Don't get mugged by your insurer

philtrainer

Had a call from Direct Response saying I was eligible for some compensation because of a car accident. Said the insurance company is not required to tell us we're owed something but claim it themselves if we don't....sounded like a scam to me but wondered if anyone on here knows anything about this? Was my wife driving and her fault but kids were in the car and Direct Response said the money was due to them being in the car. They weren't hurt though...any suggestions on what this is about?

Ebe_Scrooge

It's ambulance-chasing parasites, utter scum-bags. They're hoping to claim totally unwarranted compo on your behalf, then pocket a big fat fee / percentage for themselves. It's the most common scam around.


Ask yourself this : what financial loss has your wife suffered as a result of her not being hurt in the accident ? That's the amount of compensation you could reasonably be entitled to.


Aside from that, it's scum like this that simply push up premiums for the rest of us.


Oh, and the bit about your insurance company claiming it for themselves is utter codswallop. You're not "due" anything.

philtrainer

Thanks, I think that's what I presumed. I was just a bit confused by the fact he said the insurance company would claim something due to us if we didn't claim it ourselves.

rudekid48

philtrainer wrote: »

Thanks, I think that's what I presumed. I was just a bit confused by the fact he said the insurance company would claim something due to us if we didn't claim it ourselves.

Who would the insurer claim it from - themselves?

Ebe_Scrooge

philtrainer wrote: »

Thanks, I think that's what I presumed. I was just a bit confused by the fact he said the insurance company would claim something due to us if we didn't claim it ourselves.

He was just telling a bare-faced lie - as I say, they're all utter scum-bags. I regularly get calls from them about the compensation I can claim for my accident. Despite the fact that I can honestly say I've never never been involved in an accident in my life.


Top tip - it's fun to string them along for as long as possible, keep them on the phone and waste their time. I can usually manage about 10 minutes until they ask me about the nature of my injuries. At which point I tell them I was actually killed, but thankfully I'm a Buddhist and was reincarnated. Oddly, they tend to hang up at that point :rotfl:

IamNotAllowedToUseMyName

I've evolved a withering

"What a waste of your life"

as the only thing I say when I get one of these calls. I do not feel any empathy for these call centre workers, they are involved in criminal deception.

Nodding_Donkey

philtrainer wrote: »

Had a call from Direct Response saying I was eligible for some compensation because of a car accident. Said the insurance company is not required to tell us we're owed something but claim it themselves if we don't....sounded like a scam to me but wondered if anyone on here knows anything about this? Was my wife driving and her fault but kids were in the car and Direct Response said the money was due to them being in the car. They weren't hurt though...any suggestions on what this is about?

So they are saying that your wife's insurance company could claim on the kids behalf off of themselves?

What a complete load of boll&^%s

Aretnap

philtrainer wrote: »

Thanks, I think that's what I presumed. I was just a bit confused by the fact he said the insurance company would claim something due to us if we didn't claim it ourselves.

This is basically not true.

The justification, such as it is, for the claim is that for accounting purposes your wife's insurer will have set aside a sum of money just in case your children try to make an injury claim at some point. (They have to be able to show the regulators that they have enough cash to pay out reasonably foreseeable future claims and are not at risk of insolvency). If a claim never shows up then this cash will no longer be set aside and will go back into the insurer's general pot of money.

It is quite a distortion of the facts though to claim that there's a pile of money somewhere that you're entitled to and the insurers will claim it if you don't. Your insurer certainly doesn't become richer as a result of you crashing and not claiming, as opposed to not crashing at all - all that happens is that the the insurer's accountants move money from one column to another in the spreadsheet, and then back again.

(Your wife cannot make a claim for an injury caused by her own fault, but in theory had the children been injured they could have claimed against your wife, and her insurer. A passanger who is injured by careless driving has a claim against the driver, and that claim doesn't go away just because they happen to be related. But if the children weren't injured that's academic. Essentially the caller is trying to persuade you to make a fraudulent injury claim on behalf of your children. Apart from anything else this would involve telling your children to lie about being injured, which doesn't seem like a very nice thing to do.)

Stufrog

If you’re physically injured in a road traffic accident you may be approached by the other person’s insurer. They may try to settle a claim with you. This is called third party assistance. However, it’s significant to know that you don’t have to speak to the other insurer. In fact they won’t be acting in your best interests. This is well documented.

There was a big campaign pubished by The Law Society in 2013 warning people that you can seek free legal advice before speaking to your insurer. This law blog published about it: https://www.phc-law.com/phc-blog/dont-get-mugged-accident-claim/

I used to work in the legal industry and insurers are profit making machines - they will never act in your best interests. So if you are injured at work or in an RTA, get your insurer to sort your car damage out but go to a no win no fee solicitor to claim injury compensation. Yes law firm charge commission (normally around 20%-25%) BUT you will get more compensation from a lawyer than you will from an insurer.

The Law Society states: "Accident victims who turn down an insurer's initial offer and take legal advice from a solicitor get on average 2-3 times more compensation".

This is a VERY HOT TOPIC now. There is an argument that the new Ministry of Justice reforms on personal injury claims are ‘captive’ to the interests of insurers. Only 2 days ago David Parkin, deputy director for civil justice and law at the MoJ, denired this: https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/moj-chief-denies-whiplash-portal-is-in-hock-to-insurers/5069235.article

There is a strong political argument that the current coalition government has been actively lobbied by the big insurers over the past decade to make it harder to claim injury compensation. Well it is a big lie that there is an compensation culture in the UK. Ireland, France, and Germany pay out more for injury than the UK does.

The insurance companies have too much power in the UK. Google it. It's a part of the laissez-faire (anything goes) capitalist economy we're all now living in while the poorest in society pay the price.

jimbo6977

Stufrog wrote: »

If you’re physically injured in a road traffic accident you may be approached by the other person’s insurer. They may try to settle a claim with you. This is called third party assistance. However, it’s significant to know that you don’t have to speak to the other insurer. In fact they won’t be acting in your best interests. This is well documented.

There was a big campaign pubished by The Law Society in 2013 warning people that you can seek free legal advice before speaking to your insurer. This law blog published about it: https://www.phc-law.com/phc-blog/dont-get-mugged-accident-claim/

I used to work in the legal industry and insurers are profit making machines - they will never act in your best interests. So if you are injured at work or in an RTA, get your insurer to sort your car damage out but go to a no win no fee solicitor to claim injury compensation. Yes law firm charge commission (normally around 20%-25%) BUT you will get more compensation from a lawyer than you will from an insurer.

The Law Society states: "Accident victims who turn down an insurer's initial offer and take legal advice from a solicitor get on average 2-3 times more compensation".

This is a VERY HOT TOPIC now. There is an argument that the new Ministry of Justice reforms on personal injury claims are ‘captive’ to the interests of insurers. Only 2 days ago David Parkin, deputy director for civil justice and law at the MoJ, denired this: https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/moj-chief-denies-whiplash-portal-is-in-hock-to-insurers/5069235.article

There is a strong political argument that the current coalition government has been actively lobbied by the big insurers over the past decade to make it harder to claim injury compensation. Well it is a big lie that there is an compensation culture in the UK. Ireland, France, and Germany pay out more for injury than the UK does.

The insurance companies have too much power in the UK. Google it. It's a part of the laissez-faire (anything goes) capitalist economy we're all now living in while the poorest in society pay the price.

Meanwhile, 1 in 5 MP's is/was a solicitor or barrister.

Stufrog

Exactly. But on the other end of this loony scale who can forget Liz Truss, appointed Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor in 2016. She had no legal experience or qualification.