Credit Car Hire - Non fault

garth549

This practice needs to be banned IMO. I heard of a case a while ago where a lady somehow managed to have a credit hire car for over 2 years. The credit hire company presented the third party with a bill of something like 200k. Enough to have bought 10 of the model of hire car brand new!

I'm presuming it was settled at a tiny fraction of that!

These firms are making an absolute killing at everyone's expense.

csgohan4

garth549 wrote: »

This practice needs to be banned IMO. I heard of a case a while ago where a lady somehow managed to have a credit hire car for over 2 years. The credit hire company presented the third party with a bill of something like 200k. Enough to have bought 10 of the model of hire car brand new!

I'm presuming it was settled at a tiny fraction of that!

These firms are making an absolute killing at everyone's expense.

so the question is can you go direct with your insurer and not use an ACM in the first place, even if your own insurer suggests one.

dacouch

reeceg353 wrote: »

Thanks for making me aware, a counter-argument for that would be that the car is the same spec as my Audi A5; why should I have a lower spec car than my own, due to an accident that is no fault of my own? Sure I can get down to the local supermarket in a 1L hatchback but I drive to client sites for work, I know it's materialistic but turning up in a Toyota Aygo isn't ideal for the type of clients I work with, as well as the distance covered :embarasse:undecided

You have a duty to mitigate your losses where reasonably possible, if you could reasonably have afforded to rent the BMW at £400 a week then the Insurers can argue this is what should have happened

Obviously on the more expensive claims, it's worth the Insurers investigating and someone with an executive car is more likely to be able to afford self financing a hire vehicle than your average Joe Bloggs

The contract you signed with the credit hire company binds you to assisting them in the court case. So if your financial records are requested you need to supply them

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2018/sep/14/why-am-i-now-liable-for-my-no-fault-accident-claim

csgohan4

dacouch wrote: »

You have a duty to mitigate your losses where reasonably possible, if you could reasonably have afforded to rent the BMW at £400 a week then the Insurers can argue this is what should have happened

Obviously on the more expensive claims, it's worth the Insurers investigating and someone with an executive car is more likely to be able to afford self financing a hire vehicle than your average Joe Bloggs

The contract you signed with the credit hire company binds you to assisting them in the court case. So if your financial records are requested you need to supply them

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2018/sep/14/why-am-i-now-liable-for-my-no-fault-accident-claim

Can we go direct with the insurers instead of using an accident management company?

lisyloo

csgohan4 wrote: »

Problem with TP insurer is anything goes wrong you won't be able to complain as they are not your insurer? At least that was the consensus on here

only good thing going through TP is you don't lose your excess

To clarify the first statement. There is no ombudsman service covering the transaction as it’s not via your own insurance policy.
You can of course report any issues direct with the repair garage/insurer if there are issues in the normal sense of “complain” and of course you have your normal legal rights.
In general a 3rd party insurer is motivated to help (because they don’t want these extortionate charges).

Secondly you also don’t have to a claim on your insurance as you haven’t claimed so you don’t lose your NCD. You still have to declare you’ve been involved in an accident but there’s a big difference between an accident and a claim. NCD = No claims discounts.

es5595

reeceg353 wrote: »

Maybe you've misunderstood the situation, someone has crashed into me, admitted fault, i've got a hire car as you'd expect. And you're giving me grief?

It's not giving you grief, its making you aware that this isn't 'free'. The premiums the third party paid won't cover the cost, so it will come out the insurers pot, which is what we all pay into, hence everyones insurance goes up. If you look on Europcar, you can hire a large premium car (Mercedes E class or similar) for £720 a fortnight! Yes, two weeks hire for less than two days.
So who's making money out of this? Easi-Drive. And then passing the cost onto the third parties insurer. However, that means that the average cost of an accident is now pushed up a ridiculous amount, three weeks car hire at £300 a day, costs over £6000, far in excess of the repair costs in most accidents. And who pays for this? We all do in our increased premiums.

However, insurers are now wising up to this, and refusing to pay the extortionate costs, simply arguing that you had over £XXX credit available to you, far in excess of the cost to pay for car hire yourself, and should have sought to minimise your costs (you are legally obliged to) any doing this.

csgohan4

as I asked earlier, is it mandatory to use an ACM, or can you go through the insurer directly (Your own)

daveyjp

If the third party insurance accepts liability they will sort everything out. There is no need to involve your own company, other than to report the incident.

A neighbour drove into our car. I went to my local trusted bodyshop and they invoiced the third party insurance company directly. What would have been well into 4 figures had my insurance and AMC been involved actually cost less than £300.

dacouch

csgohan4 wrote: »

as I asked earlier, is it mandatory to use an ACM, or can you go through the insurer directly (Your own)

You can use an ACM or the third party Insurers direct.

Most TPI will fall over themselves trying to help you to avoid the additional costs of an ACM.

Your own Insurers will often push you to their ACM as a referral fee of circa £300 is often paid for the credit hire and often further bunce for an injury claim

csgohan4

dacouch wrote: »

You can use an ACM or the third party Insurers direct.

Most TPI will fall over themselves trying to help you to avoid the additional costs of an ACM.

Your own Insurers will often push you to their ACM as a referral fee of circa £300 is often paid for the credit hire and often further bunce for an injury claim

But i am not obliged to use the ACM pushed by my insurer? I can use my own insurer directly?

This is due to the risk as outlined by the OP with them charging ridicoulous amounts for hire car