And This is Why Your Insurance Premiums are so high

[Neil W]

Talking to the neighbour this evening and said I had noticed that his Tesla with private plate disappeared 10 days ago to be replaced by a 23 plate model, he was saying it is a hire car as he was involved in a minor bump on 21st January which left his Tesla driveable but with an estimated £2500 of bodywork damage .

He was not responsible and the other drivers insurance is stumping up for repairs but despite there being a 3 month lead time for the replacement parts to turn up to start repairs the claims company that was dealing tried to collect his driveable car and give him a hire car from 22nd January despite repairs not going to be started until early this month.

He refused the hire car until the parts were in and his car was going in for repair and then hit me with the fact that the Tesla hire car was costing the other drivers insurance £600 per day and so far the cost onto the insurance claim is £6000 and it will probably end up a further £2400 (£8400 in total).

A bump that should cost £2500 to repair is likely to be pushing £11,000 but the kicker is the fact that the insurance claims company wanted to give him a £600 per day hire car for over 3 months .

FFS no wonder premiums are through the bloody roof

 

[DJ123]

Hire vehicles are one of those money grabbing/high profit making activities when it comes to accidents. It's why you should never accept one from your insurance, as you're liable for the cost of it until the other side agrees to pay the costs.
Always get a hire vehicle from the 3rd party's insurance as they'll offer a car which is within their budget of payment and also means you have no liability on the payment front.

Given that Tesla's aren't worth anything i'm surprised they're repairing it

 

[busy builder]

I only accepted the hire vehicle when mine went into workshop and handed it back when it came out.

 

[Neil W]

Hire vehicles are one of those money grabbing/high profit making activities when it comes to accidents. It's why you should never accept one from your insurance, as you're liable for the cost of it until the other side agrees to pay the costs.
Always get a hire vehicle from the 3rd party's insurance as they'll offer a car which is within their budget of payment and also means you have no liability on the payment front.

Given that Tesla's aren't worth anything i'm surprised they're repairing it

Car is 2 years old with 60,000 plus miles and worth according to the neighbour a maximum of £24,000, how the hell they were trying to justify a £600 a day hire car for over 3 months .

 

[Neil W]

I only accepted the hire vehicle when mine went into workshop and handed it back when it came out.

Brother in law had his car written off by another driver, the claims handling firm rang him up every day for over a week to try and foist a hire car on him, he has another car and was going back offshore for two weeks but the buggers were so persistant that he had to block their number

 

[GSite]

As the hire costs form part of the total claim value, this can cause your vehicle to be written off, even though the repair costs alone may not have done so. If at all possible avoid having a hire vehicle supplied by the insurer or their appointed claims company, the repair shop however may well provide one at much lower cost if you must have one.

In my view the above is verging on deception, forcing their competitors to pay out exhorbitant hire costs, dragging out claims to maximise this and hiding the fact that they are taking advantage of a situation where they know folk are powerless to do anything about it at service level. Could this be described as fraudulent, one could not possibly comment. Enter the regulatory bodies, where are they in this ? Surely the insurance industry must clean itself up, the Government and such bodies need to step in to ensure this happens.

Bring on the insurance revolution, power to the people.

 

[Fullchat]

One of the latest legitimate 'scams'. There was a time when insurance companies would act in you interests and mitigate costs.
Now a days they outsource most of the claims to claims management companies and its become a licence to print money. Car hire is the biggest.

 

[Neil W]

One of the latest legitimate 'scams'. There was a time when insurance companies would act in you interests and mitigate costs.
Now a days they outsource most of the claims to claims management companies and its become a licence to print money. Car hire is the biggest.

Try getting an Insurance company to deal with a claim they are almost all exclusively using Insurance Claims Management Firms who must be creaming off £ millions by bumping up claims with storage fees , exorbitant hire vehicle charges and no doubt as in the case of one of the bike claims firms writing off vehicles they fancy getting their hands on for the breakers side of their operations (so they can utilise used parts on other claimants bikes).

The Govt. really need to set up a proper Insurance Ombudsman ( independent of the Financial Services Ombudsman) to monitor all aspects of the Insurance claims industry and stamp out these practices

 

[Deleted account 240831001]

Most people pay a bit extra on their insurance premiums to ensure they get a hire car if their car has a knock so why shouldn’t they accept the offer of one when it’s made.

Personally I’d take the hire car because I pay to receive that benefit and it’d be like paying a bus fare then walking.

 

[tspivey]

Why do we pay ever increasing premiums, I’ve just found out after my no fault accident.

The no fault claim handlers charges:

£388.69 daily hire charge for a replacement bike.
£450 to deliver it to you and the same to return.
£354 to recover your bike to their premises, same to get it back.
£43.20 a day to store it whilst the claim/repair is processed.
You have to sign an agreement making you liable for the above if the fault parties insurance won’t pay out.
There is no incentive whatsoever for them to sort out your claim quickly.
I didn’t get far enough to discover what sort of ridiculous price they may have come up with for its repair as I’ve cancelled the agreement within the 14 day period.

When looking into insurance check if they use a no fault claims handler who’s only business model is storage and bike hire charges.
This is why we are paying more and more.
I can’t imagine how much that would tot up to but the bike was assessed by Marshall BMW as needing £1900 to sort it.

I originally posted this in the R1300GS page but it applies to anyone so reposted here.
2024 R1300GS

 

[SBD]

Perhaps an Australian model, where (as I understand it) the insurance is part of your road tax and underwritten by the government, might solve the problem.

Then again, maybe not.

 

[andysdad]

IIRC Australian rego is only Third Party insurance; you should get a proper policy to cover sorting out accidents/damage.

 

[tspivey]

It might feel alright that someone collects your bike and gives you an equivalent bike to use whilst yours is away. Comments I’ve read regarding claims handling is that they are not quick, hardly surprising is it?
It’s us that pays for that ridiculously expensive business model, looking at the costs involved in my relatively simple claim I’m not surprised at the rising premiums.
My bike was at BMW Grimsby for a couple weeks (no charge) whilst I queried Hastings intention to take it to 4th Dimension in Surrey. When I got to the stage of being beaten down and agreed they collected it and only then did they make the claim to the third party, Admiral who accepted 100% responsibility and agreed the full repairs the next day.
I didn’t want my one year old £20k+ bike being assessed and repaired by anyone other than BMW Motorrad but Hastings wouldn’t accept that.
Admiral contacted me and offered a replacement equivalent bike to use and stated the cost would be £47 per day, paid fully by them, somewhat different to 4th Dimension charges.
Anyway to cut a long story short, Admiral are now sorting it, collecting my bike back from 4th Dimension, taking it back to Marshal BMW Grimsby and paying in full the cost to repair, already provided by Marshall BMW.
The attitude of 4th Dimension on the phone was quite cold when I informed them, I just want my bike away from them, Marshall BMW are going to give it a full check over on its return.
Who’s helped me in all this? Jess at BMW Motorrad Grimsby has been brilliant and Admiral insurance.
Hastings Direct will permanently be in the past and never considered again when my policy comes up for renewal. The only decent helpful contact I’ve had with Hastings was the initial call to report the accident.

Oddly enough, I don’t if there’s anything in this but in order cancel the agreement with 4th D you have to email them within the 14 period. My email to the address they say must be used came back undeliverable, I then used my other email they don’t know about and it went straight through.

 

[RedRick Esq.]

This thread has reminded me

A friend of ours had a very minor no fault bump to his Range Rover

It was taken away for assessment by insurance and he was provided a brand new BMW X7 as a courtesy car at a cost allegedly of £700 per day
3 week later and he was told his Range Rover was a write off

He bought it back- spent £800 on a new bumper

 

[wessie]

The "must use 4th Dimension" ploy is illegal. If any insurer tried that I would immediately state this on the phone so that it is recorded. I would then ask to make a formal complaint and I would also inform the regulator.
With any motor insurance you have the right to manage your own claim or put it into the hands of the third party insurers from the outset.

As it happens, after a friend's experience, I have put Hastings on the do not use list. Hastings claims to be a broker but that is misleading as you only ever have cover from https://advantage.com.gi/about/ which is a Gibraltar based company wholly owned by the Hastings Group.

I prefer to use a broker that offers quotes from a wider panel of insurers. In the event of a claim you then have the option to deal with the broker, your own underwriter or a third party insurer. This increases your odds of a satisfactory outcome.

 

[tspivey]

I prefer to use a broker that offers quotes from a wider panel of insurers. In the event of a claim you then have the option to deal with the broker, your own underwriter or a third party insurer. This increases your odds of a satisfactory outcome.

Not easy this though is it? a lot of information isn’t evident on their sites and I’ve found you have to dig around to find anything out. My policy with Hastings is only half way through but I’m considering cancelling it when this is sorted, though I’ll probably leave it until renewal in March. Then who to choose?
I’ve looked a BMW Motorrad insurance and their ‘partners’ are Swinton and Carole Nash, together with Atlanta.
It’s a complicated thing for us to get our heads around but as I’ve found out something we all need to think about.

 

[wessie]

Not easy this though is it? a lot of information isn’t evident on their sites and I’ve found you have to dig around to find anything out. My policy with Hastings is only half way through but I’m considering cancelling it when this is sorted, though I’ll probably leave it until renewal in March. Then who to choose?
I’ve looked a BMW Motorrad insurance and their ‘partners’ are Swinton and Carole Nash, together with Atlanta.
It’s a complicated thing for us to get our heads around but as I’ve found out something we all need to think about.

the information about choosing your own repairer is clearly written in the policy document and has been discussed many times in this forum. The onus is on you to read said document so you are equipped to challenge a person on the other end of the phone who is trying to direct you to their preferred claims handler. Emphasis on preferred rather than mandatory.

It seems odd that in one thread we are hearing about a lack of sympathy for people signing finance agreements whilst not understanding the T&C fully, yet when it comes to insurance, it is the underwriter or broker at fault when the customer does not fully understand their contract of insurance.

 

[GSite]

Not easy this though is it? a lot of information isn’t evident on their sites and I’ve found you have to dig around to find anything out. My policy with Hastings is only half way through but I’m considering cancelling it when this is sorted, though I’ll probably leave it until renewal in March. Then who to choose?
I’ve looked a BMW Motorrad insurance and their ‘partners’ are Swinton and Carole Nash, together with Atlanta.
It’s a complicated thing for us to get our heads around but as I’ve found out something we all need to think about.

Is there something about Hastings claim management that worries you, is it the scale of charges you mention above ?

 

[Wapping]

Perhaps an Australian model, where (as I understand it) the insurance is part of your road tax and underwritten by the government, might solve the problem.

Then again, maybe not.

That is third party only and not applicable to all states of the continent.

Given that many here state quite clearly that governments (of any hue) are incapable of running a bath, it is extraordinary that anyone thinks it’s a good idea to let them run any insurance type arrangement.

 

[Wapping]

One of the latest legitimate 'scams'. There was a time when insurance companies would act in you interests and mitigate costs.

Bods on this forum, moan like buggery when an insurer ‘mitigates costs’ by allegedly low baling an offer to indemnify a fellow when his awesome steed is stolen or he is as unfortunate enough to write the thing off.

Leaving aside that the claim is very probably multiple years of the bod’s annual premium and that some have a very high opinion as to what their vehicle is worth; it is odd that many report that they are well chuffed by their payout and the speed with which the claim is settled.