Anyone been involved in a car crash recently

It used to be the case that if someone ran into you the insurance company dealt with things and you got a repaired car. Not now, not with Hastings at least. Person runs straight into my stationary car, definately not my fault. I ring insurance company, they dont deal with claims anymore and pass me to a third party company. In order to progress claim I have to wade through dozens of electronic documents, definitions and clauses and at the end have to sign a credit agreement before the claim can be processed. How on earth anyone not ps savy would get through it god only knows. The upsum is that the insurance company have absolved themselves of any interaction with the customer and if the third party make a hash of reclaiming the money yours truely has to foot the bill under the terms of the credit agreement. When I renew next year I will make a point of using an insurer who doesnt sub out its responsabilities, if any still exist.

Did you contact the broker or the actual policy issuer? There is a sort of scam of brokers offloading the claim part to unsuspecting customers, which for companies is ok to save them some of the hassle of dealing with actual garages, Make sure you have informed the real insurer. If not your fault bill for your time too.

Have you claimed for whiplash? Probably doesn't matter if you were in another country at the time of the accident with the crooked claims lawyers around today.

I'm insured with Aviva.

Had an impact from a tp, two yrs ago. I was parked at a petrol pump when I was reversed into.

Reported the incident to my insurers. Didnt hear anything for weeks....got fed up, repaired my car myself, it near a new fron bumper reinforcing section and various plastic parts for the grill. Cost in parts around £180.

Rang Aviva and asked how the claim was progressing.....got passed to some third party service provider....told them I got sick of waiting and had the car repaired. They told me to submit the repair costs. Sent the invoices in and got paid out in less than two weeks.....and they were claiming the costs back from the tp's insurers...result.

If I hadnt called Aviva and chased them up, I'd still be waiting!

I used to be insured by Hastings, I only moved because their price went up too much.

I had my car vandalised, broken windows and dents from stones, I phoned them to report it and after a five minute phone call they agreed to have it collected and a courtesy car delivered. Two weeks later my car was returned and the courtesy car collected.

I did nothing other than make the phone call. I have nothing but praise for their service, shame about their prices.

It is strange how people can have such different experiences.

i'm with hastings as well wanted to double premiums went on comparison site theirs was cheapest and lower than prev years policy.

rang them and asked how.

they gave me it for price online. always worth doing looking online.

if they sub it out then we will only buy on price as reputation is now worthless

I'm afraid you might have done better to have left well alone John. Your insurer will probably recover his costs by bumping up your premium next year, and perhaps for several years after. The other chaps insurance company will do the same. Quite likely they will recover more than £180 : not just the cash payment, you are also paying their admin costs, which can be considerable, plus they might take a profit on top. They are in business to make money. Premiums seem to have replaced the 'No Claims Bonus' as a method of getting cash out of customers; a close look at what anyone gets from your NCB may reveal that it's window dressing.

Not easy to avoid raised premiums after a claim. You might get a better deal renewing with someone else, but Insurance companies share information about accidents. Now they all know you're an accident risk! And the chap who bumped you. And anyone else who is a named driver on your respective policies. They can all be gently milked.

My son was involved in a 50-50 car-park bump last year. The other party, an elderly man with an aggressive wife, got it in his head that making a claim representing himself as the innocent party would somehow put the insurance companies on his side. He wanted damages in full plus compensation, no loss of NCB etc.

Foolish, foolish man. After assessing the claim forms, both insurance companies wanted to agree 50/50 liability, which he refused to accept, many letters exchanged. This caused an extensive delay, detailed investigation of a minor accident, and involved the lawyers. At the very least, this ramped the cost of the accident from a couple of hundred into the thousands. The case might still be rumbling on like a latter day Jarndyce and Jarndyce except the idiot tried to bolster his case by 'remembering' more details. His account of the accident eventually contradicted itself and disagreed with photographs taken at the scene (that he didn't know about, but his insurer did).

Not only will he be chased for the extra costs (unless he stops driving), all insurers now know he makes false claims, which is illegal. Immediately after this was pointed out by his insurer, he agreed to accept 50/50.

One mistake people make about claiming for damage is that blame matters. Not much it doesn't. Insurance companies aren't about justice, fairness, or supporting their customer. They have no emotional interest, to them it's just a financial transaction with the terms and conditions of the policy. I think an accident costing a few hundred is always cheaper to settle privately, if possible not involving insurance at all. Different game if someone is injured or it will cost a lot to fix.

Interestingly, claims for whiplash have dropped markedly. Not sure why this is: I have a theory that the professional enablers were warned off by their professional associations. Solicitors should not encourage fraud entering the legal system, and doctors should not receive payments for signing off on symptoms without being certain they're genuine.

Dave

Edited By SillyOldDuffer on 01/05/2018 13:59:52

I run a dashcam at front and back. It will help a claim, but obviously not much help to the OP.

Wife’s car was written off by an eastern european lorry driver who did not have the appropriate mirrors fitted. Took years to get it sorted out.

"The case might still be rumbling on like a latter day Jarndyce and Jarndyce"

What the Dickens are you talking about?

If you want a claim to go smoothly then insure through a broker, they don't mess brokers about much

Otherwise you're on your ownsome

Edited By V8Eng on 01/05/2018 14:45:49

Reason quoted insurance premiums are always cheaper, with your present insurer, than your renewal when you trawl the websites is because they give a new policy discount for new business, when you come to renew and after they have hooked you in then they ramp up the premiums which would recoup the new policy discount they gave you in the first year. Currently arguing against a refused claim on a pet policy, it seems to be a game with them to see if they can refuse any payouts. They picked the wrong one to argue with this time, I have solid grounds for appeal and if necessary I will take it to the Insurance Ombudsman, I have nothing to lose but it will cost them time and money to continue. Years ago I had an issue over my service pension relating to my time in the Air Force, it dragged on for four years but as soon as I referred it to the Pensions Ombudsman the MOD gave in and paid up, would have looked bad if the MOD had a judgement against them by an Ombudsman. Cheekily I asked for full bankrate interest on the sum that they agreed to pay that had been delayed and I got it , result!,

Dave W

Unfortunately most insurance companies these days use 'professional' claims management companies to deal with claims - unless you insist otherwise, and you are legally entitled to insist.

I have two vehicles insured with different companies, one through a broker and one direct with the insurer. Sadly in the last couple of years they were both subject to no fault damage.

The first, my landrover was rear ended by two cars whilst stationary at a junction, the last one in the chain was allegedly on his phone although the police who attended decided not to persue that! I was abroad and my wife was driving, she called the broker and they immediately passed her to their claim managers who arranged to drop off a hire car and collect the landrover as their computer said it wasn't drivable! As it happened it was the tow bar that took the brunt of the impact, the only other damage was the bumper was set up slightly distorting the plastic trim that prevented the rear door being opened and an indicator light lens was broken. When they dropped off the hire car and took ours she was asked to sign the 'credit agreement' without explanation of what she was signing or a chance to read it! She had been allowed by the police to drive off after the accident on proviso she had the smashed lamp fixed ASAP, both the other vehicles were undrivable, the one that hit us direct being about 18" shorter than it used to be! When I returned home and started to chase it up I was informed our vehicle had been taken to an assesment centre in London 70 miles away and they were expecting it to be a write off! In the end I had to get quite forceful and tell them firstly the agreement my wife signed was not accepted as she had been made to sign under false pretences and secondly my vehicle would not be written off, it would be repaired. The law on road traffic insurance states it will cover loss or damage howsoever caused. I got my vehicle repaired.

The second incident was my car being hit while parked outside my house and then they hit my neighbour's car as well. I caught the perpetrators, took pictures of everything (much to their displeasure) and reported it. Same thing, the insurance company tried to direct me to the claims management company which I refused. I took it to the insurance co advised repairer who took pictures of it and insurance company pulled the same stunt - it's a write off sir! I then discovered it had been assessed by a desktop assesment bureau up North from the pictures taken by the repairer. Oh no it isn't! Took it to my own repairer and they insisted a proper claims assessor visit, took a little argument but in the end they agreed to repair. The idiots who hit the cars tried to claim from my neighbour's insurance for whiplash - very quickly dismissed when I forwarded the pictures!

Claims management companies are sadly another parasitic industry that has grown up feeding from misfortune. The hire car supplied in the first claim was owned by the claim managers and was charged out at three times the rate I could have hired a car direct from Hertz. The actual cost of the damage at a body shop where they insisted on fitting a new bumper and light unit and sorting out the thumb size dent in the quarter panel was just short of £3k. Because of the transport of the vehicle round the country and the delays introduced by the claim managers the bill for the hire car for 6 weeks was over £10k!! Very nice little earner to charge out a vehicle at premium prices and then drag the very simple repair out as long as possible!!

Footnote is at the next renewal my premium was slightly increased and that was before declaration of the incident on the other insurance. When I called to report it I was told they had to check if there would be an increase even though it was a no fault claim. I made it known that there had better not be and after checking they agreed to hold the price. The other policy at renewal had increased by £100! When I called and challenged it they very quickly dropped it back to the previous year's level. They will walk all over you if you let them, do not take any nonsense. There is a legal obligation under the RTA for damage caused by a third party to be properly addressed, it's a bit different if you are claiming for your own damage though, you are then at the mercy of the insurance valuation.

Paul.

Sounds as if insurance companies will soon be as unhelpful and obstructive as high street banks............

My car is a Honda, last year the garage wall jumped out and hit the front bumper, not much damage just a paintwork repair nothing else. Just after the incident the car went in to the local Honda agent for service and they noticed the damage and would I like them to quote for the repair, I agreed and clearly indicated it would be out of my own pocket, not an insurance job. The quote was £220 which in the light of present escalating costs I thought extremely reasonable so I arranged for them to go ahead. Job took two days and I was given a loan car for which they charged £5 their standard charge they are required to charge by their insurers. No hassle they are super efficient, a family owned and run concern with the Honda franchise which is a breath of fresh air compared to national enterprises. In respect of insurance companies I am insured with Zurich not the cheapest in the marketplace but my philosophy has always been you get what you pay for, had a no fault claim with them a few years ago and again no hassle everything sorted satisfactorily and with protected no claim bonus no penalty on my premiums except of course the yearly increase that everyone has to endure. Dave W

Sorry I am missing something there, what is a high street bank? Ours closed this year shortly to reopen as a Mexican restaurant! If you need to pay in a cheque we now have to travel to the city 9 miles away and take the park and ride, half day job now to do what we used to do in 15m! Niether banks or Insurance companies have existed to provide customer service for years but solely to gamble with our money to make loads for themselves! They have the added bonus that when they get it wrong someone else (ie the good old taxpayer) picks up the tab! When did you last hear of an insurance company recording an overall loss? As others have said it's purely business. Doesn't matter if you pay your premium for years with no claims, as soon as something happens where you need to the premium then increases until they recoup what they paid! Nice work.

Paul.

Like it or not, the facts are (having worked in the insurance industry for 41 years, but nothing to do with motor thank goodness) that barely a penny has been made in profit by motor insurers in the last 25 years or so.

If you don't believe me, look up the stats.

99.9% of people buy car insurance on one criteria alone, and that is they want the cheapest.

Unfortunately there is also an over supply of motor insurance capacity in the market.

Why do they write motor then, I hear you ask? For the composite insurers that write other personal lines business, they do it as a loss leader, to get access to selling other insurance products.

Spiralling claims costs and over capacity only lead to one thing, and that is service standards pared down to a minimum.

David's reply is interesting, because although I have had arguments with motor insurers, in the last 25 years I have never had any grumbles with my house insurers. A few years back my wife and I returned from holiday to find that a cracked pipe in the loft had caused around £4,000 of damage. Phoned the insurance company, and a very helpful guy promised to get an assessor to call on me as soon as possible. "By the way", he said, "exactly where is this village in which you live?" When I told him, he said that his nearest assessor was well over 100 miles away. "I'm not sending him on a journey like that - just get it fixed and send me the bill", he said. They paid up promptly. That's just one advantage of living in the wilds of Scotland!

Maybe the non-profitability of motor insurance is due to the number of people making untruthful claims. A female colleague was unofficially advised by a policeman who attended the scene of a minor accident in which she was involved to make a claim against the other driver because "whiplash is always worth at least £3,000." This despite the fact that the damage to both vehicles was so minor it was not worth claiming for repairs. 

Edited By Mike on 01/05/2018 17:56:42

house insurance claim was brilliant, same as claiming off your own car insurance but when theres a risk they may not be able to recover their costs from the third party the risk is now yours - progress!