropping me a hire car off tomorrow, but I have now called and cancelled it.
I had an accident on Saturday, was rear-ended, and my insurance company Direct Line put me through to Drive Assist as their 'preferred' non-fault courtesy car company. There was just a niggle in the back of my mind really, there was something I didn't like about then way they seemed when I spoke to them, so I had a look on the internet and I'm so glad I did.
I already have a guaranteed hire car on my insurance policy - through Enterprise. And come to think of it, I have (unfortunately) claimed twice in the last 3 years, both times not my fault, and no dispute over that either; but both times Direct Line have only given me my hire car from Enterprise for two weeks.
I'm not sure what's going on there really, dodginess from both companies really. Anyway, needless to say that after reading all of your comments I got onto the phone to Direct Line straight away to cancel the hire car with Drive Assist, and to put me in touch with Enterprise instead. The girl at Direct Line didn't seem the slightest bit surprised that I'd heard bad press about Drive Assist and didn't want to use them....

dacouch

SophieE do you know the name of the Insurance company of the other driver, if so just give them a ring and explain you need a car. If they accept they are at fault they will arrange a like for like car at their own cost with no risk to you. They will appreciate you contacting them as it will save them a fortune over paying Drive Assists hire costs.

If you don't know the Insurance company you can find them, the policy number and even the contact number from this website for a small fee (It provides the data the police use to confirm insurance is in place) providing you have the reg number https://www.askmid.com

P.S Welcome to MSE, have a look around as there are lots of useful parts you may find helpful. If you need any advice on your claim, feel free to post a question as we all like to help.

P.P.S Well done for being intelligent enough to google a company before you do business with them

Sunday_Morning

Wow! Incredible to think this thread is still running! It's sad in a way because it obviously proves Drive Assist are till up to the same tricks they were trying on me all that time back, but great as well because it gives folks an opportunity to get wise to them. I've read through all the posts today and there's some great stuff on here with kudos to Dacouch.

I was coming on the site again after a long absence to enquire about car insurance when I saw a post had been made to this old familiar thread!

I was glad I got my particular case resolved all that time ago but the fact problems still remain begs the question..... if I've no interest in getting mixed up with Drive Assist again, does it make sense to avoid paying additional on my upcoming insurance to cover the use of a courtesy car?

dacouch

Glad to b of assistance Sunday Morning.

A courtesy car is different to what Drive Assist offer.

DA offer a "Credit Hire" which is a hire car but at a higher price, they will only offer it if you are not at fault and there is another Insurer for them to claim the money from. Depending on what agreement you have with DA you might be responsible for the cost of the car if they cannot recover the hire costs from the other Insurer.

A "Courtesy car" is typically provided by the Insurers approved repairer irrespective of whether you are at fault. The car is typically given to you whilst the car is actually being repaired by the garage. Most courtesy cars are not given once your car is written off.

A "Guaranteed courtesy car will normally be provided for a set period irrespective of whether you are at fault and often even if your car is written off.