Shout out for Jess
And This is Why Your Insurance Premiums are so high
- Thread starter Neil W
- Start date
By way of comparison only, how much was the annual premium?
A girl at work was on her way home sometime in May and was rear ended (ooooer misses)
The car was repaired and she went to pick it up, when she started the car it had engine management lights on, so she refused to take it.
They are saying the error on the ECU had nothing to do with a rear bump, she maintained that it wasnt like that before the accident.
She has been driving a 25 plate hire car since the accident, and still is with no end in site.
Her car is a 2019 Nissan Qashqai, surely the cost of the hire plus repairs is now more than the car value?
The car was repaired and she went to pick it up, when she started the car it had engine management lights on, so she refused to take it.
They are saying the error on the ECU had nothing to do with a rear bump, she maintained that it wasnt like that before the accident.
She has been driving a 25 plate hire car since the accident, and still is with no end in site.
Her car is a 2019 Nissan Qashqai, surely the cost of the hire plus repairs is now more than the car value?
£528.36
Four years’ premium. Not a bad return, if you view it as an investment *.
* Which of course it isn’t,
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Hastings Direct and 4th Dimension let me use whoever I wanted to fix my bike - I find it hard to see why a few on here say otherwise.
It was made very clear to me on several occasions by 4th Dimension they will only be involved if one or both of their services is used, replacement vehicle hire or storage/repair.
Hastings answer, repeatedly was “We only deal with cars and vans”, before transferring me again to ‘their motorcycle claims department’ 4th Dimension.
It was I who made that statement. Maybe I should have been clearer. when I said 'Your interests. I should have included 'their interests' which ultimately is where the costs fall. So if driver A is making a legitimate claim against driver B and working through a Clams management Company surely Driver B' insurance company would not be wanting to be taken for a total ride on hire vehicle or storage costs. The words 'legitimate and reasonable' should come into play?
Just as an aside several years ago on a group ride NE of Newcastleton near Kielder two riders safely overtook a cautious new rider - Rider C. Lets call them A & B as that was their order in the overtake and subsequent events. I remained behind Rider C.
As they disappeared over a crest in the distance I saw rider B air born still on his bike. He then went briefly out of sight when he reappeared air born without his bike and disappeared into the undergrowth.
On arrival it was clear that over the crest the road bent right and left with a gravel layby on the outside of the bend preventing both heavy steering and braking. Helmet comms facilitated me to announce what had happened and Rider A returned to the scene. Rider A had infact been caught out but was able to remain in control despite getting onto the verge.
However, presumably distracted by unfolding, events Rider C directly infront of me rode straight on into a ditch and the banking. Another rider- Rider D came up my inside and also ran off the road.
Rider B was transferred to hospital and sadly 2 weeks later died as a result of consequential issues.
Allegations and opinions soon started to appear on the group Whatsapp. It was not long before inquiries from insurance companies and subsequently a No Win No Fee motorcycle 'specialist' lawyers indicated that they were holding Rider A responsible as the allegation was that he had caused Rider B to swerve and loose control and then left the scene to avoid consequence. Part of the group had colluded to produce a story support this allegation.
This was a total fabrication. I would have loved to have seen what story they colluded to produce but this was in the hands of the lawyers who at one point intimated that I wasn't where I said I was to witness and provide a statement as to what I had seen, which was that Rider A was blameless.
Rider A's insurance company initially got a claim from Rider C suggesting that Rider A had also caused him to loose control and come off his bike. Rider A was no where near he had already passed.
Now it may have been possible that the Insurers of Driver A accept and pay the claim for damage to Rider C. I told Driver A to contact his insurers to see if they were aware of the fatal outcome of Rider B. They weren't.
This clearly escalated matters and they became very interested in specifics . They employed specialist digital forensic examiners to look at recorded riding data and investigators to visit and record statements from witnesses.
This would have potentially been a very large claim as Rider B had dependents.
After about 2 years the Lawyers pulled out as they realised they were backing the wrong horse as Rider A was totally exonerated and the chancers were shown up for what the were. I feel sorry for the family and widow of Rider B who perhaps, wrongly, was led into what they believed might have a good compensation payout.
The point I am getting to is that Rider A insurers went all out to mitigate their losses which would have been considerable. They were prepared to invest in experts to protect their interests.
I should imagine that an insurer farms out their claims to a third party administrator, simply because it is ultimately cheaper for them to do so.
Why might it be cheaper?
In 2024, the UK Motor insurers dealt with 2,400,000 Motor claims. That is 200,000 a month or a bit over 6,500 a day or 270 an hour or about five claim notifications every minute *. To process / deal with each would require an insurer to employ umpteen staff, at a very considerable cost. Of course they could offshore the lot and leave bods talking to Sanjit in India about how they fell off on the B456 through Tewksbury or maybe it was the B123, anyway it was Tuesday… or was it Wednesday…. In other words, whilst it looks to be inefficient and costly to use a UK based claims administrator, it very probably isn’t; or (put simply) many insurers wouldn’t do it.
Whilst no doubt distressing to those involved, the vast bulk of the 2,400,000 claims are simple and ‘low value’ at an average of just £4,500 each. It is a pretty safe bet that the average annual Motor premium in the UK, is well under £4,500. If the cost of the third party administrator (let’s make up a number) is 25% that is only a smidge over £1,000 a hit. You are not going to employ rafts of bods, sitting in expensive insurers’ offices for that.
So, what are insurers interested in, if it’s not Mr and Mrs Average Claim? Like most big businesses they are interested in individual events which hurt. What might that be? A crash of matey on his awesome into a bus stop full of schoolgirls, where most of them are not killed outright. Why? Because deaths are cheaper than long term / life changing injuries.
As with many things in life, the world gravites towards ‘bad news’ of the “My claim wasn’t dealt with. 4D or whatever they are called are shite and insurers never pay and they inflate claims” variety. This becomes some sort of truth, when repeated by mate to mate to mate. When, even a brief read through these pages shows that the vast majority of claims are settled very quickly and, not least, for a very fair (often generous) amount. Why? Because it pays an insurer to get it paid and settled quickly, rather than have it drag on. Or, if it must drag on, then let an administrator deal with it…. It’ll be cheaper in the long run.
* Don’t forget that the initial notification is very rarely the only and final contact. Let’s say there are five subsequent calls or whatever relating to the single notification. That becomes 1,350 separate calls an hour…. You can do the maths for a year’s worth.
PS AI will eventually take a lot of the grunt work out of it, but probably not in our lifetimes.
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Possibly
, If I’d accepted a hire bike and their storage repair service from the start, four weeks down the line, where I am now the costs would be at just over £12k so far, that’s with another nearly £900 to add for collecting the hire bike back and returning mine. Plus that doesn’t cover what they would charge for the actual repair of the bike.BMW Motorrad Grimsby are repairing it for <£1900 and no storage charge.
In my mind there is no defence for those sort of costs and if we all just accept it then we get what we deserve, very high premiums.
Back in 2012, when sorting out the administrative mess caused by my bike deciding to catch fire in Spain, the chap from Aviva (who was absolutely excellent) told me that the 'provision of a hire car' part of insurance policies made UK insurers a laughingstock in Europe.
He said he expected it would end up as another one of these things where the government forces the companies to pay up for excess costs and therefore increased premiums (like the Credit application scheme and the - recently overturned - credit fee scheme).
Not seen any sign of it happening yet.
He said he expected it would end up as another one of these things where the government forces the companies to pay up for excess costs and therefore increased premiums (like the Credit application scheme and the - recently overturned - credit fee scheme).
Not seen any sign of it happening yet.
That is very strange, they tried to persuade me to use their repairers, but I said no I wanted a BMW dealer - they said OK. There was no problem. 4th dimension were fine in their handling of the claim - it was slow but that was mainly down to Arden BMW being a complete shambles so I changed to Sycamore BMW, then everything was good. On top of that my new nsurance premium from Hastings for my GS hardly increased and was lower for Triumph.
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Did you have a hire bike then?
No didn't want one.
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Have a no fault accident on a classic/ valuable bike.
That totally fucks the system up.
Especially if insured with a mainstream insurer with no agreed value.
That totally fucks the system up.
Especially if insured with a mainstream insurer with no agreed value.
My car was rear ended back in July, insurance repairer has butchered the job, twice! I have my car back but the insurer has inspected the car and agree with all I can point out (a lot, plus new damage) needs to be repaired. I don't want to go back to the OG repairer but cant find anyone willing to take the job on (spoken to 7 repairers). I also am concerned the rear is twisted but the OG repairer says it isn't but 2 repairers I spoke to were concerned its twisted.
Anyone got any suggestions for bodyshops West London or just outside?
Yes I had a hire car the entire time and will get one when it gets its 3rd, 4th, 5th repair. If they fixed it properly first time it would have saved a pile of cash.
Anyone got any suggestions for bodyshops West London or just outside?
Yes I had a hire car the entire time and will get one when it gets its 3rd, 4th, 5th repair. If they fixed it properly first time it would have saved a pile of cash.
I would raise a formal complaint against the underwriter (not broker) asking for them to pay for an independent inspection from a suitably qualified structural engineer
So far is it just the body shop who say the car is OK or are the insurance company also saying this ?
Has the insurance company had the car inspected by an engineer, if not it may be worth asking the question.
It would cost, but could you employ an independant engineer to formally identify the outstanding issues and provide the evidence you need to get the insurance company to have it repaired properly as it seems they may not have done so. If you can find an engineer who is approved by the insurance industry even better and claim the costs from the insurance company if it is proven they did not have it repaired it properly.
Has the insurance company had the car inspected by an engineer, if not it may be worth asking the question.
It would cost, but could you employ an independant engineer to formally identify the outstanding issues and provide the evidence you need to get the insurance company to have it repaired properly as it seems they may not have done so. If you can find an engineer who is approved by the insurance industry even better and claim the costs from the insurance company if it is proven they did not have it repaired it properly.
Here’s another reason premiums are going up
mag-uk.org
£70M UK Moped Scam Exposed: Protect Yourself Now - Motorcycle Action Group
A £70M moped scam is raising UK insurance costs. Learn how criminals stage crashes, exploit riders, and what you can do to stay safe.
mag-uk.org
