Diamond car insurance, not happy!

sarah7610

In May of this year my partner bought a car for £1,900 so his daughter could start a new job. She only passed her test last December so we shopped around for the cheapest insurance. We went with Diamond although it still cost us £277 a month.
A couple of weeks ago she was stationery at a roundabout when a Renault Traffic van ran into the back of her at approximately 25 mph, (police estimation). We had a message from the police explaining they were investigating the van driver as he was allegedly texting on his mobile phone at the time of the accident.
Since then, we have had this from the insurer:

Market Value: £2,800.00

Less Excess: £600

Less Remaining Insurance Premium: £1,895.88

Net Settlement Figure: £304.12

I understand we haven't been paying the premiums very long but I thought it was claimed from the other drivers insurance. We feel like we have been ripped off here, surely the whole part of being insured is so that you are not left out of pocket if it is not your fault. We're seriously out of pocket now because of some moron on his phone. I bet it won't even affect the van driver if it's a work van!!!

Not impressed at all
:mad:

Quentin

To avoid paying her excess next time she is involved in an incident where she is blameless and another party is liable then consider claiming directly off the third party insurer.


As it stands she needs to claim back her excess along with any other uninsured losses direct from the third party insurer


(You agreed the excess when taking out the policy - which doesn't cover the excess)


As you are making at least £900 on the claim, (their valuation v what you paid for the car) it's hard to follow how you are "out of pocket"!!


If she gets a replacement car that is acceptable to her insurer then they will let the policy continue

sarah7610

Sorry, am I missing something? We bought the car for £1,900 and we get £304 off the insurance. There is no replacement car.
Forgive my ignorance but we have never claimed from car insurance before.

Quentin

The £304 is after paying the excess (which she will get back off the third party insurer) and the outstanding annual premium.


So total will be £2800 for a car you/she paid only £1900 for

Aretnap

sarah7610 wrote: »

Sorry, am I missing something? We bought the car for £1,900 and we get £304 off the insurance. There is no replacement car.
Forgive my ignorance but we have never claimed from car insurance before.

£304 cash
£600 excess - which she agreed to pay when she took out the policy, and which she can claim from the at fault driver's insurance.
1892 - remainder of the annual premium, which she would have to have paid anyway.

Total £2800

This is quite standard - except that it's unusual for the car to ve valued at nearly £1000 more than she paid for it.

The thing to do now is get a replacement car. The insurer will allow her to transfer the remaining months of her policy to the new car, possibly subject to payment of any difference in the premium if the new one is more expensive to insure (check this before she chooses a new one). There'll be no further monthly payments to make as the policy has now been paid up in full.

So if she can find an identical car for the same price as she paid for the old one then at the end of the year she'll be £900 better off than she would have been had the accident not happened (less a bit of interest if she needs to borrow the money). Or she could spend up to £2800 and end us as well off in cash terms - but with (hopefully) a nicer car.

There is indeed a bit of hassle with having her excess deducted from the payout and having to reclaim it from the third party insurer, but the excess is deducted from any claim you make on your own policy, regardless of fault. It's a bit late now, but her alternative was to bypass her own policy and go direct to the third party's insurer who (assuming there was no dispute over liability) would have paid her the full value of her car with no deductions, though it's not certain that their valuation would have been as generous as Diamond's, and she'd still owe the outstanding payments on her Diamond policy.

sarah7610 wrote: »

I bet it won't even affect the van driver if it's a work van!!!

The police are dealing with him. The job of insurance companies is to fix people's cars when they get broken - not to punish bad drivers for wrongdoing.

[Deleted User]

sarah7610 wrote: »

In May of this year my partner bought a car for £1,900 so his daughter could start a new job. She only passed her test last December so we shopped around for the cheapest insurance. We went with Diamond although it still cost us £277 a month.
A couple of weeks ago she was stationery at a roundabout when a Renault Traffic van ran into the back of her at approximately 25 mph, (police estimation). We had a message from the police explaining they were investigating the van driver as he was allegedly texting on his mobile phone at the time of the accident.
Since then, we have had this from the insurer:

Market Value: £2,800.00

Less Excess: £600

Less Remaining Insurance Premium: £1,895.88

Net Settlement Figure: £304.12

I understand we haven't been paying the premiums very long but I thought it was claimed from the other drivers insurance. We feel like we have been ripped off here, surely the whole part of being insured is so that you are not left out of pocket if it is not your fault. We're seriously out of pocket now because of some moron on his phone. I bet it won't even affect the van driver if it's a work van!!!

Not impressed at all
:mad:

Check your policy to see if you took out Motor Legal Protection as an optional extra. If so then Diamond's legal people (called Diamond Law I believe) will seek to recover the excess at no cost to you and it won't affect your NCB or premium to use that service. Sadly, they wouldn't be able to recover loss of value etc.

sarah7610

Thankyou too all the replies, we get it now.

As far as getting her another car and transfering the insurance, that won't be happening, we've spent enough on her.
We've spoken to Diamond Law and they won't speak to anyone but my step daughter even though we own the car that they have, paid the insurance premiums and will have to pay any other charges, so now we have to try and get her to our house, (she lives 35 miles away) to phone them with a list of questions.

Anyway, thankyou for all the helpful replies because of which we can now move forward x

[Deleted User]

For clarity, Diamond Law are a solicitor's firm and are regulated by different rules to the insurance company. As your daughter was in charge of the vehicle at the time, she is their client and they can only take instructions from their client.

takman

sarah7610 wrote: »

Thankyou too all the replies, we get it now.

As far as getting her another car and transfering the insurance, that won't be happening, we've spent enough on her.
We've spoken to Diamond Law and they won't speak to anyone but my step daughter even though we own the car that they have, paid the insurance premiums and will have to pay any other charges, so now we have to try and get her to our house, (she lives 35 miles away) to phone them with a list of questions.

Anyway, thankyou for all the helpful replies because of which we can now move forward x

That seems very unfair considering the accident doesn't seem to be her fault. If you have already committed to paying for the insurance for a year then you should at least use £1,895.88 plus the £304.12 insurance payout to buy a new car and put on the policy.

By doing this you will be no worse off than you would have been if she didn't have the accident. If you don't buy her a new car then you will be in a better financial position than before and she will loose out due to no fault of her own.

alchemist.1

takman wrote: »

That seems very unfair considering the accident doesn't seem to be her fault. If you have already committed to paying for the insurance for a year then you should at least use £1,895.88 plus the £304.12 insurance payout to buy a new car and put on the policy.

By doing this you will be no worse off than you would have been if she didn't have the accident. If you don't buy her a new car then you will be in a better financial position than before and she will loose out due to no fault of her own.

They cant use the 1895.88 to buy a new car. That is the cost of the annual motor policy (being paid in instalments) which needs to be deducted off the total loss settlement.

I'm surprised they didnt refer her to a hire/accident management company if it was a straight forward accident (from the circs it seems to be the case).

Aretnap

alchemist.1 wrote: »

They cant use the 1895.88 to buy a new car. That is the cost of the annual motor policy (being paid in instalments) which needs to be deducted off the total loss settlement.

However it's£1895 that they were going to have to pay over the next few months, and had presumably budgeted for, and now will not have to pay.
So it's money that they can spend on something else, eg a new car. If they don't have the ready cash right now they could at worst borrow the money, and use the money they would have been spending on monthly insurance payments on loan repayments instead - meaning no net loss (besides a little interest).