Annoying, pointless, avoidable accident...

Adam said:
I see them mentioned a lot on here and I believe I would have paid my excess with my insurer which I didn't need to do with Helphire. Additionally, I also receive a comparable car to my LCR.
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not a dig at you, but these companies need banning

Its profiteering from other peoples mishaps. Its entirely normal for helphire to claim hirecar for your "equivalent" car at a rate of £250 a day.

I bumped into the back of somebodys Audi A4. If they'd been sent to the audi dealership and received a courtesy car, they would have porbably got an A3, or possibly even a 1.8 A4 at no cost to my insurer, but because they went through helphire, my insurance company found a 3 and half thousand pound bill to pay .... for a scratch

It just pushes our premiums up and its only a matter of time before something happens imho. The money programme on radio 4 did a feature on this a few weeks ago. its becomming a serious problem for insurance companies.
 
MrLOL said:
It just pushes our premiums up and its only a matter of time before something happens imho. The money programme on radio 4 did a feature on this a few weeks ago. its becomming a serious problem for insurance companies.
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Quite simply, if my insurance company stops ripping me off, I'll stop doing what I can to rip insurance companies off.

Until then, if my insurance fail to provide like-for-like, then I'll use someone who will.
 
And the hire car is..... a VW Passat TDi Sport!

Nice enough to drive, although in hideous condition externally. Also the coolant indicator came on as well so I needed to top that up. The coolent container was absolutely empty. Not impressed at all.
 
Adam said:
And the hire car is..... a VW Passat TDi Sport!

Nice enough to drive, although in hideous condition externally. Also the coolant indicator came on as well so I needed to top that up. The coolent container was absolutely empty. Not impressed at all.
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Did you report the condition of the vehicle when it was delivered? You don't want to find yourself being held responsible for it.

With regards to excess you aren't always out of pocket. With my bump the third party's insurer sent me a cheque to cover my excess, whilst this was in the post my insurer waived the excess as it was a non fault claim and I was left £350 up :D

Maybe I'm just a martyr but if I could make do with whatever car I was offered (size wise) I'd just stick with it until mine was fixed. That way it feels like a nice step up again when you go back to your own motor :p
 
lordrobs said:
Did you report the condition of the vehicle when it was delivered? You don't want to find yourself being held responsible for it.

With regards to excess you aren't always out of pocket. With my bump the third party's insurer sent me a cheque to cover my excess, whilst this was in the post my insurer waived the excess as it was a non fault claim and I was left £350 up :D

Maybe I'm just a martyr but if I could make do with whatever car I was offered (size wise) I'd just stick with it until mine was fixed. That way it feels like a nice step up again when you go back to your own motor :p
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I have reported it to helphire but not the hire company. The hire company dropped the car off at the bodyshop and left the keys with them, nothing else. No paperwork, nothing. Very poor and nothing to explain the condition of the car or the crazy ignition/handbrake :)

Helphire are aware of the condition and coolant, I had a bit of a rant when I got home. It shows this car is poorly service, there was absolutely no coolant whatsoever.
 
MrLOL said:
not a dig at you, but these companies need banning

Its profiteering from other peoples mishaps. Its entirely normal for helphire to claim hirecar for your "equivalent" car at a rate of £250 a day.

I bumped into the back of somebodys Audi A4. If they'd been sent to the audi dealership and received a courtesy car, they would have porbably got an A3, or possibly even a 1.8 A4 at no cost to my insurer, but because they went through helphire, my insurance company found a 3 and half thousand pound bill to pay .... for a scratch

It just pushes our premiums up and its only a matter of time before something happens imho. The money programme on radio 4 did a feature on this a few weeks ago. its becomming a serious problem for insurance companies.
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Well thank God I'm not the only person who thinks this!
 
Adam said:
I see them mentioned a lot on here and I believe I would have paid my excess with my insurer which I didn't need to do with Helphire. Additionally, I also receive a comparable car to my LCR.
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He hit you, you claim off his insurer, your insurer doesn't pay anything thus no excess gets paid.

I'm afraid I also hate these companies, but it's a vicious circle. Para says he'll use them until his insurer stops ripping him off, but they'll rip us all off as long as companies like this exist pushing up claims by a hugely unecessary factor. Personally my insurance has been very reasonable over the last few years.
 
MrLOL said:
I bumped into the back of somebodys Audi A4. If they'd been sent to the audi dealership and received a courtesy car, they would have porbably got an A3, or possibly even a 1.8 A4 at no cost to my insurer
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Wrong. You'd have got a Corsa or similar - simple transport to save the insurer money. Our local BMW bodyshop has a fleet of Corsas for insurance work...

The only reason accident management companies exist is because insurance companies spent decades seeing off the innocent party in the event of a non fault accident. THEY created the market space for these companies.
 
Yup, not to mention if the at fault insurer doesn't pay up come your renewal time you lose your no-claims bonus. If they pay up within the following year then you'll get it back (with no interest) but if it takes longer than that you'll never get your no-claims or your money back.

Been there, I ended up in a situation where the most cost effective solution was to pay my own insurer (Equity Red Star) for the repair as it was about the same as my no-claims bonus, 2 years later I've finally got that amount back, got shafted on the APR on the credit card that was used to pay them, but still cheaper than going into my next 2 years of insurance with 2 years less NCB.

I swear my old car was cursed, most of my family never even got to see the car as every November since I bought it in October 2004 someone would drive into the back of it (except last year, happened on the 31st October instead) and I'd be in a hire car over Christmas. Glad it's been written off this year, even if I am now stuck in a crappy old Volvo.

Definitely less hassle if you go through Helphire though. Got shafted the first two times.
 
Lum said:
Yup, not to mention if the at fault insurer doesn't pay up come your renewal time you lose your no-claims bonus. If they pay up within the following year then you'll get it back (with no interest) but if it takes longer than that you'll never get your no-claims or your money back.
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This is exactly why in both my non fault claims I got their insurer to do everything, you want to ideally have your company not shell out for anything at all during it all and get the other company do to everything. Don't get your insurer to sort it then try and claim back after.
 
Yes, but I don't trust the other insurer not to do it as cheaply as possible at some substandard bodyshop, since basically their motivation is to get rid of your claim while spending as little money as possible.

I'm sick of terrible repairs, at least with Helphire you can choose your own repairer if you want.
 
Lum said:
Yes, but I don't trust the other insurer not to do it as cheaply as possible at some substandard bodyshop, since basically their motivation is to get rid of your claim while spending as little money as possible.

I'm sick of terrible repairs, at least with Helphire you can choose your own repairer if you want.
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Never had that problem myself, well the first accident the car was written off so wasn't a factor lol. But the second accident I got the repair quote from my usual garage and they did all the work for it.
 
Wait, so you chose your own repairer and got a decent job done?

That's exactly what I've been arguing that the OP should be doing, not letting the person who is footing the bill choose the repairer as they'll choose the cheapest nastiest bunch of cowboys they can get away with.
 
Lum said:
Wait, so you chose your own repairer and got a decent job done?

That's exactly what I've been arguing that the OP should be doing, not letting the person who is footing the bill choose the repairer as they'll choose the cheapest nastiest bunch of cowboys they can get away with.
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Yup, his insurers handled it all financially, I said the car is going to this garage for the repairs and they paid. My insurer didn't do anything.
 
Lum said:
Wait, so you chose your own repairer and got a decent job done?

That's exactly what I've been arguing that the OP should be doing, not letting the person who is footing the bill choose the repairer as they'll choose the cheapest nastiest bunch of cowboys they can get away with.
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Yup, his insurers handled it all financially, I said the car is going to this garage for the repairs and they paid.

What I didn't do was get my insurer to take it where I wanted, them foot the bill, then try and claim it all back off the third party.
 
Ok I understand now sorry. Yeah that approach is fine I guess. Just dont let the 3rd party insurers take it to a garage of their choosing.
 
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