No fault car insurance claim "good will gesture"

ewan99miller

Yesterday (15th Feb), my car was hit by a driver whilst parked. I began the process of submitting a claim through my insurer (Admiral) and received confirmation from them that it would be considered a economic total loss, and that the next step would be to arrange collection of the car and determining the settlement.
However, this morning I was contact by the other driver's insurance company (Liverpool Victoria), who offered a good will gesture of £300 on completion of the repairs/settlement if I claim directly through them instead. On face value this seems like a great deal, but I am suspicious as to whether there are going to be any hidden catches which may cause me problems
Would it be in my interest to switch to claiming through Liverpool Victoria, or to stay with my insurance company?

lisyloo

I would go with the 3rd party.
No excess and £300.

I presume you weren't in the car? So no chance of whiplash?

The only possible issue could be that you won't be in charge of repairs, but I think that's fairly minor worry.

DullGreyGuy

ewan99miller said:

However, this morning I was contact by the other driver's insurance company (Liverpool Victoria), who offered a good will gesture of £300 on completion of the repairs/settlement if I claim directly through them instead. On face value this seems like a great deal, but I am suspicious as to whether there are going to be any hidden catches which may cause me problems
Would it be in my interest to switch to claiming through Liverpool Victoria, or to stay with my insurance company?

The only consideration of claiming directly is that you dont have any protection from the Financial Ombudsman if you have a disagreement with them. The escalation point is the courts instead. 

There isnt much of a catch for you... corporate rates for hire cars are a small percentage of what credit hire is, several insurers have now got clever with loading non-fault claim costs through side agreements and network managers etc all which add cost to the TPI's settlement figure which they can avoid by dealing with you directly. 

Squareeg

I had the same offer, my parked car was hit, their insurance LV also contacted me. I was worried my car would be written off by my own insurance it’s a 61 plate. LV offered to the pay the garage of my choice directly, I already had a quote. It has now been arranged to be repaired, purely cosmetic, and hire car in place. I just informed my insurance, no claim. I saved having to pay my excess, have my car written off and potentially push my premium up, so it worked out for me.

Bigphil1474

My experience with LV is that they are pretty good as well, so should do a good job for you. As above, they know they'll save money sorting it out for you directly.