HELP ! Car Insurance Claim - AA/Helphire

jemball

Last week I had an accident which was not my fault. My insurance company, the AA, gave me one option of paying the excess of £100 and using up one of my 2 claims from my protected no-claims discount facility. The other option was to use a company called Helphire who undertake to pursue the claim on my behalf and provide a repair and temporary hire vehicle facility.

Helphire promise that I will not have to pay anything even if the claim fails provided I pay £10 for an insurance policy. However, there is no facility to request this policy in the the documents provided. I also have to sign a vehicle hire agreement with Helpline, and also pay a Collision Damage Waiver of up to £40 max (if I do not want an excess of £100 applying). Also I have to sign a 'Combined Credit Agreement' which amongst many things is 'exempt' from the Consumer Credit Act 1974 and has me agree to pay for the hire of the car if they have not settled the claim within 51 weeks (although they say this is covered by the £10 insurance policy).

If I take option 1 I effectively share the blame for the accident, but if I use Helphire I feel that there are too many angles/unknowns involved. I can't understand why the AA don't wish to pursue the claim on my behalf.

I would greatly appreciate any advice, especially from anybody who has experience of Helphire.

smugbear2007

helphire are dodgy, give your local enterprise rent-a-car branch a call with the accident details, and if they feel its strong enough that they can claim against the other insurer then that is their risk to take.if liability isnt agreed in your favour then you dont pay a penny.only have to pay £50 deposit, and your tp insurance and your excess just transfers over on to the rental car, so you are no worse off than if you were driving your own car.

jemball

Smugbear, Thanks for your advice. Why do you say that Helphire are dodgy?

Mr_Bear_2

what helphire say isnt actually true - after 51 weeks if the hire isnt paid by the TP they will have to get the money from you else the agreement isnt enforceable.

If you can hire via Enterprise or Avis then do so, as Insurers will generally pay those but will very much query Drive Assist or Helphire!

V_tricky

Insurers look at all hire fairly closely, but Helphire are well established in the field of credit hire - and will negotiate with the insurers they're claiming the money back from, and Drive Assist are okay - insurers REALLY look at much smaller operations much more closely, and Accident Exchange who are somewhat notorious for overcharging, providing the biggest vehicle possible, claiming for extras that are standard, giving unreasonably long hires etc.

What the customer satisfaction of these companies is, I don't know though and I guess that's the bottom line.

Mr_Bear_2

Insuers still scour even the big cred it hire companies - accident xchange, drive assist and helphire

the 10 pound policy does not mean anything - if the Insurers find out it completely voids the agreement!

V_tricky

Mr_Bear wrote: »

Insuers still scour even the big cred it hire companies - accident xchange, drive assist and helphire

the 10 pound policy does not mean anything - if the Insurers find out it completely voids the agreement!

All hire, whether paid hire or credit hire is looked at fairly closely in terms of what vehicle was hired, ig a like for like vehicle was hired - what was the reason, how long the vehicle was hired for etc.

As for the £10 inemndity policy, I can categorically state that insurers do not give a fig.

The credit hire market used to be full of 'dodgy' operators, with hundreds of different terms & conditions which mean that each individual case used to have to be looked at in minute detail - reading in full the contracts relating to the hire to ensure that they were legally enforceable.

Thankfully, those days are long gone, and since the introduction of the ABI GTA, particularly in relation to First Tier suppliers the market has stablilized dramatically. First Tier Credit hire companies (like all the one's name checked) are no longer in the main looked at as parasites, their charges are agreed with the ABI and they follow a regulated practice. There are always individual cases which fall out of the GTA, but the industry has worked out that it is considerably cheaper to work together than at each other.

http://www.abi.org.uk/tphire/

In Documents is the full ABI GTA,
First Tier lists all the first tier suppliers,
and New maximum settlement rates wef 1st April 2006 is a document showing all of the agreed rates for vehicles so that all first tier suppliers charge the same as each other.

Hey_Dude

Helphire - dodgy - no.

Helphire - all they want to do is stick you in a hire car - for as long as possible - and get the fault Insurer to foot the bill.

Dude