Rear Ended! !!!

[Dustydog]

A minor rear end shunt. Less impact than a dodgem.
Five ambulance chasers wanting to deal with a whiplash claim.
Every known car hire company wants to lend me a car.
Meanwhile the Insurers computer immediately identified the third party details including insurers.
My Insurers two days later arranged collection of my car, approved repairs with their garage subject to no vat, no policy excess, a day no loss of bonus.
Within hours a temporary vehicle was delivered to my home.
Ten days later my car returned fully repaired. Temp car collected.
This was a minor shunt. A new bumper and ancillaries fitted plus labour of course plus paint the thick end of two grand!
Whiplash? No!!
My point is simple.
In the good old dog days of chrome bumpers this would have been a non event.
Today the costs are a mockery of reality.
Total. Circa £3000.
Ridiculous.

 

[JonnyG]

A minor rear end shunt. Less impact than a dodgem.
Five ambulance chasers wanting to deal with a whiplash claim.
Every known car hire company wants to lend me a car.
Meanwhile the Insurers computer immediately identified the third party details including insurers.
My Insurers two days later arranged collection of my car, approved repairs with their garage subject to no vat, no policy excess, a day no loss of bonus.
Within hours a temporary vehicle was delivered to my home.
Ten days later my car returned fully repaired. Temp car collected.
This was a minor shunt. A new bumper and ancillaries fitted plus labour of course plus paint the thick end of two grand!
Whiplash? No!!
My point is simple.
In the good old dog days of chrome bumpers this would have been a non event.
Today the costs are a mockery of reality.
Total. Circa £3000.
Ridiculous.

I have been there and totally agree with you .does make you wonder how much cheaper insurance could be if it wasn't for all this..

 

[Raywood]

The problems you had are the very reason premiums are so high. Most whiplash claims are probably fictitious these days and the cost to insurers whether they pay them or not is enormous. Insurers cannot win, as an example one we were involved in as a company was clearly not genuine but the solicitors pushed on and an offer of £1,000 was made to get rid but not accepted and taken to court. The claim was found to be not genuine but even with some recovery of costs we were still £2,000 down.
The car hire offers are companies charging inflated prices and the courts support these often ludicrous rates. Basically the insurers are being fleeced but that simply pushes up premiums and you end up paying for the rogues making a mint out of these claims.

 

[AdifferentJim]

The insurance companies have to take full responsibility for the claim chasers. When my daughter was in university I organised her car insurance for her and although the insurer's had her details, they had my telephone number.

Someone bumped her car in a supermarket car park a few months back. She was in the store at the time but the chap who pranged her gave his details to the security people. Although it wasn't serious the cost was a few hundred and she claimed via his insurance. All sorted within a week.

Since then I've been getting regular phone calls from claims companies telling me that, it's believed that I've been involved in an accident and asking me for details.

Now the only people who have any details are the guy who caused the minor damage, my daughter and the insurance companies.

It doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to work out who the claims companies got my phone number from.

 

[WoodlandsCamper]

Now the only people who have any details are the guy who caused the minor damage, my daughter and the insurance companies.

I believe the details of all reports and claims go into a central database such that insurance companies, and other parties, can cross check for fraudulent or multiple claims. The details are NOT secret, big brother is watching you.
Similarly with the car's registration.

 

[paws]

...and not to put too finer point on it..... some of these phone calls seem to have no targeted direction at all.... we have received these sort of calls when neither of us has had any accidents at all....and so have a lot of other folks.

In a similar vein we also receive calls about a host of other things that seem not to be targeted in any way.

Its easy to believe that the caller has "inside information" but often this is not really the case.... for instance how many of us have received calls purporting to be from "Windows" or our ISP saying that our computers are slow or are suffering from infections?.....

On the law of averages its worthwhile financially, for the bad lads (or lassies) to make these sorts of calls as the frequency of car "accidents" is so great , just the same with the computers..... if they make enough calls ( free to them if using IP calling) then as a numbers game they are likely to get lucky.
Its better not to be upset by these sort of tactics but to just press on, and remember ....
Happy Caravnning
paws

 

[Raywood]

I have had calls from companies saying they will act for me despite the fact I have not had an accident. There are quite a few who just go fishing for work and they must still pick up the odd fool. Frankly claims companies are not worth while they simply add to the claim with no benefit to you and need to be put out of business..

 

[swpostie]

The main problem seems to be that people are claiming financial compensation when there's been no financial loss.

 

[woodsieboy]

When the claims companies phone me about my accident I tell them the accident left me with no memory of the accident.

 

[colin-yorkshire]

hi, slightly off subject but to do with insurance, what annoys me is that because some claims are suspect, and because the value of a claim gets bumped up because it is through insurance, all claims come under greater scrutiny, with the insurance companies using any excuse to deny a claim, while assuming every claim is bogus, this is happening more and more, be very careful when filling out insurance forms and read every word of the small print, or you may get caught out,

one of the favourites seem to undervaluing of items, or failure to disclose something even if they don't specifically ask. otherwise you could end up well out of pocket, don't ask how I know, :woohoo:

 

[Raywood]

hi, slightly off subject but to do with insurance, what annoys me is that because some claims are suspect, and because the value of a claim gets bumped up because it is through insurance, all claims come under greater scrutiny, with the insurance companies using any excuse to deny a claim, while assuming every claim is bogus, this is happening more and more, be very careful when filling out insurance forms and read every word of the small print, or you may get caught out,

one of the favourites seem to undervaluing of items, or failure to disclose something even if they don't specifically ask. otherwise you could end up well out of pocket, don't ask how I know, :woohoo:

Colin, Insurance companies are not trying to turn down every claim but some are harder than others when there are problems. You do however get what you pay for like all things in life and the cheaper ones tend to be the biggest problem when claims arise.
Not sure what your problem with undervalue was. If you are asked to give a figure for something and you give a figure too low but the premium is based on this figure then that is the maximum you can claim. If however this is not relevant to the premium and that would have stayed the same even if you had given the correct figure you should not be penalised and if you are complain to the company and take it to the Ombudsman if you are still not happy.

 

[colin-yorkshire]

ok, long story very short. had bathroom leak while away bathroom above kitchen, bathroom flooded, kitchen flooded, big hole in ceiling, rang insurance, they sent an emergency plumber, who isolated the leak, by blanking off the pipe, and then left.
6 days before assessor turned up, meanwhile no electric no water and everything damp, did not offer alternative accommodation not in policy [small print] so lived in van in garage, assessor, [buildings] came looked at the mess right will book builder to come dry it out and make good, appliances though are not covered by buildings, thats the contents insurance, contents assessor comes day after, will replace all items in kitchen and bathroom but appliances are not under contents but come under fixing and fitting so thats on the building insurance. to and fro for weeks while the builder ripped the house apart,
in the end the washer, boiler ect was paid for by the buildings because they are plumbed in fridge ect through contents. now here is the rub, contents was new for old, buildings is just repair, so instead of getting a new kitchen and washer, they just got patched up, the washer [was a top of the range AEG] but as it could not be repaired was offered a cheap washer as replacement, which I refused, ended up getting the maximum singe item sum of £500 because I had not listed it as a high value item, and was undervalued on the policy, cost me £250 on top to replace it.
in all nearly 3 months before it was settled, and did not get paid out for everything that was ruined.
of course now the premiums are double what they were because we had a claim [first one in 40 years] and are still higher 5 years later. cannot mention which companies but both were/are in the top 5 insurance suppliers, and no Ray the premiums were not cheap,
so that is why I say read all the small print, look at the replacement value of everything insured just in case. or what happened to us could be you.

 

[DrZhivago]

now the premiums are double what they were because we had a claim [first one in 40 years] and are still higher 5 years later

Similar to my experience with a car insurance claim (about £1000) I had 10 years ago, the only one I have ever had in my life. I had a protected no claims discount but was taken aback that they put the premium significantly at the next renewal anyway. They said I kept the discount but had "become a higher risk driver". I reckoned they would recover their payout to me (and then more) over the following 5 years.

In other words, the cost of repairs is not really being insured, only spread out like a hire-purchase scheme. That was when I started shopping around; I change companies about every two years now, about the time when they think people won't notice the premium climbing up, especially if you are on Direct Debit (insurance companies love it, I hate it)

Generally, I do not insure anything unless either (1) it is a legal reqirement [like a car], or (2) you need but could not afford, the replacement [like the house burning down]. I do not insure anything that I could manage without or could afford to deal with myself. You are then your own insurance company, and get to keep the profit if you are a naturally careful person

 

[Raywood]

I am afraid some insurers are running what to me is a fraud. They say if you have one accident then you are statistically likely to bave more and put the premium up. I can see no justification for that and frankly it needs to be dealt with by the regulator. I can see the justification where the driving has been seriously bad but as a routine it is not justified.
Insurers are required to be fair to customers and this is the exact opposite.
My insurance specifically prevents this but I am not sure that this option is still available.

 

[MikeG2]

A minor point, but IP calls are not free - unless both ends of the call are IP. IP calls (Voice over Internet Protocol - i.e transmitted over the intenet) need to "break out" of the cloud into the normal network (normally the local exchange) which has a charge, so that it can connect to your telephone. The advantage to the scammers is that they can call from virtually anywhere in the world, but only pay for the local connection

 

[velorina]

Post Removed, User Banned

 

[WoodlandsCamper]

Spam reported to Mods.

 

[crazyguider]

As have I!