Insurance Write Off Rip-off?

[JMR]

Happy New Year All. Wonder if anyone can enlighten me on the following.

Car pulled in front of the missus, she swerved to avoid, ended up hitting a lamppost and subsequently, to cut a long story short, the car has been written off. The other car f*cked off - missus was on the service road into work, so police wont get involved cos they say its private land.

Anyway, we'll just have to stump up the £100 excess.

I've only had the policy with Admiral for about 7 weeks, paid in full with the credit card (£180). They say if they pay me the market value for the vehicle, then the full policy premium stands, so my insurance cover ended effectively on 13/12/06. [date of accident]

Sounds a bit sh*tty to me. I've paid for a years cover and got 7 weeks. Now I've got another car to insure, which will cost me another £180 or so.:dapprove:
Wouldnt mind so much if it had been month 11 instead of month 2.
Do you think they'll be reasonable and help me out somewhat?

PS it's not the 172 that got written off! Phew!

 

[172blue]

Sadly they are right about the premium, you pay the years premium as they pay the claim, because the premium is what they take to cover any risk, prior to the claim. Even if you had'nt paid it upfront, they would have taken it out of the claim monies they were paying you.

Not too sure why the insurance stops then, and cannot be transferred to a new vehicle though....

 

[jimmy_mac]

Sounds a bit dodgy to me! But I suppose you can be thankful your insurance isn't £1300 like mine lol I'm sure someone will be along soon to give you a fact based answer instead of an opinion.

 

[al]

No no no!! Thats not right at all, once you've paid for a years cover you get cover for a year!!

I wrote my 1.6 off at the beginning of December, my policy started in April and I have been fully paid out and the claim settled.

My policy however is still running, I paid for a year and thats what you get, a year! I just put my new car on the policy and it continues as normal untill April when it's due for renewal.

 

[Middo]

admiral are b******s, exactly the same thing happened to me, b*****d taxi pulled out on me i swerved and crashed into a lamp post and he drove off, except i would have been loosing 1300 quid (i crashed 3 weeks into the policy) not a couple of hundred. luckily my car didnt get written off in my case. Lots of insurance companies will give u some sort of rebate as ad did when his car got stolen, but admiral wont. Prob why they're so cheap, but yeah you wont get anything as they said the exact same thing ot me

 

[JMR]

Sadly they are right about the premium, you pay the years premium as they pay the claim, because the premium is what they take to cover any risk, prior to the claim. Even if you had'nt paid it upfront, they would have taken it out of the claim monies they were paying you.

Not too sure why the insurance stops then, and cannot be transferred to a new vehicle though....

I would be happy if say, I had the same car and the premium was the same, and they just carried on to the end of my insured period [end of October] Like I say, I've paid for a year.

Bit of a b4stard if I have to start from scratch again. 7 weeks....pah.

 

[Middo]

i'd def argue it. tell them you'll go to another insurance company unless they give you some sort of rebate.

 

[al]

I would be happy if say, I had the same car and the premium was the same, and they just carried on to the end of my insured period [end of October] Like I say, I've paid for a year.

Thats what they should do! Get onto the insurance ombudsman!

 

[JMR]

al
- I'll keep you posted when I've had them on the blower. Thanks for your replies

Middo
- I have the 172 on the same multi car policy with Admiral. I have a bit of an advantage there, whereby I will cancel that and demand a refund for the remainder of the cover if they f*ck me over for the missus's Micra.

 

[Jamie _Swales]

I would be happy if say, I had the same car and the premium was the same, and they just carried on to the end of my insured period [end of October] Like I say, I've paid for a year.

Thats what they should do! Get onto the insurance ombudsman!

Do exactly what this man says, i deal with situations like this everyday and this is totaly wrong. They should be doing a change of vehicle on her current policy.

Get onto the ombudsman, w*****s

 

[jonnyboy]

we've just been in a similar pickle m8, our lass got run into by a drunk driver. He did have insurance so we got paid out for the car but after admin charges etc we lost nearly 200 quid through no fault of our own after we changed cars and policies (although we were still with the same agent adrian flux)

 

[GinandGasoline]

i was with admiral and they cancelled my policy the very same as they have yours when they decided the car was a write off. gutting part for me was that i was 6 weeks away from another years no claims...... fight them over the money..... i had a bit of a battle getting them to move quickly though

 

[DrR]

When i claimed, i still had 5 months remaining, they just transfer it to another car?

 

[al]

I was told by the people at RAC that the only person that can legally cancel a policy is the policyholder (unless the T&C's of the policy have been broken)

 

[Ross M]

unfortunately this is the case ... BUT it is only the case for admiral/elephant/bell as they are SHITE

 

[Ad]

admiral are b******s, exactly the same thing happened to me, b*****d taxi pulled out on me i swerved and crashed into a lamp post and he drove off, except i would have been loosing 1300 quid (i crashed 3 weeks into the policy) not a couple of hundred. luckily my car didnt get written off in my case. Lots of insurance companies will give u some sort of rebate as ad did when his car got stolen, but admiral wont. Prob why they're so cheap, but yeah you wont get anything as they said the exact same thing ot me

I was with privilege and my policy continued as normal until the end, which was 5mths away.

Bell/Admiral etc are the only insurance company to do it, and imho its poor.

 

[Ross M]

^yup

 

[JMR]

Am I right in thinking Admiral/Elephant and Bell are pretty much same company?

I haven't spoken to them yet, been too busy, first day back at work today.

Have always had wife's insurance with DirectLine, until this year. Saved myself £60 on the policy, sounds like it may end up costing me in the long run.

 

[GinandGasoline]

Am I right in thinking Admiral/Elephant and Bell are pretty much same company

yes when i phoned up for my claim the woman in the call centre got herself in a right tizz by telling me she was calling from elephant, bell and then realised i was a admiral customer :S

 

[miltage2]

sounds a bit harsh, but i think they are right

 

[JMR]

i was with admiral and they cancelled my policy the very same as they have yours when they decided the car was a write off. gutting part for me was that i was 6 weeks away from another years no claims...... fight them over the money..... i had a bit of a battle getting them to move quickly though

Did you get sorted in the end though?

 

[dannyboy172]

Have always had wife's insurance with DirectLine, until this year. Saved myself £60 on the policy, sounds like it may end up costing me in the long run.

Aye directline are ones to be with!

I'm with bell, for the sole purpose of insuring mods. Money grabbing b******s the lot of 'em.

Hope you get it sorted hassle free ASAP.

 

[GinandGasoline]

Did you get sorted in the end though?

yes it was a long drawn out claim in my opinion (10 days to get a decision on what would happen with the car - repair or total loss), then a further 7 days to get me the paperwork to complete for the claim..... even though i was on the phone to them at least once a day...... having got my paperwork they then did nothing with it for a further week.

as i say a long struggle but it has worked out well in the end, but i just wanted to get the payout and move on as quickly as possible rather than keep it dragging along

 

[JMR]

Good news lads!

Phoned Admiral today, they haven't got round to cancelling my policy for the written off car yet, so they've amended the car type to the new one I've bought for the missus.

The end result is I've just got to pay an extra £26 to cover the difference in insurance group and my cover will continue until renewal date.

Phew!!

Thanks for all your input guys, I'll keep you all posted on my settlement for the old Micra. i know its going to be a low price [Glass's guide], but £1000 will go towards the SEAT.

Cheers, James

 

[Alex_225]

Insurance companies are complete minges.

I had some bloke scrape my Megane early last year. It came of his insurance as I was stationary, he drove on the pavement and then drove off.

Came to renew this year and I got told that my premium has gone up by £200. When asked why, they mentioned my 'claim' and after they confirmed that I didn't claim off my insurance they still said 'well its still a risk' and that was it.

c*nts the lot of em, money grabbing sh!ts.

 

[JMR]

Yep, its February in a few hours, and I've still had no phone call or f*ck all about my settlement for the car which was written off.

It only happened on 13th December!!!!!

I'll be calling Admiral tomorrow, i want my cash.:dapprove:

 

[Clart]

they are notoriously bad for paying out. adrian flux took something like 10 weeks to pay when i crashed my punto gt. they will also offer you a stupid amount, which you can refuse, and then provide evidence of the real market value (send them similar car values from autotrader etc)

 

[G_F]

Gutted mate, phone them everyday though and blag f**k out of them.

 

[GinandGasoline]

Yep, its February in a few hours, and I've still had no phone call or f*ck all about my settlement for the car which was written off.

It only happened on 13th December!!!!!

I'll be calling Admiral tomorrow, i want my cash.:dapprove:

i called them twice a day for 10 days to get my money out of them - took them nearly 7 weeks to payout. have you had an offer from them yet?

personally i'd keep chasing them, don't wait for them to come back to you

 

[Jamie _Swales]

Mate, as a i said before, get onto the Financial ombusman service, give them a call on 0845 080 1800

They will soon sort out the claim, as the insurance company will s**t themselves

 

[JMR]

i called them twice a day for 10 days to get my money out of them - took them nearly 7 weeks to payout. have you had an offer from them yet?

They haven't phoned me once - never mind an offer. Someone was supposed to be ringing me with an offer two weeks ago.

....they will also offer you a stupid amount, which you can refuse, and then provide evidence of the real market value (send them similar car values from autotrader etc)

I printed a load out off AutoTrader the day after the crash

 

[RichRSi]

Your not alone on this one man,
My mx5 was written off about 6months ago. Dispite it also not being my fault it took photo's of the scene and a lot of leg work to get it settled.
My insurance was supposed to come with a replacement car which never showed up and when I argued that I needed a car they wanted me to sign an 8 week hire purchace agreement (£255 per week) which I would have to pay if the insurance couldnt trace the guy who crashed into me (and claim through his insurers) but they were not too arsed about finding the guy, basically because I didnt want to risk signing an agreement which would bankrupt me I went without a car for 2 weeks and ended up having to borrow one for the further 2-3 weeks untill it was settled.
The offer from the insurance was way less than what my car was worth but when I argued the claims dude virtually doubled the initial offer in 2 minutes, what a scam.
And they tell you insurance is there to protect you!

Rant over!!

 

[JMR]

Just to keep those of you who are interested posted.

Called Admiral on Friday, gave them absolute hell, they'd promised to call me back everytime I've phoned them for the past 4 weeks.

It was getting beyond a joke for me, so they got both barrels. Of course I was polite at all times, and remember.....no swearing.

The total loss manager phoned me back within 5 minutes and made me an immediate settlement offer of £500 above private book price. I had a figure in mind and they hit it spot on.

They were still blaming the delay on the DVLA for not getting written confirmation of the status and history of me and the missus' licences. They had verbal ok weeks ago! No points on either licence ever!!!

However, this helps make the whole situation much better

11 weeks to resolve from date of crash. Its pushing your patience somewhat when they dont give you a courtesy car.