Car Insurance Non-Fault Claim Using Insurer Recommended Repairer

DullGreyGuy

henrygregory said:

As a deposit is needed, I am assuming this is in case of damages. I have never used a national car hire company and to be honest, not sure if I trust them - I have always used local car hire firms and never had any bother.
Would it be prudent for me to purchase hire car excess insurance this evening? As I am unsure how long I will have the car, I am tempted to purchase a 1 year excess insurance. If I select 1 month of cover, it is £1 cheaper than selecting an annual policy, so an annual policy might be a safer option just in case for any reason, they keep my car past 19th December. 

There is lots of info from Enterprise but this is the main part which sums up how they operate. All makes sense to me and I am happy to provide them with whatever is needed. Still really surprised that my insurer isn't dealing with all of this on my behalf.

Personally would trust the national chains much more than unknown small company that I've never heard of etc. Have hired cars many times from ERAC and never had any problems with any of them (other than one which broke down but they refunded the full value of the hire). 

It's likely that ERAC will match your normal excess hence why they want evidence, you normally live without excess insurance so why do you want it now when the financial risk is the same? If you'll use it another time in the year then by all means. 

There are pros and cons with claiming off your own insurance, mainly is the access to the Ombudsman if things go wrong (though an accident management company these days should be FOS registered) but the big downsides are paying your excess then having to recover it and secondly that an open claim counts as fault claim so if its not resolved by the point of your renewal you have to pay a spike in premiums and hope its reimbursed once its finally settled. 

Yes, the card authorisation is for if you return it damaged or dont return it at all. 

In my claims days we'd mix and match, deal with vehicle damage under our terms but refer to credit hire if the insured needs something bigger than a 3 door Corsa or the garage is out of courtesy cars. Some still do it this way but others maximise their referral revenue. 

henrygregory

DullGreyGuy said:

henrygregory said:

As a deposit is needed, I am assuming this is in case of damages. I have never used a national car hire company and to be honest, not sure if I trust them - I have always used local car hire firms and never had any bother.
Would it be prudent for me to purchase hire car excess insurance this evening? As I am unsure how long I will have the car, I am tempted to purchase a 1 year excess insurance. If I select 1 month of cover, it is £1 cheaper than selecting an annual policy, so an annual policy might be a safer option just in case for any reason, they keep my car past 19th December. 

There is lots of info from Enterprise but this is the main part which sums up how they operate. All makes sense to me and I am happy to provide them with whatever is needed. Still really surprised that my insurer isn't dealing with all of this on my behalf.

Personally would trust the national chains much more than unknown small company that I've never heard of etc. Have hired cars many times from ERAC and never had any problems with any of them (other than one which broke down but they refunded the full value of the hire). 

It's likely that ERAC will match your normal excess hence why they want evidence, you normally live without excess insurance so why do you want it now when the financial risk is the same? If you'll use it another time in the year then by all means. 

There are pros and cons with claiming off your own insurance, mainly is the access to the Ombudsman if things go wrong (though an accident management company these days should be FOS registered) but the big downsides are paying your excess then having to recover it and secondly that an open claim counts as fault claim so if its not resolved by the point of your renewal you have to pay a spike in premiums and hope its reimbursed once its finally settled. 

Yes, the card authorisation is for if you return it damaged or dont return it at all. 

In my claims days we'd mix and match, deal with vehicle damage under our terms but refer to credit hire if the insured needs something bigger than a 3 door Corsa or the garage is out of courtesy cars. Some still do it this way but others maximise their referral revenue. 

Thanks for the post. I took out the insurance for the year just in case. I have had about five hire cars this year, ranging from a long weekend to a couple of weeks so it is worthwhile having it as each time I have hired a car, the insurance waiver is £75. This was 45 for the year. It also means at least I don’t have to worry if anyone hits it as there are some absolute idiots around and though I have had few motoring claims, it is always someone else hitting me so thought the excess protection was a sensible purchase. 

I really hope they can get things sorted quickly. I dropped my car in this morning and just checked the app and it hasn’t moved since I dropped it in. I got an email from my insurer today asking for the dash cam footage from my car. They said the at fault driver’s insurer is asking for it, so I sent it over to my insurer as soon as I got back home followed by a call to them to check they have it which they do so that is all sorted. 
Just hoping this can all be fixed nice and quickly and the car comes back without any damage and not filthy inside as it is pristine and I spend a lot of time keeping the inside clean. The hire car is filthy in comparison to mine, but at least I am able to carry on with life as without the hire car I would be buggered.