Asked to pay excess in ADVANCE of claim - how come???

Deborah_Mary

My son showed me a letter where he has been asked to pay his policy excess of 100 pounds before his home insurance claim can be dealt with. Does anyone know if this is standard practice with insurance claims? It's not what I am used to because when I made a claim myself the excess was deducted from the amount I received as settlement. I am suspicious and would like to check it out with more experienced people. It seems risky for my son - what if the claim is rejected or iVal fixes the amount of the loss at less than the 100 pounds which he is being asked to pay?

More details: the insurer is Norwich Union, the claim is for a burglary, and the letter is from iVal, who say they have been asked by the insurance company to administer the settlement of the claim.

Thanks!

cheekyweegit

Hiya and so sorry to hear that your son was burgled.

I too am with Norwich Union for my house insurance and have recently settled a burglary claim with them just before Christmas albeit the claim was made / started in December 2004.

I never had to pay my excess as it was just deducted from my settlement from the loss adjusters and as for iVal I was under the impression that they were just suppliers of goods and gave the insurance / loss adjusters prices for the goods or in some cases they did the replacements for the likes of cd's / dvd's / video games. I've never heard of them asking for money up front.

Tell your son to check anything they say thoroughly though, as I was accused of lying when I claimed for disney video's, and some video games, iVal saying that they were not out at the time of the claim. They had been looking up disney dvd's not video's hence the discrepancy and with the video games they were looking up the wrong version for the date and say for example it was Halo, they were looking up Halo 3 which of course was not out at the time of my burglary.

Tell your son to stick to his guns, and if it's replacements they are offering and he doesn't want it, tell him to say no he will get his own and he wants cash. If it takes a while to settle like mine did, ask for interest on the payment. I was refused at first, then they agreed in the end on the settlement of my claim.

Also if they offer a cash settlement, don't be afraid to refuse the first offer. I almost took it just to get it over and done with, but a friend advised me not to. I'm so grateful to her!

I hope your son gets things sorted out quickly.

brightonman123

sounds like these iVal people are loss adjustors, working for NU to REDUCE the claim value.. any excess would(should?) only be paid when a claim is settled.
if you paid the excess now, there is still no guarantee of the claim being paid out, and i bet you will have a very hard time getting the money back..

FlameCloud

brightonman123 wrote: »

sounds like these iVal people are loss adjustors, working for NU to REDUCE the claim value.. any excess would(should?) only be paid when a claim is settled.
if you paid the excess now, there is still no guarantee of the claim being paid out, and i bet you will have a very hard time getting the money back..

Thats complete rubbish.

iVal are part of Powerplay, an electrical supplier that almost all insurance company uses to repair/replace electrical items. Their job will be to determine what type of TV to OP had, whether it is repairable, and then to replace it with an equivelent spec model. If they cant do that, they usually issue vouchers to use in either comet or currys. They are not and have never been loss adjusters.

It is perfectly normal to pay an xs to a third party as the policy you will have is a replacement policy. It can sometimes be deducted from any cash settlement, but this is at the insurers option. Remember that you have agreed to pay the xs in the event of any claim when you took out the policy.

MarkyMarkD

Deborah Mary I don't know why anyone submitting a genuine claim would be worried about the claim being rejected, or indeed wouldn't expect to have at least a vague idea of the value of the claim (i.e. whether it's over £100 or not).

There's nothing untoward in this request. If they are going to replace all the stolen items, obviously they need to collect the £100 excess before doing so.

[Deleted User]

Hi
It is usual practise amongst Insurance companies to ask the customer to pay the excess up front on this type of claim. As your son is dealing with our supplier I-Val directly they will settle the difference with Norwich Union. If for example your son replaced the item himself and sent us the receipt we would issue a settlement figure and deduct the excess. You will be able to find more information in the policy documents regarding excess payments. I'd like to reassure you that I-Val are not trying to scam you, they are our approved suppliers.
Becca