Accident Exchange
Discussion
A friend of mine down south with a Murcielago was bumped by another driver a few days ago. He has since heard that accident exchange will provide him with a better car than that offered by Enterprise, the other drivers insurance, he can choose between a DB9, Gallardo Spyder, F430 etc.
Is this too good to be true?
There is some paperwork to be filled in but apparently it excuses him of all responsibility?
The 3rd parties insurance company said they will knock back any claims for a car over the value of an S-Class which is what they offered. Accident Exchange said this is tosh.
Any of you guys dealt with them?
Is this too good to be true?
There is some paperwork to be filled in but apparently it excuses him of all responsibility?
The 3rd parties insurance company said they will knock back any claims for a car over the value of an S-Class which is what they offered. Accident Exchange said this is tosh.
Any of you guys dealt with them?
As a non-fault incident he is entitled to a like for like hire car for the duration of the repair though the other parties insurers will often kick up a stink over hire costs. Be aware though that if A/Exchange can't recover full costs from the 3rd parties insurers then they can come after your mate for the difference.
Pher Anniesdad (Steve Greensmith) runs a similar company to AE called Europa (www.europaconsultants.co.uk) and has helped a LOT of PHers with some difficult claims (he took the AA to court for mine) - he may be worth at least a chat to as he's totally honest about his profession and any likely outcomes, personally I wouldn't use any other company and trust him absolutely as I've used him myself 3 times and know personally of many others!
Pher Anniesdad (Steve Greensmith) runs a similar company to AE called Europa (www.europaconsultants.co.uk) and has helped a LOT of PHers with some difficult claims (he took the AA to court for mine) - he may be worth at least a chat to as he's totally honest about his profession and any likely outcomes, personally I wouldn't use any other company and trust him absolutely as I've used him myself 3 times and know personally of many others!
I would get AE to put it in writing that they will not come looking for any shortfall - all AE are allowed to recover from the other motorist(if your friend is reasonably solvent) is the spot hire rate - this can be as little as 1/3 of the rate that your friend will sign up to.
In these types of cases the repair can sometimes take longer than you might hope and the period is often argued about by the other insurance company - it is not uncommon in a £50k hire bill for the hiring company to only recover 1/3 - 1/2 so long as they don't expect your friend to make up the shortfall fine
If they give him an indemnity and I don't mean from the delivery driver then happy days
In these types of cases the repair can sometimes take longer than you might hope and the period is often argued about by the other insurance company - it is not uncommon in a £50k hire bill for the hiring company to only recover 1/3 - 1/2 so long as they don't expect your friend to make up the shortfall fine
If they give him an indemnity and I don't mean from the delivery driver then happy days
Oh my word. APPROACH WITH CAUTION!!!
Had a bump in 2006, non fault etc. AE said that i could have nice shiny new car, whilst mine was being repaired...just sign here sign Sir, nothing to read etc.
It then transpired that the other people’s insurance company didn’t want to pay for my 'car hire' even though they admitted fault. Guess who chased me, via solicitors for the rental.
Please tread carefully. Thankfully, i had Anniesdad (member on here) to guide me through it and i (and the majority on here) would recommend him and his company in this situation. Send him an email, he’s absolutely superb.
A quick PH search will back this up.
Good luck
Had a bump in 2006, non fault etc. AE said that i could have nice shiny new car, whilst mine was being repaired...just sign here sign Sir, nothing to read etc.
It then transpired that the other people’s insurance company didn’t want to pay for my 'car hire' even though they admitted fault. Guess who chased me, via solicitors for the rental.
Please tread carefully. Thankfully, i had Anniesdad (member on here) to guide me through it and i (and the majority on here) would recommend him and his company in this situation. Send him an email, he’s absolutely superb.
A quick PH search will back this up.
Good luck
Zippee said:
As a non-fault incident he is entitled to a like for like hire car for the duration of the repair though the other parties insurers will often kick up a stink over hire costs.
Hmmm..."entitled". That's the word people on benefits use a lot.Zippee said:
Be aware though that if A/Exchange can't recover full costs from the 3rd parties insurers then they can come after your mate for the difference.
I think AE do an indemnity isurance for a tenner (but I've always wondered why they don't automatically include that?) but you could end up in court in support of the credit hirer in pursuing their claim. Courts have not taken kindly to people taking like for like cars if they couldn't justify it (which would be pretty tough with the list of cars you mentioned). AE is not having a great time of it at the moment.I work for a contract hire and leasing company and we use them to back up our customers car fleets in case they are hit by someone and it seems to work very well tbh! We had an occasion where we had an Alfa which was hit outside our office and they sent us the closest thing they had to the which was a BMW 320 SE Coupe which we had for 5 weeks and all costs were picked up buy the poor buggers insurance company who'd hit the Alfa.
I own a Bodyshop in London, All our customers are put though a non fault company not named here..Only if its none fault of course. We pay the customer indemnity of £10.00 been doing this for over ten years without one complaint..
Or not one of our customers being chased.. Of course insurance companys dont like huge car hire charges .The companys we deal with are insurance approved & are sent by thier own insurance company who cant be bothered because their customer has been hit by a third party that way they dont earn out of the accident. So they direct them in the direction of the bigger companys who all agree to standard charge on what car you have..You can still look at a porsche costing 6/700 a day..
Or not one of our customers being chased.. Of course insurance companys dont like huge car hire charges .The companys we deal with are insurance approved & are sent by thier own insurance company who cant be bothered because their customer has been hit by a third party that way they dont earn out of the accident. So they direct them in the direction of the bigger companys who all agree to standard charge on what car you have..You can still look at a porsche costing 6/700 a day..
I wrote off an X5 in a big motorway accident a couple of years ago. After being offered a Clio or a Fiesta I took the car away from the nominated repairer to my own - a BMW garage. The put me in touch with AE who delivered a car to me the following day. It all sounded a bit to good to be true so for the sake of a tenner I took out the indemnity insurance. Their service was excellent.
I currently have a case going through with AE at the moment. I had a 430 for 35 days at £1100 a day! I took out the £10.00 policy and have been reassured on at leat 10 occassions that this policy 'indemnifies' me against any recourse should they not be able to recover the full cost, which the terms and conditions of the policy seems to back up. My case is going to court at the end of the year which at that point will be over two years since the incident which is certainly very annoying............can't fault AE at the moment though to be fair.....
I used accident exchange when involved in a no-fault accident in my 911.
They delivered a shiny new 997 to my work, I paid my 10 pounds and drove around for a month until my car was ready.
Over the next couple of years I was bombarded with letters from an a solicitor who was assigned to me as the other insurance company refused to pay the hire charge to AE.
In the end I had to go to court, which involved sitting around for about 3 hours before the barristers agreed to settle. Apparently this is usually the case.
The 10 pounds provides indemnity provided you comply with every single request that Accident Exchange make with respect to recovering their money from the other insurance company. If you were out of the country or moved house for example, and their process fell down you would be liable.
In addition, the barrister admitted that he didn't think the waiver was "water tight" and there could be circumstances whereby I would be liable.
In addition, I wondered whether, if it had not settled and I had been called as a witness, I could have been liable if I didn't toe the line - ie "no m'lord I didn't NEED a 911, I didn't investigate other cheaper alternatives, and no I didn't do my best to ensure that the repair work was done quickly to minimise charges".
It all came across as a big gravy train for the solicitors, barristers, and accident exchange which is paid for by the insurance companies, and therefore you and I through higher premiums.
I'm not sure whether I'd do it again or not. The new car for a month was nice but the hassle and outside risk of wearing a big cost probably net it out.
They delivered a shiny new 997 to my work, I paid my 10 pounds and drove around for a month until my car was ready.
Over the next couple of years I was bombarded with letters from an a solicitor who was assigned to me as the other insurance company refused to pay the hire charge to AE.
In the end I had to go to court, which involved sitting around for about 3 hours before the barristers agreed to settle. Apparently this is usually the case.
The 10 pounds provides indemnity provided you comply with every single request that Accident Exchange make with respect to recovering their money from the other insurance company. If you were out of the country or moved house for example, and their process fell down you would be liable.
In addition, the barrister admitted that he didn't think the waiver was "water tight" and there could be circumstances whereby I would be liable.
In addition, I wondered whether, if it had not settled and I had been called as a witness, I could have been liable if I didn't toe the line - ie "no m'lord I didn't NEED a 911, I didn't investigate other cheaper alternatives, and no I didn't do my best to ensure that the repair work was done quickly to minimise charges".
It all came across as a big gravy train for the solicitors, barristers, and accident exchange which is paid for by the insurance companies, and therefore you and I through higher premiums.
I'm not sure whether I'd do it again or not. The new car for a month was nice but the hassle and outside risk of wearing a big cost probably net it out.
I used AE when my 8 year old 911 was hit by a bloke who wasn't looking where he was going. I rejected a Golf GT TDI offered by my insurance company and AE provided a shiny new 997 with 600 miles on the clock. I had it 5 weeks and it was the best test drive I have ever had! Sure enough, the 3rd party wept at the £20K hire charge and it went to court, though I didn't have to do anything, just read the letters as they arrived at my house. I paid my £10 waiver and couldn't fault them really.
I'm hoping that when I eventually get the 355 I really want, that someone will be kind enough to be not paying attention once more......lol. A 430 would be a really great hire car!
I'm hoping that when I eventually get the 355 I really want, that someone will be kind enough to be not paying attention once more......lol. A 430 would be a really great hire car!
Sarnie said:
I currently have a case going through with AE at the moment. I had a 430 for 35 days at £1100 a day! I took out the £10.00 policy and have been reassured on at leat 10 occassions that this policy 'indemnifies' me against any recourse should they not be able to recover the full cost, which the terms and conditions of the policy seems to back up. My case is going to court at the end of the year which at that point will be over two years since the incident which is certainly very annoying............can't fault AE at the moment though to be fair.....
9 out of 10 cases are paid up before it goes to court..if they follow the codes they work by.. 2 reasons for going to court are....
1 they will by up about 2 days before, Just holding on to the money as long as poss. if if does go to court they will have court costs as well..
2. the company repairing your car took to long.. witch is no fault of the third party paying 1100 P/d for the hire..
I had a knock in a 993 a few years ago. The hire car was a boxster which i had for 5 weeks, at a cost of £450 PER DAY. The indemnity was paid but the third party insurance paid out with no complaint. The total cost of the claim was £32,000. The value of the car was £24,000, but when assessing the repair costs hire charges were not taken into account so it was not written off, although I suspect it was boarderline, it certainly would have been cheaper to do so.. This was utterly ridiculous and shouldn't be allowed to happen, no wonder premiums are so high.... then again the 360 costs £450 per year fully comp, parked on the driveway in the middle of a town. Figure that one out.
Fatrat said:
1JEB is correct. Nice as it may be to have a "like for like" hire car, how many of us REALLY need it?
We all end up paying for these extra costs.
In part I agree but when your pride and joy is taken away for 2 months (as mine was) in the middle of summer due to someone elses incompetence why should I suffer? My car is my toy and the only reason I bought it was for weekend fun, something a courtesy micra can't replicate!We all end up paying for these extra costs.
I do however, agree that the costs attached to the hire cars are extortionate.
There are definitely two sides to this argument. To some extent I agree that it is a gravy train, quite possibly a borderline scam and I’m not ashamed to say that I joined the party. However, I look at it from this angle – not one of us who owns an expensive car, be it a brand new Fezza or a 10 year old 911, really needs such a car. We purchase them because we want to and can afford to, period. They are not a necessity. So the argument about whether we really need like for like replacement is irrelevant IMHO, since we don’t actually need the original car in the first place.
I chose to part with my hard earned so I could drive a 911, but I didn’t choose to have an accident with a guy who decided to pull out of a side road without looking properly, into my front nearside.
So I pose this question…..if (in my case) I chose to part with £25K so I could drive a 911 every day, why should I be fobbed off with a Golf diesel until my car is repaired?
Incidentally, someone got me again in a car park only a few months later. It was his fault, but since he was an insurance broker, he wouldn’t accept liability, so I had to go 50/50 and drive a Ford Ka for a week. You could say what goes around comes around lol.
I chose to part with my hard earned so I could drive a 911, but I didn’t choose to have an accident with a guy who decided to pull out of a side road without looking properly, into my front nearside.
So I pose this question…..if (in my case) I chose to part with £25K so I could drive a 911 every day, why should I be fobbed off with a Golf diesel until my car is repaired?
Incidentally, someone got me again in a car park only a few months later. It was his fault, but since he was an insurance broker, he wouldn’t accept liability, so I had to go 50/50 and drive a Ford Ka for a week. You could say what goes around comes around lol.
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