Car insurance in the wrong?

[TinkersBell]

Basically a named driver on my insurance policy was driving my car when someone else hit it and wrote it off.

The other parties insurance spoke with my husband and suggested a figure and when he called them back to dispute the figure after speaking with me he had agreed and the payment had been issued.

I am the policy holder and registered keeper of the vehicle. Can they actually agree this figure with my husband without speaking to me at all (even though he actually didn't agree it anyway)?

My insurance company is strict and will only speak with me, the policy holder.

Both myself and my husbands insurers will only speak to the policy holder despite us both being named drivers on the others policy.

No. Only the policy holder can agree a settlement. Whenever I’ve had to speak to an insurer regarding a claim, they ask a load of questions at the start of the call, one being to confirm that you are the policy holder and then a series of security questions. Call them back, state that the person they spoke to has nothing to do with the vehicle or the policy, and you did not give authorisation for them to be contacted on your behalf. Ask to make a written complaint.

And then ask your OH what the fuck he was doing trying to muscle in on your behalf rather than saying “sorry, my wife is the policy holder, owner and keeper, you’ll need to call her back.”

Was it your husband who had the accident?

Something doesn’t add up here.

I agree that it seems odd to speak to the other insurance company and not your own! That's never happened IME, misspiggy

Yes he was driving and they contacted us directly.

Sorry should have said that

You normally only deal with your own company. Did you make the claim on your own policy ? Or on the other driver's policy ? The latter would make sense if they are the ones contacting you .

If it was your insurance company then they should only speak to you, the other insurance company should go to your insurance company and have them approach you on their behalf.

I've got a feeling that this has happened because

• the other driver has told his company about the accident.
• other company has contacted your husband since the other person had his name as the other party.
• the other company has offered this payout to your husband , and has presumably gone ahead with it .

Maybe your husband agreed to that payout and then changed his mind after talking to you ?

You should be talking to your own company - who possibly don't even know about this accident - since your husband has only spoken to the other company. Give them a call and talk about the entire event .

It does sound as if the OP has not notified her own insurance company of the accident! You do have to, so I'd do that ASAP but it may be too late for the claim.

So this

• the other driver has told his company about the accident.
• other company has contacted your husband since the other person had his name as the other party.
• the other company has offered this payout to your husband , and has presumably gone ahead with it .

Except he didn't actually agree to it, admittedly I assumed he had done yesterday got pretty pissy and took over and complained verbally to a manager who rang me today and said she was appalled by what had happened after listening to the calls and explained the outsource some of the call centre stuff. She said he hasn't agreed to a figure so I've now issued a written complaint.

Tbf he was trying to do me a favour as between a sick child, trying to get a new car, not feeling well myself he genuinely was trying to help.

And my insurance company are aware of the accident also.

I've never actually done this before so tbh I didn't even realise that my insurance company should be dealing with the other one. I just assumed that it would be my insurance that would deal with it if I was at fault and the at fault parties insurance if they were?

I've got that totally wrong haven't I. I wonder why my insurance haven't been back in touch though since they are aware of it...

I just assumed that it would be my insurance that would deal with it if I was at fault and the at fault parties insurance if they were?

No it doesn't work like that. You make a claim on your own insurance policy. They pay you for the accident. Then they negotiate with the other company , in order to recoup their money . At no point should you be talking to the other company - only your own . You should have made a claim on your own policy. Blame isn't a part of this at all - you should never assume that you are to blame or the the other person is. That is something the insurance companies do .

Ok, that is clearly where we've gone wrong. Whoops - I think we are probably too far down the line now to go through my own company so I'll see how the complaint goes.

Good luck - I hope you can get it sorted.

I have this myself, I had an accident as the named driver. We didn't realise until the accident that as named driver I was only covered third party. As such our insurance did nothing in relation to the claim, I even had to pay to get the damaged car transported away.

This is unfortunately one of the sacrifices to get a cheaper policy that wasn't well advertised when we took it out. Check your policy documents, if your husband is only covered third party, and you're sure he is not at fault then it might be best to consider a private claims handling company.