Car Insurance - Without Drive Assist!

Sunday_Morning

Cheers dacouch. I guess, and I think I've seen you state this on the thread, the trick is to insist upon the courtesy car and not take up the "offer" of having one provided by DA. The thing is following the incident and the subsequent hire which led to me starting up this thread, I had no idea that the two things were separate. I just assumed that the courtesy car I was entitled to in my policy was the one I was being given....I can't remember the choice being offered. Older but wiser now! Like so many things what we are offered in the cicumstances does not represent the full range of the options actually available and it's up to us to know what we can have and to demand what we are entitled to.

dacouch

It's something that really annoys me as there is a major difference between a courtesy car and a credit hire car which can potentially end up costing you thousands (I have seen a poster on Honest Johns forum who received a bill of over £15000 for credit hire).

Unfortunately there is little regulation of the credit hire market, with a lot of the rules being made up by case law.

In an ideal world it would be nice if credit hire companies and the Insurers claims depts do not refer to a credit hire car as a courtesy car. If you look at a lot of the posters on here or the other credit hire threads they think they are in a courtesy car as that is what they are told it is.

One thing that is certain is that DA have not made many changes since BBC Watchdog featured them which is surprising as most market leaders would implement changes and keep to them after an expose like that

Sunday_Morning

dacouch

I was on HSBC's site today getting a quote for my car insurance (which proved way more expensive then others I'd had). anyway the initial blurb referred to a "free courtesy car". Interestingly this showed up at the end with a "already included" next to the label "hire car service"!

ButterflyLuv

Hi All,

Normally Im just a 'looker' on this website, but I've just registered because I feel so strongly about this topic after a hellish 2 days!!!!! This website has been an absolute saviour to me today and by the looks of it saved me from a lot of heartache and stress.

Here is my story (and escape from Drive Assist) Sorry if its long and slightly complicated but it just reflects the past 2 days of my life dealing with it. Basically, someone hit the back of my car in the car park while I was in the hospital. I came out to discover a note on my windshield from a lady saying she had hit my car and was sorry. I was so relieved that there were contact details on this note!! Thank goodness there are still some honest ppl out there. Anyway, I called Direct Line (my company) and told them about the accident and that this lady was claiming liability. I was called immediately the next day by the repair company and I was happy that they were going to collect my car, get it repaired and deliver it back to my door. All great service and hassle free (It was collected earlier today so no problems so far with this aspect) Next on the phone to me was Drive Assist, who I assumed was also a company that Direct Line had given my details to in order to sort me out with a courtesy car while my own car was being fixed. They seemed extremely eager and pushy but I started the ball rolling with them. They knew the details of the lady who had hit me etc so I certainly had no reason to suspect anything was odd. Next I get a call from someone at a 'head office' somewhere wanting to get my hire car sorted for me and asking me for the details of the third party involved. This sparks questions for me because the guy I had already spoken to from Drive Assist had already relayed her details to ME so they obviously had her details on their system somewhere. I tell this person that I don't have the details handy right now because I was at work. They say they will call me back.

Meanwhile Im left very confused and my gut instincts were telling me that something didn't seem right. I had been on to Direct Line many times by this point and couldn't get a straight answer as to what was going on. I seemed to be doing all the work in organising my own courtesy car, particularly when I wasn't even to blame for the accident. Finally I find out that they have NOT instructed Drive Assist to contact me. So, I then decide to call the 'head office' number back, which turns out to be Enterprise, not Drive Assist!!!!!!! Up until this point I have been unaware that I have been engaging with 2 different bloomin companies, both offering me a hire car! By this stage, Drive Assist have gotten so far as to get a cover note from Direct Line, I have details of the car I am going to receive etc and everything had basically been organised. (note here also that I asked for an equivalent of my car but they were offering me a higher spec one Ggrrr)

I consider myself just an ordinary citizen who doesn't know much at all about how things are supposed to work in the insurance world. I found this whole thing extremely stressful and upsetting, I am over 6 months pregnant and just felt that no one would explain anything to me in lay terms and I was getting very emotional and frustrated. Drive Assist had taken my debit card number which was the final straw for me and I was really concerned. I decided to google them and up came this link. Needless to say I was absolutely panic stricken knowing I was getting the hire car tomorrow morning. I decided to call the third party's insurance company to ask if they had instructed Drive Assist to contact me and they too knew nothing about them!!! They told me I could cancel the Drive Assist and they would pass my details on to their own car company and I could be assured it would be paid for under the lady's policy. I asked why this had not happened automatically and they said they had only just received the letter from Direct Line today.

So basically, Drive Assist AND Enterprise were both given my details from someone and got to me first! It wasn't Direct Line, it wasn't the third party's insurance company - so who the hell was it? I called the repair company and explicitly asked if they had passed my details onto to any car hire companies and they told me "NO". I then got my husband to call Drive Assist to cancel the hire car, but also to ask where they got my details from. Said they would call us back!!! They eventually call us back and tell us it was the repair company!!!! (much to my pure anger)

There are no words to describe how utterly frustrating this whole process has been. I can't believe that 1) My insurance company didn't sort this out for me or explain it to me in more detail 2) car hire companies get away with contacting clients as if they have been instructed as part of the claim 3) It is not made clear that they are a 'hire company', not a supplier of courtesy cars, or the fact that if they don't get the money back from the third party, they will take it off us! (along with any 'imaginery damage' charges made to their cars from what Ive read on this forum)

Im very sorry to hear that you have all suffered at the hands of Drive Assist with various issues. I do thank all who have contributed to this forum thread though in helping others from falling at the same fate. For this I am very grateful.

Drive Assist should be ashamed and banned from trading. The process of non-fault replacement cars should be a lot smoother and organised by the insurance companies and clearly stated as 'courtesy car'. Hire car companies shouldn't be allowed to contact us, its ridiculous. Im a lot more clued in now and will know in future to just contact the third party insurance company to sort out the 'replacement car' that I am entitled to.

Funnily, when my husband told Drive Assist that we wanted to cancel the car because we had read 'awful reviews' about them, they just laughed at him. Clearly they know their reputation and don't give a rat's !!!.

dacouch

Welcome to MSE butterflylover, you had a lucky escape, it's good that you discovered via MSE that you could simply ring the other Insurer and get a hire car at no risk to yourself.

By doing so you have also reduced the costs of the claim to the other Insurer massively which helps keeps premiums down as well.

Out of interest what sort of car do you have, if you let us know we can tell you how much a day Drive Assist would try to charge the other Insurer and the amount you could potentially have had to pay if DA could not recover the costs from the other Insurer.

P.S Have a look around MSE, it's a great site with loads of helpful advice, there will be threads on things you will find helpful eg shopping discount codes, parent hood etc etc...enjoy

ButterflyLuv

Thanks DaCouch. I shall definiteyl have a look round the site, particularly at some of the parenthood threads etc, could be interesting for me at this time

My car is a Vauxhall Corsa 1.2 Club but Drive Assist were going to give me an SXI model, which Direct Line were going to charge me £50 for until I complained! (due to it being higher spec than mine)

I have just collected my replacement car from Enterprise through the third party's insurance company and it has taken all of one phone call to sort it out. If only I'd known!

dacouch

DA would have charged the other Insurer about £33.50 a day for an Corsa 1.2 which over a long period can add up, the other Insurer will probably be paying Enterprise about £12.00 a day for the same car.

DA have a cheek asking you to cover their own car that they already have insured for hire use, I've never heard of them doing that

Diamond78

Wish I had read this before I allowed DA to deliver their car. Mine is a long story which I wrote about on the motor section regarding an accident I had. They delievered me a car today but its to big for me to drive and they are causing me a lot of difficulty with taking the car back and cancelling the agreement. My car was only small but they delievred me a big BMW. They keep telling me different things and when I told them I would be going through the third paty insurance, now they will not collect the car until Thursday which means I cannot get a courtesy car until the car on my drive is gone. Never again will I deal with this company. Only person I spoke to out of at least 10 people has been nice and helpful from that company. So many people have had bad dealings with them and I have not even driven the car.

Diamond78

Does anyone know the complaint procedure for Drive Assist please? I have read through some of this thread but can't seem to find the details, if anyone has a link for me, I would really appreciate it.Many thanks.

Mellamolin

dacouch wrote: »

DA would have charged the other Insurer about £33.50 a day for an Corsa 1.2 which over a long period can add up, the other Insurer will probably be paying Enterprise about £12.00 a day for the same car.

DA have a cheek asking you to cover their own car that they already have insured for hire use, I've never heard of them doing that

My son is have a similar problem! Last July (2009) his car was hit in his works carpark by a van. He rang Morethan (thats another story) to report it and within a short time had a telephone call on his mobile from Drive Assist saying that it had been agreed that he was not at fault and they were going to supply him with a "courtesy car free of charge" - no mention of it being a hire car. It was delivered within a couple of hours and he was asked to sign an electronic hand held computer to acknowledge receipt of the car.
5 days later, he received a letter from Drive Assist telling him how to access the information pack with " an explanation of how our service works and your obligation PRIOR to the vehicles arrival" on line!
The car supplied was a Ford Focus top of the range model at a cost of £53.75 per day. He only drives 1.5 miles to work every day, so a push bike would have done!
Luckily he sent it back after 9 days when the other person's insurer explained about Drive Assist and advised him to get rid asap. They provide a proper courtesy car completly free of charge.
2 weeks after that, he gets a letter asking him to sign a "statement of truth" confirming that he knew the vehicle was a hire vechicle and not a courtesy car and that he understood that he was liable for the charges. Obviously, he didn't sign it , but only after seeing this website and others problems with Drive Assist.
Anyway, 14 months later (Sept 2010) he gets a letter from a solicitor asking him to sign a similar statement so that they can recover the money from the other insurer as the other insurer is disputing the basis on which the car was supplied.
Again, the disclaimer is not going to be signed, but any advice is welcome on how to proceed/how my son stands on this.
How long can this company get away with this?. They seem to target vulnerable people who are still in shock after the accident!