Car written off 27 days ago - still no settlement from Churchill

Doddle1

Hi,
I was wondering whether anyone has any experience of how long it should take for our insurance company to pay the settlement on our write off? We've been 27 long days without our car and don't qualify for a courtesy car as it's a write off - we would have had one if it was being repaired. 

It feels like a ridiculously long time to have to wait but maybe this is the norm in the world of car insurance? We've tried phoning, messaging, e-mailng the CEO and no one can tell us when we are likely to receive our money. We managed to get through to someone linked to Churchill 8 days ago who offered us an amount which we accepted but we're still waiting for something in writing and more importantly the money to enable us to buy a replacement car.

Any advice / similar experience would be gratefully received. And if this is a normal wait time I'll just have to accept it and stop feeling frustrated about it.

pramsay13

Can you not go ahead and buy another car as you will need it anyway?
If you know your settlement is coming pay for car using credit card and then pay it off when you get the money.

Doddle1

Thanks yes, in desperation we're in the process of borrowing £14k to buy a car next week. I would have liked to have something in writing from Churchill before going ahead though. Goodness knows when they'll send us confirmation or any correspondence. 

So 27 days and counting isn't unreasonable? I naively thought it would be sorted in 10 days or so. 

BoGoF

The reality, from your description, is that a verbal agreement was reached only 8 days ago. Yes, your expectations are unrealistic. Just a hint, in my experience the more you pester the less inclined people are to help. Where did this 'thing' come off e-mailing the CEO. Do you really think they read them?

SaverRate

Churchill in the last year or so have been very slow to pay out on claims unfortunately 

DullGreyGuy

Doddle1 said:

We managed to get through to someone linked to Churchill 8 days ago who offered us an amount which we accepted but we're still waiting for something in writing and more importantly the money to enable us to buy a replacement car.

What did they advise the next steps were?

Some insurers will require you to send them the V5c, spare keys etc first and make settlement after. Others will payout straight away and ask for the docs and keys afterwards. There is no right or wrong approach but customers are typically much slower responding after they've gotten the money in their pocket. 

8 days from agreement to settlement isn't a crazy long time. 

Doddle1

Thanks for the comments. My issue was that it was 27 days and counting and we hadn't been advised about the process and we were without a car. The verbal settlement offer came from their 3rd party company but we haven't had any written or verbal confirmation from Churchill. I wasn't querying the 8 days, it was the 27 days and having no updates from Churchill. 

It felt like a long time without a car. I assumed that we would get a courtesy car in the event of an accident as that's what was in the policy. However that's not the case if the car is a write off.

I've learned to read the insurance small print in future and I hope my post helps others to double check. 

Ganga

Doddle1 said:

Thanks for the comments. My issue was that it was 27 days and counting and we hadn't been advised about the process and we were without a car. The verbal settlement offer came from their 3rd party company but we haven't had any written or verbal confirmation from Churchill. I wasn't querying the 8 days, it was the 27 days and having no updates from Churchill. 

It felt like a long time without a car. I assumed that we would get a courtesy car in the event of an accident as that's what was in the policy. However that's not the case if the car is a write off.

I've learned to read the insurance small print in future and I hope my post helps others to double check. 

Have you been payed out now ?

Doddle1

Ganga said:

Doddle1 said:

Thanks for the comments. My issue was that it was 27 days and counting and we hadn't been advised about the process and we were without a car. The verbal settlement offer came from their 3rd party company but we haven't had any written or verbal confirmation from Churchill. I wasn't querying the 8 days, it was the 27 days and having no updates from Churchill. 

It felt like a long time without a car. I assumed that we would get a courtesy car in the event of an accident as that's what was in the policy. However that's not the case if the car is a write off.

I've learned to read the insurance small print in future and I hope my post helps others to double check. 

Have you been payed out now ?

Yes the money went into the bank today which was day 30. Still no correspondence from Churchill. 

We were told verbally that it was a write off two days after the accident and that we didn't qualify for a hire car. I think that's why we expected the settlement to be quicker. It's been a long month but at least I know what to expect if it ever happens again (fingers crossed that it won't)!  

DullGreyGuy

Doddle1 said:

Ganga said:

Doddle1 said:

Thanks for the comments. My issue was that it was 27 days and counting and we hadn't been advised about the process and we were without a car. The verbal settlement offer came from their 3rd party company but we haven't had any written or verbal confirmation from Churchill. I wasn't querying the 8 days, it was the 27 days and having no updates from Churchill. 

It felt like a long time without a car. I assumed that we would get a courtesy car in the event of an accident as that's what was in the policy. However that's not the case if the car is a write off.

I've learned to read the insurance small print in future and I hope my post helps others to double check. 

Have you been payed out now ?

Yes the money went into the bank today which was day 30. Still no correspondence from Churchill. 

We were told verbally that it was a write off two days after the accident and that we didn't qualify for a hire car. I think that's why we expected the settlement to be quicker. It's been a long month but at least I know what to expect if it ever happens again (fingers crossed that it won't)!  

are you sure it was hire car? The basic policy offers a courtesy car which is provided by the garage doing the repairs and is provided by them FoC to the insurer (its built in the labour rate). This is the reason why total losses don't get a courtesy car as there is no garage doing repairs to recoup the costs. 

Churchill, and the rest of the DL brands, used to offer a "guaranteed hire car" as an upgrade, the positive is yo get a replacement car for write offs and stolen/not recovered but its for 14 or 28 days meaning that for a very slow repair the hire car goes back before the repairs are finished.