Insurers still using in-house claims departments?

[Volant]

Hi all,

Last year I had a small non fault claim. My broker only being a broker had no claim department and it was all dealt with by an Accident Management Company, somewhere beyond the 3rd Dimension.

I have an ideological dislike of these companies, and sure enough I had to fight back against ‘storage credit agreements’, continued pressure for a hire bike etc etc. I’d rather pay more to avoid. They’re the scourge of the industry, imho.

Come renewal, I’m trying to get an insurer who still use an in house claims department.

I’ve called a couple of the ‘biggies’ and turns out they also now use the other dimension AMC....

Do any still exist? Otherwise my broker was good, but if the time you really need them becomes a pain in the backside....

[Llandudno]

Its the underwriter that has the claims team; its their insured, not the brokers. Ageas still do it in house.

[Volant]

Ah, righto. That’s good info, thank you!

So when a couple of the large brokers said they always deal with my favourite Accident Management Company for claims, does that insinuate they don’t deal with Ageas as an underwriter?

As a consumer, how do I ensure I get underwritten by them? Call a broker and request?

[pozi]

Llandudno said:

Its the underwriter that has the claims team; its their insured, not the brokers. Ageas still do it in house.

In the example given by Volant it is the broker which dumps all claims to their Accident Management company, who I am finding out seem more preoccupied with making money for themselves through credit hire, storage costs and selling vehicles for salvage.

Mine was a non fault claim after my bike was wrote off and trying to get a sensible payment has left me going round in circles after the 3rd party insurer paid out a feeble amount. The interstellar claims handler washed their hands of it once they had their hire charge paid and pointed me back to my insurer, my insurer said they cannot get involved because I did not go to them in the first place and the 3rd party has made a partial payout. Tried complaining to my broker who says not us speak to our claims handler, I then spoke to 3rd party insurers directly who said their own claims handler was involved and I needed to go back to the space cadets.

Meanwhile I am still 40% down on the bike valuation after 6 months despite sending numerous adverts supporting my claim.