Motor insurance parasites

BishBash

No wonder we all pay so much for our insurance policies...

I had a prang recently. Other driver pulled out in front of me from side road, apologised and admitted liability at the scene.

His insurance company was in touch promptly saying their client had admitted full liability. They also offered to handle the whole claim and to provide me a loan vehicle FOC for the duration.

I said thanks, but that I'd rather talk to my own insurers first. I have legal protection insurance with them and they persuaded me that they would be best equipped to handle my 'best interests'.

They too offered a loan vehicle, the cost of which they would claim off the other driver's insurance company. So I agreed in principal to go ahead with that.

This morning I received the legal forms to set that in motion.

They state that the cost would be £510 per day(!). This would be for a nearly 10 year old, high mileage vehicle, with a current market value of around £4,000!

If the claim/repairs took 3 weeks, the hire cost would be around £10,700.00, plus delivery/collection charge of £450.00 = £11,150.00

If the claim/repairs took 5 weeks, the hire cost would be around £17,830.00, plus delivery/collection  charge of £450.00 = £18,280.00

These figures don't even take into consideration the actual repair to my vehicle, which I guesstimate might be £7-9,000 on a vehicle valued at around £14,000.

Small print - if they are unable to claim these costs from the third party insurer,  I would be financially liable. Nice.

So, questions for the forum...

1) Given that the hire cost alone will dwarf the repair bill, can the third party insurer choose to write off my vehicle to save their costs - or can they only write it off if the estimated cost to actually repair my vehicle is more than its current market value?

2) Could I accept the other driver's insurance company's offer of a free loan vehicle, with a guarantee that I would not be liable for any costs, while proceeding otherwise with the claim through my insurance company?

3) How on EARTH is the insurance company legally allowed to charge those kind of vehicle hire fees for such an old vehicle - around 10 times the cost of hiring a virtually new equivalent vehicle from  a 'normal' car hire firm? It's bordering on criminal.

Thanks in anticipation... 

XRS200

On the third one, it's not your insurer charging that. Sounds like a claims management company.

I would accept the offer from his insurer.

Keep_pedalling

This is why his insurer is desperate to deal with the hire of a car for you rather than being charged outlandish rates from the claims management company your insurer has pushed it out too. 

BishBash

XRS200 said:

On the third one, it's not your insurer charging that. Sounds like a claims management company.

I would accept the offer from his insurer.

Yes, you're right XR. The insurer is a well know national company, but the claim is being handled by 4th Dimension

Frozen_up_north

BishBash said:

XRS200 said:

The insurer is a well know national company

Don’t be shy, which insurance company? The only claims I have made in recent times were with LV, once when a driver was paying more attention to her kids in the back seat and ran into the back of my car, and once when I fell ill overseas and ended up in a private hospital. No 3rd party claims company involved and very prompt repair (car 😂) and picked up the bill and paid my out of pocket costs in less than a week of submitting them (travel insurance),

DullGreyGuy

BishBash said:

No wonder we all pay so much for our insurance policies...

I had a prang recently. Other driver pulled out in front of me from side road, apologised and admitted liability at the scene.

His insurance company was in touch promptly saying their client had admitted full liability. They also offered to handle the whole claim and to provide me a loan vehicle FOC for the duration.

I said thanks, but that I'd rather talk to my own insurers first. I have legal protection insurance with them and they persuaded me that they would be best equipped to handle my 'best interests'.

They too offered a loan vehicle, the cost of which they would claim off the other driver's insurance company. So I agreed in principal to go ahead with that.

This morning I received the legal forms to set that in motion.

They state that the cost would be £510 per day(!). This would be for a nearly 10 year old, high mileage vehicle, with a current market value of around £4,000!

If the claim/repairs took 3 weeks, the hire cost would be around £10,700.00, plus delivery/collection charge of £450.00 = £11,150.00

If the claim/repairs took 5 weeks, the hire cost would be around £17,830.00, plus delivery/collection  charge of £450.00 = £18,280.00

These figures don't even take into consideration the actual repair to my vehicle, which I guesstimate might be £7-9,000 on a vehicle valued at around £14,000.

Small print - if they are unable to claim these costs from the third party insurer,  I would be financially liable. Nice.

So, questions for the forum...

1) Given that the hire cost alone will dwarf the repair bill, can the third party insurer choose to write off my vehicle to save their costs - or can they only write it off if the estimated cost to actually repair my vehicle is more than its current market value?

2) Could I accept the other driver's insurance company's offer of a free loan vehicle, with a guarantee that I would not be liable for any costs, while proceeding otherwise with the claim through my insurance company?

3) How on EARTH is the insurance company legally allowed to charge those kind of vehicle hire fees for such an old vehicle - around 10 times the cost of hiring a virtually new equivalent vehicle from  a 'normal' car hire firm? It's bordering on criminal.

Thanks in anticipation... 

Your big problem will be that the third party insurer has already offered a hire car and you have a legal duty to mitigate your losses. Have you told the accident management company you've already had the offer of hire? Normally they won't be interested if you have. Back in my claims days if we get a credit hire bill after we offered hire we would only settle it at the rate we would have paid our preferred supplier 

1) No because they arent given a choice were it economical to repair, the repairs would be done on credit too and the third party insurer only presented with the two invoices at the end. However a £4k vehicle is not going to be economical to repair so the AMC's engineer will say it's a total loss and the report and invoice sent to the third party insurer to deal with. 

2) Yes, you can mix and match

3) Its not an insurance company, it's an accident management company. On the basis of there being a delivery fee it's not one that follows the ABI GTA on credit hire. 

They will state you are entitled to a like for like vehicle but will ignore the age or condition of your car. Clearly for the AMC this maximises their revenue whereas when I offered hire to third parties I would discuss what their needs were before then discussing what an appropriate vehicle would be. 

AMCs, certainly any signed up to the ABI GTA, absorb the cost of all those claims which arent settled as they anticipated, so where the third party turns out to be uninsured or liability ends up being split etc hence their hire charges need to be sufficient to cover those plus all the kickbacks paid to companies giving them the referrals. 

berkshiregaz

In the past when we were passed onto one of these companies by an insurer after a non fault accident as soon as i saw the contract we were expected to sign with the accident management company I called the insurer and told them I was only interested in the free courtesy car the policy promised and I had paid for ( they tried to say this wasnt the best idea) but it was in my mind,if I have paid for a courtesy car the insurer should pay for it and not palm their responsibility off to a 3rd party who will only inflate the value of the claim and save the insurer from providing what I had paid for