Insurance Issue

[Vitz_man]

This isn't strictly to do with cars but i'd like some opinions anyways.

September last year I was unfortunate enough to get involved in an incident where a van driver drove into the side of my car. :censor:

Anyways, he admitted liability, we exchanged details and went on our merry way. So you'd think things would be resolved fairly quickly yes?

Well as it turns out no. Im still waiting for them admit liability as the third party are "disputing the claim". I've had to draw diagrams, write statements and take pictures of the damage to the car and the road to back up my story (apparently). This was done pretty swiftly and all of my documents were submitted before the end of September pending review etc. A while goes past without hearing anything from the insurance company, so I ring them up to ask what the hell is going on, and they come up with some story about how they're still waiting for the statement from the third party driver.

My main qualm with this is that this is taking far too long to be resolved and at this rate its not going to get sorted until after renewal of my insurance which im assuming will count against me. Being a relitively new driver I can't afford not to get my NCB!

Has anyone had similar experiences to this? Any advice as to what I should do? Are there any rights I've got to hurry along the other party or do I just have to sit it out?

Thanks all! :)

[Cherry Red Pocket Rocket]

Who are you insured with? It sounds like they're right nit pickers asking for diagrams and pictures and what not! As far as I'm aware, you can't do anything to hurry the third party and will just have to sit tight.

When you do have to renew your insurance go here: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/insurance...p-car-insurance

Follow his tips and you should be able to get a good deal and it only requires a couple hours or so of work!

[Vitz_man]

Insured fully comp with Direct Line. To be fair they've been quite good and said they've waived my no claims or something like that in the mean time. (insurance speak =S)

Thanks for the tip. And yeh, guess i'll have to sit it out for the long run. :(

[Raeman]

Sadly it doeas take ages :(

I had a M/cycle accident 3yrs ago when i was stationary on my bike and the blind car driver in front of me put her car in reverse, hitting the front of my beautifull bike and knocking me off and shunted me up a car park.

Because she would not admit liability (which she later admitted it was all her fault as i was going to court over it) the whole sorry incident took 19 months from the day of the accident to when i got payed up.

Incidentally whilst i was waiting i received cheques for all the new parts i needed and repaired the bike myself as i did not trust anyone else to touch it.

You just have to keep pestering the life out of them sadly to get anywhere. :(

[Cherry Red Pocket Rocket]

The best course of action is to assume that everyone else on the roads are stupid and to allow for their mistakes, if possible.

[GeoffH]

I had a problem years ago. A woman hit the rear of my car when I was waiting at a junction. She admitted liability, gave me her name & address and the phone no of the car hire firm who owned the car she was driving.

The following day I rang the car hire office, explained what had happened and obtained the name of their insurers. I then passed on all the details to my insurance firm. I then had my car repaired and thought that was the end of it.

When my insurance came up for renewal, my premium had shot up. When I queried it, I was told it was because I had lost my no claims bonus. Seems that the woman had never reported the accident to the car hire firm (no damage to her car) and my insurance company never informed me. They just paid for the repair and upped my premium.

When I tried to contact the woman, I kept being fobbed off and was even told that she had emigrated to Oz.

In the end, I went through the small claims court and sent a bailiff round to her house to deliver a summons for her to appear in the court.

She then contacted the hire firm, filled out an accident report and all was settled.

As soon as possible after that, I changed my insurance firm.

[Danny_TTE_compressor]

I had a similar experience with Direct line, a filing cabinet fell off a rented pick up truck and hit my car, it damaged the front bumper and wheel.

The guy admitted full liability, he was quite happy to as he had seperate insurance throught the rental company, got all the details in the world and went on my merry way.

I phoned directline, they said there should be no problems and it would be sorted within a few weeks.

A week later i got my renewal through and it had gone up 500 quid, when i phoned them they said the claim was not settled and so it had to be assumed that it was going to be a claim against me.

I even asked if this would be refunded once the claim was settled, they said no, but i could renew my policy again and they would take into account my no claims discount.

So i told them to cancel the claim, fixed the car myself, moved to Bell insurance and saved a few quid in the process. still cost me for the repairs tho.

[alfiejts]

I had a similar experience with Direct line, a filing cabinet fell off a rented pick up truck and hit my car, it damaged the front bumper and wheel.

The guy admitted full liability, he was quite happy to as he had seperate insurance throught the rental company, got all the details in the world and went on my merry way.

I phoned directline, they said there should be no problems and it would be sorted within a few weeks.

A week later i got my renewal through and it had gone up 500 quid, when i phoned them they said the claim was not settled and so it had to be assumed that it was going to be a claim against me.

I even asked if this would be refunded once the claim was settled, they said no, but i could renew my policy again and they would take into account my no claims discount.

So i told them to cancel the claim, fixed the car myself, moved to Bell insurance and saved a few quid in the process. still cost me for the repairs tho.

Be very careful.... Insurance companies usually ask if you've had any accidents or claims. Even if you didn't claim, you need to reply yes to such a question otherwise you risk invalidating your insurance.

They also share claim info between themselves - so if you did report an accident to one company, the others are likely to find out.

I speak from experience as my wife is a named driver on my own insurance and they picked up that she had reported an accident to her car on her own insurance policy with another company - even though the driver of her car who had had the accident was a named driver on her policy and was neither of us....

My company said they wanted extra premium from me as I hadn't declared her accident when I took out the policy - otherwise they would cancel the policy.

Once we got it in writing from her insurance company that she was not the driver at the time, they retracted their claim for extra premium costs from me, but it makes the point that they really all do communicate and if you keep things from them, there is a good chance you'll get caught out and risk invalidating your policy.

[MEP's Yaris GS]

Direct line are useless tossers. Heard far to many bad things about them.

As far as renewal goes, even none fault claims have to be declaired and 9-10 times they'll increase your premium. Makes me sick! Ideally if you find out how much you premium will go up when claiming for damage you can issue a claim against the 3rd party for un-insured losses.

Also a good idea to have a video recorder intalled in your car like I have, never an arguement of liability then.

[Cherry Red Pocket Rocket]

Car insurance is daylight robbery if you ask me. Legalised extortion! If someone keeps on having accidents and are a high risk then insurance companies can just put their premiums through the roof to discourage them from driving or not insure them altogether. While the rest of us who are relatively safe, competent drivers with no accidents history (or anything significant), we still have to pay a premium every year and get nothing back for the pleasure!

Insurance companies get richer and richer and we get nothing in return other than a lower premium if we’ve got a clean slate. Whoopeedo.

They should reward drivers with years of no claims like charging them a penny a day or offering them a free pen or something ridiculous like that (like all these insurance plans you see on television!)

A video recorder installed in your car? :| they're expensive to begin with and if you've got one in your car it'd be a pain if it got nicked... To have it installed though? Wouldn't that cost a fortune? And what do you do? Have it installed like in those spy planes of old? Or do you have it glued to your windshield or something?

I just carry a pen and paper around in my car just in case and hope that everyone is reasonable in the event that I am involved in an accident.

[MEP's Yaris GS]

Car insurance is daylight robbery if you ask me. Legalised extortion! If someone keeps on having accidents and are a high risk then insurance companies can just put their premiums through the roof to discourage them from driving or not insure them altogether. While the rest of us who are relatively safe, competent drivers with no accidents history (or anything significant), we still have to pay a premium every year and get nothing back for the pleasure!

Insurance companies get richer and richer and we get nothing in return other than a lower premium if we’ve got a clean slate. Whoopeedo.

They should reward drivers with years of no claims like charging them a penny a day or offering them a free pen or something ridiculous like that (like all these insurance plans you see on television!)

A video recorder installed in your car? :| they're expensive to begin with and if you've got one in your car it'd be a pain if it got nicked... To have it installed though? Wouldn't that cost a fortune? And what do you do? Have it installed like in those spy planes of old? Or do you have it glued to your windshield or something?

I just carry a pen and paper around in my car just in case and hope that everyone is reasonable in the event that I am involved in an accident.

If this person had been hit what would be the likly hood that without the footage insurance companies would have settled knock for knock?

Easy to install, removeable from car just like CD players facia's / Sat nav and relativly cheap for the package. Camera I have is 't-eye'