Who should be helping me after a car accident?

[StevieP]

There shouldn't be any issue with a courtesy car if the third party's insurer accept the claim and deal with you directly - any queries with courtesy cars through your own insurer are a non-issue simply because the driver of your car was not entitled to drive under your policy! Understandably they won't want anything to do with the claim!

 

[Over Clocker]

Should I wait until Tuesday to chase her insurance (tomorrow being a bank holiday) or an I just being too nice?

I'm now thinking I call her insurance tomorrow morning and ask what they are doing, and if it's nothing tell I'm going to ask a 3rd party company for help (National Accident Helpline or Accident Exchange or something?). I'm not a fan as it just pushed everyone's premiums up but I also have urgent needs with this.

Thanks,
Mal

 

[StevieP]

If they are open I'd ring them first thing - after all, theoretically the sooner they are on the case, the lower the eventual costs!

 

[Havana_UK]

Should I wait until Tuesday to chase her insurance (tomorrow being a bank holiday) or an I just being too nice?

I'm now thinking I call her insurance tomorrow morning and ask what they are doing, and if it's nothing tell I'm going to ask a 3rd party company for help (National Accident Helpline or Accident Exchange or something?). I'm not a fan as it just pushed everyone's premiums up but I also have urgent needs with this.

Thanks,
Mal

Give the 3rd party's insurance the chance to get you sorted but don't inconvenience yourself to do it. Call them tomorrow, if they can't or won't help tell them you'll be using a claims management company. They'll likely give you a load of scare stories about how it could cost you etc., but the reality is if you're not taking the p*** (i.e. you drive a Fiesta and get a Ferrari as a temporary replacement) then you're all good. My wife had a RR Evoque, and AX got her a replacement Evoque the next day, which we ended up having for about 5 weeks if I remember correctly. The other driver's insurer was on my case within days with a load of scare mongering tactics about how I'd be liable for the costs because they wouldn't pay the admittedly high daily rental fees, but they couldn't help me immediately and we needed a replacement car right there and then. In the end, of course, the 3rd party's insurer paid all of the hire costs from AX.

 

[jpaul]

... so you have contacted your driver/mates insurance too ? seemed to be some ambiguity on whether you called your insurance, or his

 

[fezster]

As has already been said above, the third party insurer will bend over backwards to help you. It seems a clear cut case in terms of liability and they will NOT want to incur the fees associated with accident management companies.

Your mate will also need to inform their insurance company they've been involved in an incident.

 

[-westy-]

... so you have contacted your driver/mates insurance too ? seemed to be some ambiguity on whether you called your insurance, or his

Why would he need to do that? The other driver was at fault. The onus is on the driver/his mate to call his own insurance company.

 

[jpaul]

The onus is on the drive

lol -

so you have contacted

thats the royal you.

 

[Over Clocker]

Yup all insurance companies have been notified. My friend who was driving, mine, and 3rd party woman who crashed into us and is in a police cell!

I'm didn't want to but I'm going to phone National Accident Helpline or Accident Exchange tomorrow morning as it's too much inconvenience.

Thanks,
Mal

 

[Rids]

As somebody who works in Motor insurance (although on the finance side, not claims) this sort of thing infuriates me.

All motor insurers are under pressure to drive claims costs down - the best way to do this is to handle claims yourself, maintain control of costs, use in-network repair and hire car providers. Instead they give you the run around, you end up going to an accident management company and they'll probably end up paying out far far more on this claim than they need to. Its utterly stupid.

Not your fault of course, I'd do the same in your position, but the industry really needs to get better at this sort of thing.

 

[jpaul]

aside - your air bags went off although it was as rear collision too ... must have been some collision ... google suggests like a 25Km/h deceleration in cabin.

 

[Over Clocker]

So, eSure have finally started getting this sorted. I gave their Direct Claims department one last chance this morning before I was going to have to use another company.

We've been put to such inconvenience over the last few days through absolutely no fault of our own. The lady on the phone today was very apologetic and made arrangements for the claim to be handled by them directly.

They've instructed a hire company called Kindertons who will have a car to me tomorrow or Thursday. My current car is an Audi S6 Avant so let's see what I get. I've told them it must be an estate and I'm willing to compromise on the rest.

They've also taken notes of the injuries and everything else that's been damaged (dog cage, child seats etc etc etc).

I've told them as long as they are fair to me I'm happy to deal with them directly.

Thanks also for all of your help guys.

Cheers,
Mal

 

[roadie]

I hope you get it sorted in a satisfactory manner

 

[Over Clocker]

Hi guys,

Quick update for anyone interested. Her insurance have had a Volvo V60 delivered to me this morning, and have also taken down all of the details of our losses and injuries.

We travel back home from Devon tomorrow evening.

My car (Audi S6) hasn't been collected yet so I'll chase that tomorrow morning.

Mal.

 

[Hades]

Sounds like it's getting sorted. Nice

 

[Apone70]

Who is your insurance company? They should be sorting it all for you. My wife has been hit twice through no fault of her own and each time has had a courtesy car delivered to her within hours and only dealt with Aviva who we use. You pay your premium to them so I don't understand why they have fobbed you off telling you to basically sort it yourself. Name and shame them

 

[Dangerous Dave]

Who is your insurance company? They should be sorting it all for you. My wife has been hit twice through no fault of her own and each time has had a courtesy car delivered to her within hours and only dealt with Aviva who we use. You pay your premium to them so I don't understand why they have fobbed you off telling you to basically sort it yourself. Name and shame them

He wasn’t driving the car his friend was with only 3rd party cover.

 

[Apone70]

Oh I get you so he will need to chase it up himself. That's a ball ache

 

[[TW]Fox]

Who is your insurance company? They should be sorting it all for you. My wife has been hit twice through no fault of her own and each time has had a courtesy car delivered to her within hours and only dealt with Aviva who we use. You pay your premium to them so I don't understand why they have fobbed you off telling you to basically sort it yourself. Name and shame them

Why would you ever do this? Never involve your own insurer beyond informing them as you are obliged to do. They'll likely treat the whole thing as a fault claim until such time as they can make a recovery from the third party.

 

[Apone70]

Why would you ever do this? Never involve your own insurer beyond informing them as you are obliged to do. They'll likely treat the whole thing as a fault claim until such time as they can make a recovery from the third party.

Not in my experience. They just handle everything for you like they should. You pay them money for insurance so they sort everything for you. Why do it yourself? Not once has our premium gone up, had to pay our excess or lost our no claims. They fixed the car on both occasions, supplied a courtesy car and claimed the costs of the driver at faults insurance.
Makes zero sense IMO to do something when you pay someone to do it anyway. But each to their own