learnt a bit on car insurance today

[lame plumber]

So a nice builders merchant wagon decided to reshape my parked up van this morning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So finished of the fire install and went home and called Hastings van insurance to kick off my van repairs.

First call got kicked around for a bit and then a claim handler took all my details etc etc and after an hour I was handed over to the "credit repair handling team"
So this is a company dealing in getting vehicles repaired under a credit type basis, means the insurance co gets paid by them and doesnt have to wait for its cash or risk it. So after another hour, I got handed over to the "credit car hire team". So all over again id oneself and proved it wasnt my fault etc etc. So signed up for a replacement hire van for the duration of repairs, BUT no one could give me the cost of hire, only that ultimately if anything went wrong the bill comes back to me, not that this will happen as theres yet more insurance to protect me, unless I lied, got the facts wrong etc etc. So email verifying everything arrives, cost of hire for 10 days around £800, so I rang local hertz base, same van 10 days £176!!!!!!!!!!

So I thought, what if I go to the lorry drivers insurer direct and ask them to deal with everything for me? They wont charge stupid money for van hire or ridiculous credit charges for vehicle repairs. ring ring hello Allianz, your drives smacked my parked van, will you repair it please? Hang on they say, gonna chat to the lorry drivers boss, 5 mins later, yup our fault, we will pick up your van 1st thing tomorrow, do you want a van? no upfront fees, just a drivers licence no needed, so I ask for some compo for days lost dealing with this hassle, no probs just invoice us with proof of costs (have a look at my website says I, which they do)

time to deal with Allianz 40 mins all done, time to deal with Hastings van hire 4 hours plus and being ripped off by my own insurers as would be the guilty drivers insurers. Probably saved the insurance world over £2000 by going direct and refusing to use these middlemen. If everyone who was able did this all our premiums would plummet, these semi fraudulent beggars should be banned, they are the curse of drivers today

 

[gassafe]

All insurers the same, they happily take are money, but its only when we need to make a claim we find out what there really like!

 

[Phil]

Insurance companies are the biggest rip off merchants going.....the whole industry is rotten to the core. You give them tens of thousands over your lifetime and when you really need them you get treated like a sucker.

I've paid out hundreds of pounds out of my own pocket to avoid using my public liability for fear of my premium tripling the next year.

 

[gassafe]

Insurance companies are the biggest rip off merchants going.....the whole industry is rotten to the core. You give them tens of thousands over your lifetime and when you really need them you get treated like a sucker.

Sounds like my local plumbing merchant ;p

 

[Chalked]

We had the same a couple of years ago.
A 4x4 drive into our car while parked up. My wife swapped insurance details. One hour later the other cars insurers rang the wife (Allianz) they said they admitted full liability. Next day a brand new car arrived in a trailer and wax swapped with ours. Then in about 4 weeks our car came back and they picked up the other car. Could not have been easier.

BUT!! Last year upon renewal, our insurance went up ad we were involved in a claim, even though it was not our fault.
We are new with Allianz.

 

[plumben]

Allianz are a really good company, my dads an inspection/service engineer for them they take care of there employees really well.

Speaking of insurance, some fella drove into the back of my van not long ago,
I told insurance I didn't want to claim as not injured and the damage is only cosmetic (don't want my van wrote off over a few dints and scratches) the other driver tried to blame me,
So far I haven't been updated with the status of my claim and all's I've been getting is personal injury companys ringing me up telling me to lie and say I've got injurys

 

[Millsy 82]

I was with the AA and couldn't fault them when I totalled my car. The money was with me in just over a week and I only spent 15 minutes on the phone. I even said I had to pay to get towed home and winched will you cover that? Yep send us all the paperwork. And that came through another 2 weeks later.

They were a little bit extra but well worth it when it comes to claiming. Just a shame the next time I came for insurance they wanted over 1k!

 

[Millsy 82]

So far I haven't been updated with the status of my claim and all's I've been getting is personal injury companys ringing me up telling me to lie and say I've got injurys

I keep getting them after I crashed my car, I said I tried to sue the puddle of water that I hit but by the next day it vanished. Then they ask oh did you hit anyone else? Nope! Then they ask if someone else was in the car? To which I usually reply even if there was do you think I'd tell you ducking leeches! Not sure why but they usually hang up.

 

[jonnyswamp]

You'll now get every claim company in the land ringing or texting you

 

[lame plumber]

it's started already, ring ring, youve had an accident.............!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!