Claims management companies - shouldn't it be regulated?
Discussion
I know it's been mentioned on many accident threads, but the car hire charges from these companies is insane.
My colleague used one 11 months ago - a skip company dropped some rubble on his VW Golf, which meant he needed a new bumper. Skip companies insurer paid, but the repairer recommended my colleague use a claim management company to handle it / arrange courtesy car, which he did. Car was repaired, no cost to my colleague, everybody's happy......
He's now shopping around for car insurance, and needs to give the value of the claim for any quotes - even though it's non fault. So he logged into the claim management site to see what the total cost was.
Car repair : £2,900
Hire car (he had a Vaxhaull Insignia for 2 weeks) : ~£24,000!
Case is closed so presumably the skip insurers paid. An almost £28k bill to put a new bumper on a £15k Golf.
When I had a non-fault accident last year, the third party insurers offered me a like for like car - and a Ferrari would have cost ~£600 a day inc vat. So the claim management company have charged about 3 times that for a Vaxhaull Insignia.
Surely there needs to be some kind of regulation here? It's even worse than the fake medical stuff people seem to claim for.
My colleague used one 11 months ago - a skip company dropped some rubble on his VW Golf, which meant he needed a new bumper. Skip companies insurer paid, but the repairer recommended my colleague use a claim management company to handle it / arrange courtesy car, which he did. Car was repaired, no cost to my colleague, everybody's happy......
He's now shopping around for car insurance, and needs to give the value of the claim for any quotes - even though it's non fault. So he logged into the claim management site to see what the total cost was.
Car repair : £2,900
Hire car (he had a Vaxhaull Insignia for 2 weeks) : ~£24,000!
Case is closed so presumably the skip insurers paid. An almost £28k bill to put a new bumper on a £15k Golf.
When I had a non-fault accident last year, the third party insurers offered me a like for like car - and a Ferrari would have cost ~£600 a day inc vat. So the claim management company have charged about 3 times that for a Vaxhaull Insignia.
Surely there needs to be some kind of regulation here? It's even worse than the fake medical stuff people seem to claim for.
My sister in law (against my advice) has just used a claims management company.
They provided her with a basic Corsa..charged at £84 per day plus £213 to deliver and collect it.
Claims company kept telling her "no rush keep it as long as you like" !
Her car is a right off. On receipt of that news she bought a new car (upgrade on right off) before getting the insurance settlement.
Claims company not happy she acted so quickly and returned the Corsa...asking dont you want to keep it longer.
They provided her with a basic Corsa..charged at £84 per day plus £213 to deliver and collect it.
Claims company kept telling her "no rush keep it as long as you like" !
Her car is a right off. On receipt of that news she bought a new car (upgrade on right off) before getting the insurance settlement.
Claims company not happy she acted so quickly and returned the Corsa...asking dont you want to keep it longer.
Not just cars. Last year, a fault on my boiler was heading towards plus £500, the max I was allowed, to fix. Told the insurance company to stop, I'd get my own plumber, and send them the bill. The actual bit broken cost £3.46 (microswitch). Labour was the minimum 1hr callout at £50. I won't mention all the supposed faults that the insurance company plumber claimed needed fixing!!
davek_964 said:
I know it's been mentioned on many accident threads, but the car hire charges from these companies is insane.
My colleague used one 11 months ago - a skip company dropped some rubble on his VW Golf, which meant he needed a new bumper. Skip companies insurer paid, but the repairer recommended my colleague use a claim management company to handle it / arrange courtesy car, which he did. Car was repaired, no cost to my colleague, everybody's happy......
He's now shopping around for car insurance, and needs to give the value of the claim for any quotes - even though it's non fault. So he logged into the claim management site to see what the total cost was.
Car repair : £2,900
Hire car (he had a Vaxhaull Insignia for 2 weeks) : ~£24,000!
Case is closed so presumably the skip insurers paid. An almost £28k bill to put a new bumper on a £15k Golf.
When I had a non-fault accident last year, the third party insurers offered me a like for like car - and a Ferrari would have cost ~£600 a day inc vat. So the claim management company have charged about 3 times that for a Vaxhaull Insignia.
Surely there needs to be some kind of regulation here? It's even worse than the fake medical stuff people seem to claim for.
I stand to be corrected but what the AMC claim from the InsCo isn't necessarily what the InsCo pay. £24k for a 2 week hire is clearly ridiculous. My guess is that the InsCo may have paid something like £200/day.My colleague used one 11 months ago - a skip company dropped some rubble on his VW Golf, which meant he needed a new bumper. Skip companies insurer paid, but the repairer recommended my colleague use a claim management company to handle it / arrange courtesy car, which he did. Car was repaired, no cost to my colleague, everybody's happy......
He's now shopping around for car insurance, and needs to give the value of the claim for any quotes - even though it's non fault. So he logged into the claim management site to see what the total cost was.
Car repair : £2,900
Hire car (he had a Vaxhaull Insignia for 2 weeks) : ~£24,000!
Case is closed so presumably the skip insurers paid. An almost £28k bill to put a new bumper on a £15k Golf.
When I had a non-fault accident last year, the third party insurers offered me a like for like car - and a Ferrari would have cost ~£600 a day inc vat. So the claim management company have charged about 3 times that for a Vaxhaull Insignia.
Surely there needs to be some kind of regulation here? It's even worse than the fake medical stuff people seem to claim for.
robinessex said:
Not just cars. Last year, a fault on my boiler was heading towards plus £500, the max I was allowed, to fix. Told the insurance company to stop, I'd get my own plumber, and send them the bill. The actual bit broken cost £3.46 (microswitch). Labour was the minimum 1hr callout at £50. I won't mention all the supposed faults that the insurance company plumber claimed needed fixing!!
Surely that's heading into fraud territory...However, money talks, and lobbyists walk...in and out of funding meetings with political parties. Doubt it will get changed any time soon
Countdown said:
I stand to be corrected but what the AMC claim from the InsCo isn't necessarily what the InsCo pay. £24k for a 2 week hire is clearly ridiculous. My guess is that the InsCo may have paid something like £200/day.
This - there's a scale of rates agreed between the insurance companies.There's probably a typo or something in the number - what would be the point of even trying to claim £24K for 2 weeks hire? No insurer would pay that.
Back in January 2010 I was driving to work through some snow and was about 300 yards from the office car park entrance when I had to give way at a mini-roundabout and got hit by the car behind me.
I remember thinking "this will be a nightmare" but when I spoke to the other driver it turned out he was a work colleague who had a company car, so that was a relief!
Later that day I went to see the dozy bint "administering" the company car scheme who wasn't interested, and told me I had to claim from my insurer - pretty moronic comment seeing as we were all working for an insurance company!
(I took the car allowance so mine wasn't on the fleet policy).
I had no intention of claiming on my policy and having an outstanding claim for however long it took to get settled.
Anyway as my car was still in warranty I took it to my local main agent to get a quote and they introduced me to a Claims Management Company, so I signed up!
A day later the company fleet insurer called me, but by then it was too late.
The CMC experience was great - I took my car to the main agent and the courtesy car was in the car park ready and waiting, but it really shouldn't take 5 days to paint and fit a rear bumper!
The hire car claim ended up being more than the repair, so CMCs do seem to milk it somewhat.
But as I had opted out of the Company Car scheme I was expected to have access to a car, so I needed the hire car as I had 2 business meetings in Dorset that week (my employer was in Berkshire so I wasn't going to do that by public transport)!
So although I found it really convenient, it does seem to inflate costs - which we all end up paying for.
I remember thinking "this will be a nightmare" but when I spoke to the other driver it turned out he was a work colleague who had a company car, so that was a relief!
Later that day I went to see the dozy bint "administering" the company car scheme who wasn't interested, and told me I had to claim from my insurer - pretty moronic comment seeing as we were all working for an insurance company!
(I took the car allowance so mine wasn't on the fleet policy). I had no intention of claiming on my policy and having an outstanding claim for however long it took to get settled.
Anyway as my car was still in warranty I took it to my local main agent to get a quote and they introduced me to a Claims Management Company, so I signed up!
A day later the company fleet insurer called me, but by then it was too late.
The CMC experience was great - I took my car to the main agent and the courtesy car was in the car park ready and waiting, but it really shouldn't take 5 days to paint and fit a rear bumper!
The hire car claim ended up being more than the repair, so CMCs do seem to milk it somewhat.
But as I had opted out of the Company Car scheme I was expected to have access to a car, so I needed the hire car as I had 2 business meetings in Dorset that week (my employer was in Berkshire so I wasn't going to do that by public transport)!
So although I found it really convenient, it does seem to inflate costs - which we all end up paying for.
Most CHO are regulated in so far as they are signed up to the ABI GTA which gives agreed rates on daily credit hire.
See rates here:
https://www.gtacredithire.com/rates/car-hire/
See rates here:
https://www.gtacredithire.com/rates/car-hire/
Mr Tidy said:
But as I had opted out of the Company Car scheme I was expected to have access to a car, so I needed the hire car as I had 2 business meetings in Dorset that week (my employer was in Berkshire so I wasn't going to do that by public transport)!
But, did you do anything to mitigate your costs?i.e. did you really need a 'credit hire' car at extortionate rates or were you in a financial position to be able to afford a hire car from Enterprise/Avis/Hertz hire car to do the job equally well for a fraction of the cost?
That's the question I had to answer in my court documents - and provide bank/credit card statements to back up my claim that I couldn't hire one myself as I was in financial trouble at the time (and the car involved in the accident was also up for sale at the time).
btw, the e9x M3 I was given for a couple of weeks was £350/day)
Edited by mmm-five on Sunday 9th June 11:29
mmm-five said:
Mr Tidy said:
But as I had opted out of the Company Car scheme I was expected to have access to a car, so I needed the hire car as I had 2 business meetings in Dorset that week (my employer was in Berkshire so I wasn't going to do that by public transport)!
But, did you do anything to mitigate your costs?i.e. did you really need a 'credit hire' car at extortionate rates or were you in a financial position to be able to afford a hire car from Enterprise/Avis/Hertz hire car to do the job equally well for a fraction of the cost?
That's the question I had to answer in my court documents - and provide bank/credit card statements to back up my claim that I couldn't hire one myself as I was in financial trouble at the time (and the car involved in the accident was also up for sale at the time).
btw, the e9x M3 I was given for a couple of weeks was £350/day)
Edited by mmm-five on Sunday 9th June 11:29
Someone rear ended my brother in laws brand new 1 series in January and he ended up using a CMC who gave him a brand new Audi (A3 I think) as a courtesy car at a rate of about £200 a day. He had it 5 months!
At about the 2 or 3 month mark he rang his insurer to find out wtf was going on only to be told they knew nothing about his accident or claim!
At about the 2 or 3 month mark he rang his insurer to find out wtf was going on only to be told they knew nothing about his accident or claim!
My MX5 got reversed into while parked and I used Mazda Assist to sort it (at first the other driver tried to deny responsibility!) .
Of course, a like for like hire car was provided - BMW 318d via Enterprise.
I sent that back - didn't see the need for that, plus it wasn't great to drive (base spec, handled horribly on the poorly surfaced country roads around here) and requested something more basic like a Fiesta or Focus.
They sent me an Auris, with no screenwash, muddy carpets and a broken bonnet release, then swapped that for a Focus estate..
Wasn't impressed with Enterprise at all, especially as they tried to submit credit hire documents for a 318d class vehicle for the entire hire period. Ended up complaining to their central customer services, who sorted it very promptly and seemed somewhat embarrassed by it all.
Local branch even tried to charge me for a chipped windscreen on the Auris because their inspection sheet showed it was perfect. It was only when I pointed out the sheet also said they'd cleaned the car and refilled the screenwash that they waived the fee.
Of course, a like for like hire car was provided - BMW 318d via Enterprise.
I sent that back - didn't see the need for that, plus it wasn't great to drive (base spec, handled horribly on the poorly surfaced country roads around here) and requested something more basic like a Fiesta or Focus.
They sent me an Auris, with no screenwash, muddy carpets and a broken bonnet release, then swapped that for a Focus estate..
Wasn't impressed with Enterprise at all, especially as they tried to submit credit hire documents for a 318d class vehicle for the entire hire period. Ended up complaining to their central customer services, who sorted it very promptly and seemed somewhat embarrassed by it all.
Local branch even tried to charge me for a chipped windscreen on the Auris because their inspection sheet showed it was perfect. It was only when I pointed out the sheet also said they'd cleaned the car and refilled the screenwash that they waived the fee.
anxious_ant said:
Something is not right about the figure, I could hire an Insignia for way less than 24k for 2 weeks.
Hire?https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...
Sheepshanks said:
Countdown said:
I stand to be corrected but what the AMC claim from the InsCo isn't necessarily what the InsCo pay. £24k for a 2 week hire is clearly ridiculous. My guess is that the InsCo may have paid something like £200/day.
This - there's a scale of rates agreed between the insurance companies.There's probably a typo or something in the number - what would be the point of even trying to claim £24K for 2 weeks hire? No insurer would pay that.
KungFuPanda said:
Did you need an M3 on credit hire though?
No I didn't - and I told the credit hire company that (and said the same on my court documents). I told them I would be happy with a runaround for the few weeks the repair was going to take, but I was told I could only have a 'like for like' replacement for the Z4MC, and the only M they had was the M3.It's probably why the credit hire company was threatening me with any costs they couldn't recover from the 3rd party's insurer.
They kept sending amended statements for me to sign & return, and each time I'd change it back to the truth, and fix any other mistakes they'd managed to add (such as changing the time, date, location of the accident).
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