Credit Hire Company

Ryanmg0583

My wife was involved in an accident on Monday. The accident was not her fault. She informed our insurance company, who arranged a hire car through Auto Claims Direct, who are a credit hire company. No offer was made to arrange a hire car by claiming through our own insurance. She was also advised not to speak to the other driver's insurers.

The other driver's insurers then phoned her later the same day, and asked about whether a hire car was required. My wife told them one had already been arranged, but they asked if they could send an alternative offer out. She agreed to this.

Today, she's received a letter from the other driver's insurers offering a hire car at a lower rate than the credit hire company.

My question is if she doesn't accept this offer, does that make it likely that the other driver's insurers will refuse to pay the credit hire company, with the evidence that we didn't try to mitigate our losses as we didn't accept their offer? If that happens, and it gets dragged out in court, the contract she's signed seems to say that she's liable for the costs after 1 year.

I'm also worried as, strictly speaking, we could cover the cost of the hire car ourselves. No one asked my wife this when the credit hire agreement was made.

dacouch

Why do you not want to take the offer of the cheaper hire car?

If you can reasonably afford to fiance the normal cost of hiring a car should the matter go to court or go through pre court process. The third party Insurers will request your bank statements and credit card statements to see if you could afford it

By signing the credit hire agreement you have agreed to assist the CHI company with any court cases so will be obliged to provide these. If you don't they will pass the overall bill to you.

The CHi company should have asked you if you could afford the normal cost of a hire car but as there is so much money involved for them they often over look it.

In your position I would be using the third party Insurers offer

Ryanmg0583

Thanks for your reply.

She's reluctant to accept the offer for a couple of reasons:

1. She's already had the hire car from the credit hire company for 4 days. Although there's a 14 day cancellation period, it looks like she'd be liable for the costs incurred up to this point, which I think is around £250.

2. Our insurers specifically told me wife not to accept any offer made by the other driver's insurers.

dacouch

Your insurers are likely to have received an introducers fee of circa £300, hence why they don't want you to speak to the TPI.

If you're worried about costs incurred this far, the TPI Insurer will almost certainly pay them if you speak to them.

As you can see from the daily cost on the credit hire form you signed it is well in excess of what the TPI Insurer can hire the same car for so it's in their interests to pay costs incurred and get you in their cheaper car.

As I mentioned before, they can request your bank statements etc to see if you could have afforded the car. They are more likely to do this on larger claims.

If you use the tpi for the hire they will not care about whether you can afford or not

AdrianC

Ryanmg0583 wrote: »

2. Our insurers specifically told me wife not to accept any offer made by the other driver's insurers.

Your insurer? Or the third-party credit-hire car provider.

"Should I hire a car cheaper from somebody else?"
No! Hire ours! It might be expensive, but the sky will fall on your head if you don't! Honest...!

Ryanmg0583

Thanks for your reply.

It was our insurers who gave this advice, not the credit hire company. It may however also be in our insurer's interests to pass us to the credit hire company, since I imagine there's some sort of commission that they pay to our insurers. I'm fully aware that bias is more than likely at play here, which is why it's difficult to get a clear independent opinion.

My main aim now is to avoid having to pay anything out of pocket ourselves. I'd like to go with the other driver's insurer's offer, but how do I avoid the costs already incurred from the credit hire company if I do that?

Mercdriver

Ryanmg0583 wrote: »

Thanks for your reply.

It was our insurers who gave this advice, not the credit hire company. It may however also be in our insurer's interests to pass us to the credit hire company, since I imagine there's some sort of commission that they pay to our insurers. I'm fully aware that bias is more than likely at play here, which is why it's difficult to get a clear independent opinion.

My main aim now is to avoid having to pay anything out of pocket ourselves. I'd like to go with the other driver's insurer's offer, but how do I avoid the costs already incurred from the credit hire company if I do that?

I suspect you can't. You will need to stay on top of the claim to ensure car is fixed ASAP and make sure the hire car is picked up promptly to keep costs down.

dacouch

Ryanmg0583 wrote: »

Thanks for your reply.

It was our insurers who gave this advice, not the credit hire company. It may however also be in our insurer's interests to pass us to the credit hire company, since I imagine there's some sort of commission that they pay to our insurers. I'm fully aware that bias is more than likely at play here, which is why it's difficult to get a clear independent opinion.

My main aim now is to avoid having to pay anything out of pocket ourselves. I'd like to go with the other driver's insurer's offer, but how do I avoid the costs already incurred from the credit hire company if I do that?

Maybe try reading my replies

Mercdriver

On the non fault claim I was subject to, there is no way I would have paid for a hire car myself, even though I could afford to. Why should I, when the accident wasn't my fault and insurance companies can rent cars at corporate rates that aren't available to me?

Admiral, the TP insurer contacted and they used Enterprise who gave me a car to use at Admiral's cost. I would have been very hesitant at using Credit Hire as I am aware that you have to do your best to mitigate the other side's costs, but that doesn't mean that I should go out of pocket when it isn't my fault. The courts generally see it that way also.

Ectophile

Ryanmg0583 wrote: »

2. Our insurers specifically told me wife not to accept any offer made by the other driver's insurers.

Because then they wouldn't get the kick-back from the credit hire company that they recommend.

Deelee888

Hi, your story is interesting because I had a accident last friday, 29th November which I was not to blame, my car is repairable. The woman who crashed into me was rude denying blame and saying I should have given way to her, she also gave me a false name, refused to give me her address etc.. but virtually straight away I called my insurance company who put me through to!auxillis!straightaway. I explained what happened and they said they would sort everything out including hired car etc.. but less than a hour after the accident the third party insurer texted me admitting liability and offering to fix my car and provide me with a hired car that will cost them no more than £63.45 per day! They then called me, explained everything and offered me £100 as well for my inconvenience. So at first I decided to go with the third party insurer (esure) but then later on changed my mind because of several bad reviews of how they reneged on their side regarding the £100, it wasn't about the £100 but it was about a honesty in general that made me change my mind, and decided to call up esure and cancel the arrangement I had with them and signed up to!auxillis!instead, but just today I decided to change my mind again and accept esures offer, this was because I have just downloaded the!auxillis!agreement and it's all to do with credit! Plus I'm thinking what if the third party refuses to pay up for my car hire because they have actually offered me a car? Although the car the third party are offering is not a like for like it is in the same class group, ie a astra, Mokka or juke, my car is a 2016 Audi A3 Sport, I'm sure!auxillis!would provide me like for like but their hire charges for my like for like is £216 per day! Whereas esure would pay £63.45 per day, because of this I decided to call up esure again to ask them to repair my car and accept their offer of a hired car instead. I don't believe even if!auxillis!provides me with a like for like it shouldn't be charging £216 per day.. because despite the credit hire guarantee that you would not be held responsible for any charges if you do everything possible to help them retreive all their costs from the third party even by attending court if necessary, the court may say the third party offered me a hired car in the same class so I was not inconvenienced as such in terms of work etc and may refuse to recompense the excess hire charges. The credit hire companies are ambulance chasers but be wary of them and even your own insurers for using them. If the third party insurer admits liability and is offering to fix your car plus offer you a hire car, I think it's best to take it. I'm still not sure about the £100 offer and would they abide by their word, but I have been inconvenienced by rearranging my busy day next Wednesday so as my own car can be collected for repair.. but I will at a later date be calling esure to remind them of their promises..