Experiences with Elephant car insurance

[Z064life]

Hi All

I am going to buy elephant car insurance (comp cover, accelerated ncb). I am aware that an accelerated policy means it will be very hard to take the ncb elsewhere but having lost 1 yr's (as per my previous thread) I will take this risk to build the lost NCB back + all other additional (i.e. after 60 months I will get 6 yrs ncb as opposed to 72 months on a normal policy, despite the cost changes).

Does anyone have any experience with Elephant? I know insurers wriggle out of paying etc and I don't to pay additional at renewal even with no claims made.


Thanks

[Ki3r]

Great when you get insurance, crap when you make a claim. At least thats what I've found. Renewal will be interesting, been told I can make a claim for my increase of premiums due to a non fault claim (both with Elephant), I don't hold much hope.

[Toaster Pilot]

Good customer service in the limited experience I've had. Not made a claim though. Lead to believe that's when you pay for the low prices....

I successfully took my 10 months no claims to the insurer that quote you happy (never ever ever again) -it shows as 1 year on the paperwork

[jezzaaa]

I don't know if this is still true, because this was a while back...but I believe that Elephant, Admiral, Diamond etc are all part of the same group. And I remember, when I bought my first brand new car, that they confirmed that they would not provide another new car in the same spec within the first year of ownership in the event of a write-off. But instead would provide the 'market' value...

All the other insurers I spoke to would pay to have a brand new one of the same spec if the write-off occurred in the first year.

As I say, that was a while back.

[TheFin]

My wife had a own fault claim on elephant and it was all handled very well, the other car sufferred the damage and elephant handled it all without much input from us.

[kambites]

I've always found them to be pretty good, both in terms of price and on the one occasion I made a claim - they had no issues with my choice of repairer and the whole process was generally very smooth and painless. They even agreed to pay for the (unbeknown to me, non-standard and hence undeclared) paint protection film on my car after the garage replaced it without asking them or me.

My only complaint about them really, and the reason I wont be using them for the wife's car when it's due for renewal this month, is that they charge you an admin fee every time you fit or remove winter tyres unless you put them on the on the original rims.

[DanielJames]

Bonus accelerators are only for young/inexperienced drivers, no?

[DaveH23]

I had a fault claim with them 5 years ago.

1 phone call and that was it! Renewed with flux on a different car so increase was expected.

No hassle with elephant from me.

[burger81]

Been with them for about 7 years now and had no problems. Had someone go into the side of my car coming out of a junction (not my fault or claim) that they dealt with only 2 phone calls to me (one of them the afternoon of the day it happened) and they used a very good garage near me for the repair.

When I have come to renew my insurance with them the last 3 years, I have always got a quote off a cheaper broker and taken it to Elephant to see if they can match and they have always been able to do it with no fuss.

[McSam]

No problem at all for me. It's worth noting that the "bonus accelerator" is a ten-month policy, and they will simply give you a letter for one year's no-claims at the end of it - so any other insurer will know no different and it's valid everywhere.

[Chris71]

I've used Elephant several times - including my one and only claim - and I haven't had any problems. Of course, the fact the woman who drove into me was also covered by Elephant might have smoothed things over a little.

Got a decent courtesy car that afternoon and got a good pay out when they decided against repairing my car.

[B16JUS]

10 Pence Short said:

I created a >£1m claim with them (Elephant) in 2006.

They were very good in pretty much all aspects of my case, including agreeing to a good valuation of my car after I wrote it off.

I would have no hesitation in using them again.

Wow must have been some paperwork there, what were other insurance companies like after when you disclose the total claim cost ?

[sday12]

Why did my post with W**** 't**** get removed?



First two hits are your site when you google 'w****' 't****':

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Welsh+%27tards&am...fficial&client=firefox-a


T-shirt for sale on your site with the phrase

http://pistonheads.shotdeadinthehead.com/product_v...



I got the phrase from your site.


double standars boo!

[Big Al.]

One said Welsh YOU tard! the other well perhaps nobody complained on that other occasion.

I would also check the deletion mail you should have received.

[Efbe]

sday12 said:

Why did my post with W**** 't**** get removed?



First two hits are your site when you google 'w****' 't****':

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Welsh+%27tards&am...fficial&client=firefox-a


T-shirt for sale on your site with the phrase

http://pistonheads.shotdeadinthehead.com/product_v...



I got the phrase from your site.


double standars boo!

Did you mean: Welsh 'darts

[kambites]

B16JUS said:

Wow must have been some paperwork there, what were other insurance companies like after when you disclose the total claim cost ?

I suspect that was the least of his worries. Read this if you want a rather sobering story of what happens when you make a mistake while driving... http://prison-diary.blogspot.com/

[Toaster Pilot]

jezzaaa said:

I don't know if this is still true, because this was a while back...but I believe that Elephant, Admiral, Diamond etc are all part of the same group. And I remember, when I bought my first brand new car, that they confirmed that they would not provide another new car in the same spec within the first year of ownership in the event of a write-off. But instead would provide the 'market' value...

All the other insurers I spoke to would pay to have a brand new one of the same spec if the write-off occurred in the first year.

As I say, that was a while back.

Still true. I have VRI from another provider because of this

[crocodile tears]

jezzaaa said:

I don't know if this is still true, because this was a while back...but I believe that Elephant, Admiral, Diamond etc are all part of the same group. And I remember, when I bought my first brand new car, that they confirmed that they would not provide another new car in the same spec within the first year of ownership in the event of a write-off. But instead would provide the 'market' value...

All the other insurers I spoke to would pay to have a brand new one of the same spec if the write-off occurred in the first year.

As I say, that was a while back.

They are all part of eui and operate in the same building capital towers in cardiff Wales

[Z064life]

Hi all,

It's mixed feedback above but I guess all insurers are just as bad! They all try to wriggle out etc. Thanks for the help everyone!


One more question - is it possible to change insurance term after the start of my policy? ie from 12 months to a 10 month accelerated policy.

[BonzoG]

Competitive but quick enough to take an extra £10/month off me when I increased my mileage by 30k and added Business Class 1 a few months into a policy.

Not so quick to reduce the premium again when I reduced it back to 2k and Social/Domestic only a few months later. 'This change has had no effect on your premium.'