insurance quotes with ongoing claim

kitla

Enquiring on behalf of my son. His car insurance with Elephant renews this week. A couple of months ago he had a small bump (his fault). He supplied video evidence so it should have been straightforward, but he still hasnt heard back about the claim. His renewal quote is quite high so obviously he wants quotes from other companies, but cant get any until he has a £ figure for his claim. He has tried, unsuccessfully to get any information from Elephant. This seems very wrong as he is stuck with them & whatever they make him pay. Is there anything he can do in this situation.?

DullGreyGuy

Was another vehicle involved or any property damage? 

What does his Elephant paperwork state about the claim?

If you speak to them you want to know what their "outlay" is and their "case reserve", if you add the two together you get their current estimate of the total cost / "exposure" including what they've paid and what they believe they will have to pay. 

In its a one vehicle accident (eg he drove into his own garage) then an estimate of how much the repairs are will be ok, remembering this is going to a big car repair shop doing proper repairs estimate not a back street cash in hand with secondhand parts. 

FlorayG

Why does he need a £ figure for his claim? This year I had a bump 2 weeks before my insurance ran out, I still changed to another insurance company when the time came

DullGreyGuy

FlorayG said:

Why does he need a £ figure for his claim? This year I had a bump 2 weeks before my insurance ran out, I still changed to another insurance company when the time came

Aggregators and some insurers ask what the value of the claim was. Others dont

kitla

I've look via 2 compare sites. One wanted a reserve figure, the other would accept an estimate. There was another car involved as he shunted into the back of a parked car, the owner has been very unpleasant to say the least so its been left in the hands of the insurance co's. Elephant couldnt give him any information atall, not even a reserve price, so we've had to make a high guess estimate & get some quotes that are not much better.  Interestingly we tried quotes for 3rd party/f/th instead & they were much higher!

DullGreyGuy

kitla said:

I've look via 2 compare sites. One wanted a reserve figure, the other would accept an estimate. There was another car involved as he shunted into the back of a parked car, the owner has been very unpleasant to say the least so its been left in the hands of the insurance co's. Elephant couldnt give him any information atall, not even a reserve price, so we've had to make a high guess estimate & get some quotes that are not much better.  Interestingly we tried quotes for 3rd party/f/th instead & they were much higher!

It's one of those things thats 50/50 really... whilst out yesterday saw someone come into road side parking far too fast, failed to stop and hit the parked and unattended vehicle. Reversed back, got out and looked at the damage to both vehicles then back in the vehicle and drove off. Whilst at least son stopped and gave details it's still unpleasant having someone else damage your parked car. No need to be nasty about someone doing the right thing but still annoying. 

TPFT has the issue of negative selection. With Comp insurance its about 50% third part losses, 1/3 own party accidental damage and the remainder Fire & Theft and so you could think insurance should be 1/3 cheaper given those losses arent covered. Problem 1 is that the average TPFT is much less valuable than the average Comp car, many insurers have a cap on TPFT and so you cannot insure the uk average £25k new car on TPFT even if you want so it would be less than a third anyway. 

Secondly, people who buy TPFT are people who aer high risk and think it will mean cheaper premiums. So compare results of otherwise identical cars and TPFT have a worse claims experience than Comp so because of that negative selection its more expensive. Very high excesses can have the same, put a £3,000 excess and it'll possibly be more expensive than a £300 excess. 

Thirdly, several insurers dont offer it so less competitive pressure to push prices down.