Was hit from behind at a roundabout yesterday, 3rd party admitted fault immediately. I didn’t get back from A&E till early hours of this morning so am yet to call my insurers.
In the meantime the 3rd party insurers (direct line) have left messages asking to deal with me directly, offering a courtesy car and promoting the benefit of saving my (protected) no claims.
I assume this is because they know it’s a cut and dry no fault claim on my behalf.

Has anyone dealt with 3rd party in this way before? I’m fairly certain my car will be written off as both rear quarters have been slightly squashed and the boot floor area is properly mangled.

Just slightly concerned about prospect of not informing my insurer!

ask them how they would feel if they were your insurer and you with held this information from them ….

You must inform your insurer, afaik. Call them, explain what you have been offered and take their advice.

Your insurer may have a contractual clause that means you should tell them although ultimately you don’t have to if Direct Line are happy to deal with you alone.
My guess is the cost of the other insurers getting involved far outweighs any costs they will pay out to you.
I’d happily let them talk to me directly.

Edit – the RTA 1958 states you MUST report an accident within a reasonable time frame BUT there is nothing stating to anyone else but the Police and then only if there are injured parties.

I’d go through my own insurers but not a third party ‘claims handling firm'(because I’d think they’ll take the piss on everything to maximise their income)

Any direct negotiations will likely make your insurers wash their hands of the whole thing which may matter if there’s any long term health implications for you.

Yeah, the Mrs is struggling more than me at the moment but my shoulder has taken a jolt and is crunching away nicely – and my neck/back feel strained.
We both thought we had been hit on the back of the head with a bat, turns out that headrests are actually pretty solid!

If you go through direct line you’ll not have an excess to pay.

If light damage, i’d have no issue claiming through the third party but, i’d still inform my insurer.

“If you go through direct line you’ll not have an excess to pay”

not always the case that you will have an excess to pay in a non fault claim….. i never have but it doesnt always work like that either.

My excess is only £100, in grand scheme of things that seems a small price to pay. As above, I’d be amazed if car isn’t written off so I should get fair market value for it.

Go through your insurer – its part of what you pay your premium for ,
and more particularly – who do you think will be looking to settle quickly and for the least cost? Who will negotiate ? And in who`s interest ?
This is not a minor parking bump – your vehicle is likely written off and you and your partner had to visit A&E.

FWIW, I had a similar situation recently. (Though I wasn’t injured.)

I agreed to work with the other parties insurer directly, and spoke to my broker immediately after agreeing to this. Their advice was that they usually advised against this, but now I’d started to stick with it, but if there was trouble my insurer would pick up the claim.

I received a fair price for the car in a reasonable time.

I didn’t get offered a curtsey car as mine was still drivable though damaged.

Edited to add: Oh, and be careful of paying the excess as it’s “only £100 and not worth the trouble” – some insurers used to use whether you paid your excess or claimed it from the other party as a deciding factor as to whether the claim affected your no-claims-bonus. I don’t know if this is still the case.

What finishthat says. You need someone fighting your corner, otherwise you might end up with a bodged car if they try and get it fixed on the cheap. Also, could get awkward come renewal time when it is asked if you’ve had an accident in the last 12 months.

Yeah, the Mrs is struggling more than me at the moment but my shoulder has taken a jolt and is crunching away nicely – and my neck/back feel strained.
We both thought we had been hit on the back of the head with a bat, turns out that headrests are actually pretty solid!

I’d not advocate fraud, but you might be better off going through your insurers or a 3rd party ‘claims handler’/solicitor to make sure you get the injuries recorded and any compensation to pay for physio / time off work etc. Direct Line might be just hoping that by offering a generous amount up front they can get you sign away any rights to more money in the future before you get advice from your insurer/solicitor/whoever.

Ok, I must declare a vested interest – in so much as I work for Direct Line, in an injury department, and right behind me are the “direct injury claims team”. (I work where people are already represented).

Firstly, whilst you should tell your own insurers for good form, eventually, I can’t see there is any problem dealing directly with Direct Line what so ever. (actually, as I’ve claimed against them myself twice in the last few years I’ve sampled the service!)

Indeed, you might find that you’re less likely to run into issues so any services provided by them such as repairs, hire cars, physio treatment, are costs they authorise up front.

For example, if you go to your own insurer, and they simply punt you on to an accident management company to provide a credit repair, credit hire, and credit physio, you’re taking some risk in essentially funding your claim, by taking out complex credit agreements and hoping to recover it in full later. The AMC will of course both have hire/physio/repair suppliers who will charge you far more (on credit terms) than Direct Line can get those for you, and as mentioned, Direct Line do so at their own cost, not yours.

There are many problems that can occur with an insurance claim – such as – if your repairs take a long time, due to say a parts delay, Direct Line if they have authorised hire, are stuck with keeping you in hire till it arrives, whereas your AMC might either get nervous about the mounting bill and it’s recovery, and pull the hire. Or you might just find your repairs are delayed anyway – where an AMC is making extra cash from say the hire car provision, your car will typically not enter a garage til a thursday, it won’t be inspected til a monday and thus by the time repairs authorised and parts ordered, it’s been a week already, just to bump up the total claim costs. For example, the repair labour rate might only be £500, but they could depending on the hire car, be earning £200 a day from that credit hire, for which you’ve signed up the risk for, as its credit, whereas the car from Direct Line is just that.

If your injuries are straight forward, then Direct Line can and will organise prompt investigations/treatment, but if it looks like your injuries might be more complex, they will quickly tell you to go to solicitors so your best interests are looked after.

Also, you go to a solicitor for your injury, then you might lose 25% of the value of your injury to the solicitors in “success fees”.

Basically it’s up to you, but there’s in my view (and I work for the company, but also need to bear in mind I don’t want to look like an arse on a public forum if they were rubbish!) that there’s probably less risk to you to use them. speak to them, see what they say, and if you don’t like what you hear, then that’s your choice.

And bear in mind on any post like this, there will always be a handful of people saying oh, I did this, and x were totally rubbish, but in fairness, you’re dealing with an organisation that deals with tens of thousands of claims a year.

I must admit, even 10-15 years ago, I’d not have recommended using them. But the world has moved on. They are very big with “treating the customer fairly” and are very sensitive to the fact you have other options open to you.

so I should get fair market value for it.

I’d expect your insurers to help negotiate this, whereas the other insurers are liable to try and minimise their costs by paying you the least they can.

But I personally hate insurance companies so I may be biased.

Keep an eye on neck and back pain for a while as sometimes muscles lock up a fair bit later.

TBH, possible write off and personal injury x2 – I can’t understand why you wouldn’t want to have your insurer acting on your behalf.

As above. I’d go through the TP too. I’ve done this myself and it’s a very easy, straightforward approach.

I worked for Direct Line claims years ago (15+) and even then, they were brilliant at dealing with claims, especially Third Parties.

You’ll get a prompt service. Direct Line do it because it saves them money in time and they get preferential rates through their own solicitors, car hire companies. You’ll end up with the same settlement but they will make their own savings.

If your car is written off and you’re unhappy with the offer, just find other examples (same make, model, mileage etc) and send them to the claim handler to argue a higher figure.

I found it easier to deal direct with the 3rd party insurer in a clean cut 3rd party fault accident. I informed my insurer as normal but they started pratting me about, so once I had a clear admission of liability I cancelled my claim with my insurer and the 3rd part insurer took care of it all, even gave me a brand new c200 sport hire car the next day.

be careful agreeing to anything too early when injurys are concerned.

my dad was in a motorbike accident last june – claims still on going but he went back into hospital on friday with related complications – despite looking and feeling fine in december….

Many thanks for the brilliant responses.
I’ve spoken to my insurers and registered details , they have advised speaking to direct line directly as by their own admission they also prefer to settle directly themselves. I can go back to my insurer at any time In order to reopen claim should I feel necessary, so for these reasons I feel fine in contacting direct line and seeing what they offer.

so I should get fair market value for it.
I’d expect your insurers to help negotiate this, whereas the other insurers are liable to try and minimise their costs by paying you the least they can.

If your car is written off and you’re unhappy with the offer, just find other examples (same make, model, mileage etc) and send them to the claim handler to argue a higher figure.

Be very aware that ‘fair market value’ may not cover you for the cost of finding a similar replacement. I went through this last year following a non-fault accident, car written off. Even though my insurers were claiming the cost from the third party, they would only value the car against Parkers/Glasses (although took the higher figure). Maybe fine if you live in the North, but in South East I lost out by about £1,000 (10% of car value) to find a like-for-like replacement.

I had a right old battle, provided plenty of examples of all the cars available at the time which were all a higher price, went through various complaint processes, all to no avail.

I have been glad of the claims management company handling the costs for hire car, physio etc though, that made things simpler, and the claims process was all on-line so easy to track and submit info. Just as well as still have neck problems despite a fairly low-speed shunt and awaiting another course of physio.