Will I lose on car insurance again?

milliefive

My car was written off this evening in an accident where I was completely not at fault. 7 years ago, my husband's car was in the same situation. He had bought it 2nd hand for £5k in September & it was written off on Boxing Day. After nearly 2 years of arguing, we settled for £2k.  This was nowhere near enough to replace the original car.

Is there anything I can do this time to end up less of a loser? It seems hugely wrong that I can be totally innocent but end up worse off. A fair outcome surely is that in a couple of month's time, I own an equivalent car to the one that's gone & I haven't lost any money. 

dacouch

Chose a decent Insurer and pay a little extra in premium

sleepymans

Take out Gap insurance?

milliefive

dacouch said:

Chose a decent Insurer and pay a little extra in premium

It was Direct Line in 2013, and the AA this time. Are they decent?

milliefive

sleepymans said:

Take out Gap insurance?

Never heard of this. Can I do this now, after the car's had the accident?

[Deleted User]

No. You can't against something that's happened. That would be a terrible business model.

You need it on your next car.

Sandtree

milliefive said:
It was Direct Line in 2013, and the AA this time. Are they decent?

Are you claiming off of your insurance or directly from the Third Party Insurer?

If you claim off of your own and you are unhappy with the valuation you have a right to complain and escalate the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service if you are unhappy with the outcome of the complaint. You have no such rights if you deal directly with the TPI.

jimbo6977

5k to 2k is a big discrepancy. Is there more to this?
Also don't forget your excess is, by definition, uninsured* and will be deducted from your insurer's valuation when they settle the claim. 


*unless you have excess insurance in which case it is insured probably by another insurer entirely. 

milliefive

jimbo6977 said:

5k to 2k is a big discrepancy. Is there more to this?
Also don't forget your excess is, by definition, uninsured* and will be deducted from your insurer's valuation when they settle the claim. 


*unless you have excess insurance in which case it is insured probably by another insurer entirely. 

Not that I was aware of. They didn't take into account the original car's very low mileage, nor the added towbar. They didn't allow for me taking days off work (self employed, so no £) to drive my injured husband around. We eventually found a close-enough replacement at £7k 200 miles away & they wouldn't pay for travel or delivery, said we should have found one closer to home. It was our first experience of dealing with car insurers & we were shocked at how we were cleaned out!

milliefive

This time, the car is written off. I have moderate whiplash, my son has hurt his back. I am waiting to hear from the insurer, but I am dreading/expecting the same again. Everyone keeps telling me to "go for it" and get a better car in the end, but I don't know how to. I need about £7k to replace the car I have lost, same age, similar condition, similar mileage. I bought her for £7000 4 years ago, I know they won't offer me anything close. So, I will be injured, my son injured, and need to take out a couple of thousands of debt, all because a van driver ran straight into me. 

Sandtree

milliefive said:
Not that I was aware of. They didn't take into account the original car's very low mileage, nor the added towbar. They didn't allow for me taking days off work (self employed, so no £) to drive my injured husband around. We eventually found a close-enough replacement at £7k 200 miles away & they wouldn't pay for travel or delivery, said we should have found one closer to home. It was our first experience of dealing with car insurers & we were shocked at how we were cleaned out!

milliefive said:

I bought her for £7000 4 years ago, I know they won't offer me anything close. 

Injury, loss of earnings etc are all uninsured losses and are things that you would be claiming from the other party as you say it was a "non-fault" accident - your car insurance is about your car alone. If you have paid for legal expenses then they can appoint a law firm to do this for you, if not then approach a law firm about your injury claim and they'll deal with the other uninsured losses too.

I am not sure how you think a car bought for £7k four years ago would be worth anything close to £7k today... cars depreciate over time.

The low mileage will be taken into consideration, if you think it hasnt then raise a complaint but its one of the key inputs into the valuation systems. Towbars are marmite, there are schools of thought that for most people having a towbar decreases the value of a car as they are ugly, can cause damage and pointless if you aren;t going to be using it. Did you declare the towbar as a modification? If you didn't then you are probably lucky that they simply have treated it neutrally.