Car insurance claims, any tales of woe?

<p style=”text-align: left;”>My car was struck by another car at the weekend. Mine was parked and took a fair rear end shunt, wing stoved in and wheel askew. Other driver admitted fault and was quick with insurance details etc.</p>
He gave me a number to call and I started the process. This is where I’m into unknown territory. The number given was for a third party company who claim against his insurer on my behalf it seems. They also provide a hire car via another third party and repairs via another again.

I’ve heard some stories of things like hire car being charged to me( they have already asked for a credit card and national insurance number) if the claim is unsuccessful. I’ve also heard stories about being charged for storage if I reject any offers. The hire car company also doesn’t have a great review score on Google for what that’s worth.

Also a preliminary look at the webuyanycar price and an equivalent car for sale is a bit of a stretch. I’ve  just put £1100 into my car for repairs, which I’m thinking I’ll have to write off.

Anyone been through the same? Any red flags I should look for? Many thanks.

The big red flag seems to be using Auxillis as the claim management company if that’s who the insurer is pushing you towards.
If you search them on here there’s been a few threads recently about them.
From bits I’ve picked up off people, I’d be avoiding a courtesy car at all costs, I certainly did when I had a claim last year.

I’d go to your insurance company and let them deal with it. That’s what you pay for!

My experience of claims management companies is 100% negative. All they did in my case was delay and obfuscate the process. Once I got my insurers involved it was sorted within days.

Yeah, with the school holidays happening we could get by without. We are also away for a bit and it would be sitting in the driveway doing nothing.

I’ll need to find out how the guy got the number for the claims company. I’d initially thought they had been assigned by his insurance but after a couple of conversations it seems strange that they view his insurance as an opponent in this.

If I go through my own insurance company is this effectively me making a claim? Again rumour/third party talk that this would effect my premiums going forward.

Honestly, stop any contact with them!

Phone your insurer, give them his details and reg no, etc. Let them deal with it. You should have courtesy car on you policy.

They’re talking shit!
Your premium will go up anyway as you have to tell your ins co. If it’s a no fault claim then you won’t lose NCD and your premium may only go up 10-20%

In my case – car written off by (as it turned out) an uninsured driver. My premium actually went down slightly the next year!

Again rumour/third party talk that this would effect my premiums going forward.

doesnt matter how you approach it – this will happen.

use your insurance – thats what you pay them for.

No, don’t use a claim management company. There have been a couple of threads on here about it, the first is linked from the second which I’m linking below.

Scam artists, in the main. Avoid.

Embroiled in the car insurance credit hire scam

And yes – you are obliged to tell your insurance co. They use statistics to calculate your risk and premium, and statistically drivers that have accidents are more likely to have other accidents. That’s not necessarily the same as saying you cause them, but for example I assume city drivers have more bumps and claims, etc.

So the fact you have had an incident is material to how they view your risk going forward, and if you don’t advise them and they find out (isn’t being data connected great 😉 !) then they could invalidate your insurance. then try getting someone else to take you on without lying about having a policy cancelled or refused…… etc.

I know it sounds unfair, but that’s the reality.

Right, I’ve just spoken with the guy who hit my car. His actual insurer (Admiral) has contacted me and has said they will take care of everything. This number I was given was from his wife who was trying to deal with it whilst the guy was trying to get his car moved. Somehow they have contacted this claims firm and made it sound like they are the insurers appointed agents.

I had a no fault claim a few months back and I was insured with Admiral, I notified them and they pushed me towards using Auxillis for claims management.

They were very quick to collect the car and had a hire car ready for me next day. The other party’s insurers paid all of the costs although warned me that the car hire from Auxillis was expensive and if it was deemed unfair they might not agree to pay all of it. In the end it was all sorted in a week and car hire paid in full by other party insurers.

In hindsight I would have allowed other party insurers to sort car hire rather than Auxillis but at the end of the day nothing terrible happened.

This number I was given was from his wife who was trying to deal with it whilst the guy was trying to get his car moved. Somehow they have contacted this claims firm and made it sound like they are the insurers appointed agents.

That’s what they try to do. I’m sure I saw a thread on pistonheads also about an Admiral customer who had a crash, googled ‘admiral car insurance claim’ and clicked on the first result. Which was actually an ad for claim management company, with a website using Admiral colours.

Many thanks all and the other thread proved valuable too. Indeed it was the hire car and asking for CC details that was the flag that prompted me to start this thread. I’ve since contacted the company and cancelled any further dealings. They even admitted that it was probably a Google search that led the other party to initiate the process with them. I’m now waiting on a call back from their insurer and they have informed me on the initial call that they would be working with my insurer. The third party claims company did put it across that they would be working for me whereas the insurer would be looking after themselves, which I can accept as being the reality but I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.

The third party claims company did put it across that they would be working for me whereas the insurer would be looking after themselves,

Chin chin chinny.

Yeah they’re mostly (all?) a shower of a’holes with only their self interest at the heart of their dealings.

My encounter was through the RAC – I called up to get my car towed away from the crash and they put me through to the Claims Management company. I was a fair way in to the process by the time I realised what was what, and at that point inertia took over – did I really want to go over ALL the details again? You just want to get home!

They spent weeks bullshitting me and time-wasting. Luckily I realised the car was a write-off straight away so bought a cheapish 2nd hand car asap and returned the hire car. For a while it looked like I’d be charged for it though, but I point blank refused to give them any payment details and they took the other driver to court for payment.

They didn’t even manage to find out the other driver was uninsured – turned out later he’d told the police at the crash, but the rozzers failed to inform me!!! It took me speaking directly with him and questioning him for him to admit it, at which point the claims arseholes washed their hands on me, and I then went to my insurers who had it all sorted pretty quickly.

I will endeavour to NEVER use one ever again. If I was pointed at one by my insurers I would point blank refuse and insist they dealt with it themselves, I don’t think they can refuse to do so.

Just to re-iterate here….

Your premium is going up next year. That is already certain.

Stop contact with anyone, except your own insurance company. Ring them, tell them whats happened. Leave it entirely up to them. That is what you pay them for!

Stop contact with anyone, except your own insurance company. Ring them, tell them whats happened. Leave it entirely up to them. That is what you pay them for!

Exactly this. Don’t talk the the claims management firm, don’t talk to the person who hit you, don’t talk to their insurance firm, talk to your insurance firm and no-one else.

So, I spoke again with the other party’s insurance company(Admiral) and was passed to their third party claims assessor. 30 min conversation resulted in me having my car written off, an offer for my car which is above the value of webuyanycar by a significant margin and above similar priced cars on the market at the moment. I also received the offer of a hire car or cash instead, which I accepted. A company have also been contacted to pick up my car. The settlement and hire cash should be in my account this week.

Whilst I could do without the hassle and I did like the car I had, stuff happens and this has been quite a bit less hassle than I was expecting. I’ll see what happens with my insurance come the time I’m insuring a new vehicle.

Many thanks to all for pushing me to ditch the claims company, I’d have probably let it run and see how it played out and I doubt I’d have been any better off. In fact even the principal of ditching them sits easier with me, I really can’t abide this type of ‘business’.

And I didn’t ignore the above advice about only speaking with my own provider, I’d already spoke with the other parties insurer and settled. I’d popped out for a cathartic run and have just came back in. Thanks for taking the time to respond though.

Just to finish this off, the cash was also in my account this morning. I do think it helped that it was under £5k all the same. Time to car hunt now, which is already bursting my head.