Drive Assist - 50/50 claim problem

DM_saver

Fellow MSE'ers please be clear you DO NOT have to accept the services of Drive Assist. You can demand your insurer keeps your claim in-house.

Another car recently went into the side of my car and my so called insurer Halifax immediately tried to fob me off to Drive Assist which I initially accepted. It was explained to me that as this was a clear no fault claim Drive Assist work on the insurers behalf to provide the courtesy car and collect and return your car to be fixed. This is OPTIONAL yet halifax direct you to DA and don't explain the implications.

I first became wary when the drive assist worker called and began going through the pre-scripted financial loan type dialogue. It caused me to ask many questions which led to further info I would never have received.

Firstly if you do not take up DA's damage waiver on the car hire (at £4 a day) and have an accident/damage you are liable to pay the excess. Fine but this should be your original insurance excess not the £250 that I have been reading about. In my case it would have been £150. When I asked why they need a credit or debit card I was told this was for any parking tickets or damage (clearly to take the money for "damages" without customer's being able to argue).

Secondly I questioned the lady on all the complaints about being wrongly charged for scrathes etc and she said this was clearly a case of people not checking the car condition paperwork but tellingly she went on to explain the PDA you sign has an example on and your signature is transferred onto the paper work (Is this legal?). She also explained the difference betwen a "courtesy car" (your insurance provides as part of your policy) and a "Hire car" (they provide). With the latter there are hire charges that need to paid and that could be by you!...leading to my final point.


Thirdly (and what sealed it for me!), as my claim involved one of the three types of accidents they are confident is 100% no fault they DO NOT communicate with the other sides insurance to confirm they accept liabilty. They provide you with a car and get your car fixed and then bill the other sides insurance. I asked what would happen if the other side refused to pay 100%. They confirmed I would be liable for the rest. ME NOT HALIFAX!?:cool: I immediately called Halifax for clarification as the first Halifax guy clearly said to me it goes back in house if they contest liability. I was told that in fact if Drive assist had done the work I would now have an agreement with drive assist and Halifax have nothing to do with their terms and conditions. They confirmed at that point if the other side did not pay all I would be personally liable to make up Drive Assists bill and Halifax insurance would not.:mad: I demanded to know what the point is in dutifully paying my fully comp with Halifax to be passed over to Drive assist and becoming personally responsible.

In conclusion I made Halifax take it back in house. A man from Drive Assist called me back saying they only take claims they are confident are 100% no fault to try and get me to stay but I said no way. Although a remote possibilty in my case how can Halifax insurance leave such a company to deal with the other side and possibly leave their customer to the foot the costs they paid insurance for! Disgraceful!

dacouch

If only everyone was as switched on as you and questioned what they are told.

You have discovered the potential pitfalls of Drive Assist (And other Credit Hires), they would have charged the hire car out at circa £100 a day and bills for the hire often run into many thousands of pounds.

It's a shame the report BBC Watchdog is not available to watch as you would have found it very informative.

On a positive note it is good that the person you spoke to at DA was actually truthfull with you so you could discover the potential problems. There are plenty of posters on the many DA threads on various forums where the posters state the car was described as a courtesy car and the potential problems were not highlighted.

DM Saver if you contact the other driver's Insurer they will normally be happy to arrange a hire car at their cost with no potential problems, you will also be helping in a very small way to keep Insurance premiums down as instead of costing them circa £100 a day it will cost them much much less. (If you want to find the contact number for their Insurer you can do it here for a very small fee https://www.askmid.com )

Christopher7

dacouch wrote: »

If only everyone was as switched on as you and questioned what they are told.

You have discovered the potential pitfalls of Drive Assist (And other Credit Hires), they would have charged the hire car out at circa £100 a day and bills for the hire often run into many thousands of pounds.

It's a shame the report BBC Watchdog is not available to watch as you would have found it very informative.

On a positive note it is good that the person you spoke to at DA was actually truthfull with you so you could discover the potential problems. There are plenty of posters on the many DA threads on various forums where the posters state the car was described as a courtesy car and the potential problems were not highlighted.

DM Saver if you contact the other driver's Insurer they will normally be happy to arrange a hire car at their cost with no potential problems, you will also be helping in a very small way to keep Insurance premiums down as instead of costing them circa £100 a day it will cost them much much less. (If you want to find the contact number for their Insurer you can do it here for a very small fee www.askmid.com )

Hi all

feel free to review the rates that companies such as Drive Assist charge at

http://apps.abi.org.uk/tphire/


£32.64 to rent a Corsa for a day, isnt that unreasonable.

dacouch

It's still double the going rate joe public could rent the same car for which adds up over a long period

Christopher7

dacouch wrote: »

It's still double the going rate joe public could rent the same car for which adds up over a long period

Where from?
I have checked Enterprise £25 and National £42 a day.

dacouch

A Class A (Ford Ka or Chevy Aveo) are £12.48 a day, if the third party Insurer was paying for it they would get a further hefty discount off Enterprise's rates

Christopher7

dacouch wrote: »

A Class A (Ford Ka or Chevy Aveo) are £12.48 a day, if the third party Insurer was paying for it they would get a further hefty discount off Enterprise's rates

Lets measure apples for apples, Ka is a class smaller than a Corsa.

Try different areas of the country, you will note Enterprise rate fluctuate quite substantially. These rates are static and I must add are agreed with the insurers up front.

dacouch

Ok if you want to work on a similar car I will use National who you are quoting from, their daily rate on 14 days for Nottingham (Which is in the middle of England) is £16.02. The same car rented from Marble Arch which is very Central London is only £16.65 a day.

If the OP contacted the third party Insurer and they accepted liability they would also agree a cost with the car hire company which would be discounted over the above rates and they would pay the car hire directly

Christopher7

dacouch wrote: »

Ok if you want to work on a similar car I will use National who you are quoting from, their daily rate on 14 days for Nottingham (Which is in the middle of England) is £16.02. The same car rented from Marble Arch which is very Central London is only £16.65 a day.

If the OP contacted the third party Insurer and they accepted liability they would also agree a cost with the car hire company which would be discounted over the above rates and they would pay the car hire directly

Possibly.

They may also arrange a car from Drive Assist as they may have pre agreed rates with them.

Back to my original point, and that is that these companies aren't charging hugely excessive amounts (hundreds of pounds per day) as was previously alledged.

Quentin

You post lots of defensive arguments across this forum - do you have an interest in these companies in general or just one in particular?