Who to call immediately after an accident - insurer or "assist service" or breakdown cover?

Bikeboy

Thanks all.

I'll be calling my insurer, Direct Line, if I ever need to. I called them they gave me a number to call if at the roadside after an accident, they do one free recovery to their favoured repairer. And arrange a hire car for the duration.  At least that's my understanding of what they say they will do. 

The Credit Hire companies sound risky, basically handing them a blank cheque just in case they can't get the money from my insurer.  No thanks. 

Thanks again

Sandtree

Bikeboy said:

The Credit Hire companies sound risky, basically handing them a blank cheque just in case they can't get the money from my insurer.  No thanks. 

Its not from your insurer, its from the third party insurer, hence only interested in non-fault claims.

The credit agreements you sign up to has some slightly strange language in them because of certain legal technicalities but ultimately as long as you are not fraudulent, you hand the car back when they tell you to and you support them all the way then you dont pay them anything for the hire (obviously if you damage the car thats another matter).  

They don't apply common sense approaches though so you do get cases with £20,000 hire car bills for a £3,000 total loss vehicle. They will go to court to try and get their bill paid and they'll expect you to turn up to support them. The danger comes when you've had enough of it all and they require you to keep going or pay up.

If the case ends up 50/50 say though the TPI will pay half the bill and the other half is written off.

Bikeboy

Okay thank you. All the more reason not to call them, suppose I think I am not at fault but it turns out that I am, then I could end up having to pay an inflated bill, is that correct? 

Sandtree

Bikeboy said:

Okay thank you. All the more reason not to call them, suppose I think I am not at fault but it turns out that I am, then I could end up having to pay an inflated bill, is that correct? 

Not as long as you are honest and support their recovery attempts.

Obviously if you went into the back of a stationary vehicle but told the accident management company that you were stationary and they reversed into you then you are on the path to a very large bill if video footage turns up proving you were lying and so were at fault

Grey_Critic

From an insurers viewpoint calling them potetially saves money. Thier preferred recovery agent to their preferred repairer. If it has to be recovered to the repairer from some compound/non approved repairer then there will be a cost.

Bikeboy

"If it has to be recovered to the repairer from some compound/non approved repairer then there will be a cost".  I'm not sure I understand this.  Suppose there is an accident and the police need my car moved quickly, so it gets taken somewhere but not a place of repair. Then my  insurer would have to come and get the damaged car and recover it to their place of repair. What could I end up paying?  What I would guess is: (1) I would have to pay for the initial recovery to clear the road, but because I have comprehensive insurance I would be able to claim that back from my insurer? (2) the insurer would then arrange to move the car to their own place of repair at their cost and I wouldn't  be involved? 

angrycrow

Having been in this situation I had a slightly different take on it. My first thought was call the insurer to recover the car. The issue is if the car is likely to be a total loss they would take the car direct to the salvage yard. You then have the hassle of getting the contents of the car back. In my case there was snow on the ground and I had a boot full of shopping.

I in view of this I called my breakdown provider who agreed to return the car to my home address. Once home I was able to unload the car at my leisure. This had the added advantage that I was able to clean the car inside and out prior to the insurer collecting it which maximised the valuation. 

AdrianC

angrycrow said:

This had the added advantage that I was able to clean the car inside and out prior to the insurer collecting it which maximised the valuation. 

You're really suggesting that washing a written off car meant that the insurer paid more for it?

angrycrow

AdrianC said:

angrycrow said:

You're really suggesting that washing a written off car meant that the insurer paid more for it?

When an engineer looks ar two identical cars and one is filthy and the other is spotless they will almost certainly value the clean car higher due to the perception it has been looked after better than the grubby car.

On this occasion the value the insurer paid was what I had paid for the car three and a half years prior to the accident. Certainly suggests cleaning and polishing it maximised the value. 

Tiexen

Bikeboy said:

Thanks all.

I'll be calling my insurer, Direct Line, if I ever need to. I called them they gave me a number to call if at the roadside after an accident, they do one free recovery to their favoured repairer. And arrange a hire car for the duration.  At least that's my understanding of what they say they will do. 

The Credit Hire companies sound risky, basically handing them a blank cheque just in case they can't get the money from my insurer.  No thanks. 

Thanks again

I've used Direct Line twice for (non fault) accidents they collect the car arrange hire car return the car  and recover the no claims discout (if you are not liable all at no cost) - they have a 7 day repair guarantee and in the last repair I got £70 refund as it was late being returned, can't fault them.