non-fault accident... helphire involved by my insurance co..

Jono

Jono

Jono

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On saturday some woman drove into the rear/side of my car (hit the nearside rear wheel) on a roundabout. Result = dented wheel arch, smashed in bumper and the wheel itself has been pushed in at the top (got camber, yo!)

Anyway, didn't seem quite safe to drive, due to the angle of the rear wheel, was definitely rubbing on either the suspension thing or something and don't know what damage was caused behind it. I drove it around the corner from
where the accident happened and parked it up. Damage to her car was smashed in front bumper and grille. Her car seemed to drive fine.

Totally her fault, although she claimed to not see me. Quite how I was invisible when I was right in front of her... anyway got her details and everything.

Then called my parents to come pick me up and went home. Called my insurance company (not quite sure if that was the right thing to do now, but...)
Anyway, they put me through to Helphire who seem to be processing some kind of claim for me.
My car has been taken away on the back of a lorry to a bodyshop, and I'm supposed to be getting a replacement car provided via helphire delivered to work at lunchtime.

I've read a couple of threads mentioning helphire and kinda getting a bit worried now, but should I be?
They (helphire) said all costs should be recovered from 3rd party's insurance and all I had to worry about was not damaging the hire car or getting speeding tickets in it.

I doubt the car would be a write off, if it wasn't for the back wheel being at a funny angle it would probably be just cosmetic damage, but since it's undrivable and I need to do a 70 mile round trip to work I thought getting helphire involved wouldn't be so bad.

I've also just sort of let my insurance co. and helphire get the ball rolling as it were... but now I don't want to be left with any problems, or costs.

I'm trying not to stress out about this, but it doesn't seem to be working. Anyone had a GOOD experience with helphire recently in a non-fault accident?
 
Cant help with helphire stuff...

However, if she drove into your right rear on a roundabout, it sounds like you failed to give way to someone already on the round-about, and caused the accident! This might make it costly if they go against you....
 
Malt_Vinegar said:
Cant help with helphire stuff...

However, if she drove into your right rear on a roundabout, it sounds like you failed to give way to someone already on the round-about, and caused the accident! This might make it costly if they go against you....
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No she drove into the passenger side rear wheel.
I was coming from the opposite direction she was, turning right, so I had right of way. She just didn't stop or something and crashed into me as I was coming off said roundabout.

roundabout.jpg


Like so, Me blue.??
 
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the problem with helphire is specificly with the costs it puts on the industry

Helphire only take on cases where they are sure that you are not to blame and there is no way you could be at fault. Given that you were already on the roundabout, and she drove onto it, into you, this looks like just such a case.

The problem is that they will charge her insurance co something in the region of £200 a day for your hirecar, so thats £1000 a week. If your car is away for 2 weeks then thats £2000 plus the actual cost of the repair, which being insurance work is usually extornionate anyway. As an exmaple, i bumped into the back of somebody, cracked my numberplate and scratched her car.

Helphire charged my insurance co £700 for a new bumper fitted and sprayed, and over £2500 in hire car charges for 2 weeks (who needs 2 weeks to fit a bumper)

Total cost to my insurnace co = £3200 for a scratch
Total cost to me = £10.

This wont pose you a problem, as its not you who picks up the costs. But its companies like helphire that cost the insurance companies millions in un-needed charges. They are effectively profiteering out of the insurance companies

which puts our insurnace premiums up.

Now they've got involved its too late to turn back, so dont worry too much.
 
MrLOL said:
The problem is that they will charge her insurance co something in the region of £200 a day for your hirecar, so thats £1000 a week. If your car is away for 2 weeks then thats £2000 plus the actual cost of the repair, which being insurance work is usually extornionate anyway. As an exmaple, i bumped into the back of somebody, cracked my numberplate and scratched her car.

Helphire charged my insurance co £700 for a new bumper fitted and sprayed, and over £2500 in hire car charges for 2 weeks (who needs 2 weeks to fit a bumper)

Total cost to my insurnace co = £3200 for a scratch
Total cost to me = £10.
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I dread to think how much they charged the woman who crashed into me - my car was off the road for about 2 months! It had a fair bit of damage to be fair, and my solicitor (whom was assigned to me, I would have got a decent one had I really needed one in hindsight) was dragging his feet and did things the long way round - where as it could have been sorted within a much shorter period of time had he got his act together, bit I digress..

My dealing with HelpHire was absolutely fine, although I had my accident just before a bank holiday and they had only a limited number of staff who could deliver the car so it took a few days to get to me - but due to being a bank holiday I didn't have anywhere to be. The only gripe I had was that they changed what car I was getting 3 times (An Avensis specced similarly to yours, oh no wait it'll be a Vectra estate auto, oh no wait it'll be a normal Vectra, oh no wait you can have a golf)

Easy enough to deal with though on my part.
 
MrLOL said:
The problem is that they will charge her insurance co something in the region of £200 a day for your hirecar, so thats £1000 a week. If your car is away for 2 weeks then thats £2000 plus the actual cost of the repair, which being insurance work is usually extornionate anyway.
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I understand exactly where you are coming from...but getting claim companies involved doesn't half speed things up. The insurance companies are keen to stop paying their charges ASAP, so don't tend to drag things out as they do with many normal claims.
 
If insurance companies had much better customer service then there would be no requirement for companies such as helphire, I don't think it's fair to blame accident management companies for increased insurance costs.

If an insurer was able to do most things (hire cars and repairs) in house with excellent service I reckon they could be very competitively priced!
 
MrLOL said:
trouble is we all pay for it in the end with higher insurance premiums.
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It's a vicious cycle. Currently we can either pay less and get little/no/crap service from insurance companies, or pay a LOT more in order to get the service that insurance companies should be providing in the first place. But, because the extra cost is front loaded, everyone is happy to pay £10 and go with an accident management company. I would, because I am already paying for it and have no confidence that my insurance company would provide anything like the kind of service that Europa or Helphire would.
 
MrLOL said:
trouble is we all pay for it in the end with higher insurance premiums.
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They're only ever going to go up, anyway. But I appreciate the sentiment.
I don't know if I'd have chosen to get HH involved; it didn't even cross my mind until they said "we're going to refer your case to..."

Mind you, if people didn't crash into each other and as has been said (osc89er) if no one dragged their feet then this sort of service/industry probably wouldn't exist.
 
exactly

thats the only real criticism of helphire. That and they drop you like a ginger stepchild if they suddenly find its not going to be a non fault claim. Once the other party start disputing liability helphire will no longer be involved and will withdraw, leaving you in at the deep end.

In rear end accidents and obvious fault claims, the other party's insurance wont instruct their driver to dispute liability, and you're fine. But its if the insurer changes their mind and disputes, and helphire withdraws their assistance you have an issue.
 
MrLOL said:
exactly

thats the only real criticism of helphire. That and they drop you like a ginger stepchild if they suddenly find its not going to be a non fault claim. Once the other party start disputing liability helphire will no longer be involved and will withdraw, leaving you in at the deep end.

In rear end accidents and obvious fault claims, the other party's insurance wont instruct their driver to dispute liability, and you're fine. But its if the insurer changes their mind and disputes, and helphire withdraws their assistance you have an issue.
Click to expand...

So what does the £10 really cover? It is touted as liability insurance in case it turns out not to be an open and shut case.
 
There is a £10 insurance scheme they sometimes charge which is supposed to protect you from their (massive) hire and repair costs in case the other party don't admit liability.
 
Yeh, I paid the tenner too.
I didn't get a replacement Audi unfortunately but it could have been worse than the Lexus they gave me.
I don't think you got anything to worry about tbh.
 
Used them myself via the insurance when my A4 got pranged by somone who just drove off.
Had a witness who got the numberplate, called police and insurance.
Within 2 hrs helphire were on the blower and got me a 2.2d Jag for a week and a bit, whilst the rear end was being repaired.
A bit better than afew years ago, when our 306 got trashed by a mullered driver.
Insurance gave us a 1.0l Micra, even though I stressed that we were going to Cornwall for the week.
Nice trip that was, courtesy of nodding dog insurance.
 
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