Car went into back of me - insurance want my financial information

[Islesands]

I will try and be brief- In Dec 22 a car went into back of me in slow traffic, and then a van into them. Luckily and most importantly, no one was hurt. It was my first ever accident and in my confusion and shock I phoned and ended up reporting the accident on the side of the motorway to an accident claims line- the first ad on google rather than my Halifax car insurance. ( I know I know but first accident) I did not realise they were not Halifax car insurance and they recovered my car etc and it was a write off.

Long story and got loads of calls from companies offering to claim composition on my behalf. (refused) as my details must have been passed on.

I did end up going through the first accident claims line I phoned ( and not my own insurance) it just seemed easer and they provided a hire car for three weeks and about six weeks later I received the pay out and got another car ( second hand)

There was an ongoing dispute with middle car and van and who was liable etc but it has now been resolved , however the claims line want me to provide financial information (pay slips/ bank statements) to show that I could not afford to pay for the hire car myself or buy another car sooner.

The other side are obviously do not want to pay the my car hire costs to keep their costs down.

Now do I have to provide financial info and the case handler who advises it would be helpful if I did. Do I have provide this information?

i would argue that it shouldn’t matter if you could afford to or not. Surely if the accident wasn’t your fault you shouldn’t have to pay?

So I used to deal with this as part of my job.
It will be resolved much faster if you provide bank statements.

You have used a credit hire vehicle, which is much more expensive than a standard hire vehicle. Under current law the credit hire car company can recover the full credit hire rate if you could not have afforded to pay for a standard hire car youself. If you can afford to pay for a standard hire car then they can only recover the amount it would have cost had you done this.

It will be in the T&Cs that you help them try and get the full amount.

I'm really surprised you could do this. What did your actual insurers say? Has it affected your no claims?

This happened to me but I went through my actual insurance company. It was a complete nightmare and I really wasnt happy about it.

From what my claim handler told me, its really commonplace now for the 'other side' to refuse to pay for the courtesy car as they have got really expensive and demand for you to evidence through bank statements etc that you couldnt have paid for a hire car yourself and then claimed that cost back (apparentely its MUCH cheaper to do this and that is what they know expect you to do).

The other insurer refused to pay for long enough that it was entered to court and I would be expected to give evidence on the claim, inlcuding why I had the courtesy car so long (just over 1 week). I was really clear with my claim handler that it wasnt in my control how long I had the car for - I had it for the time my insurer arranged for my car to be fixed and I had no control over that.

I refused to send them my financial info as I was not willing to share this level of my personal details with them and they recorded this on the witness statement that was used in the court proceedings (apparently lots of people refuse). In the end the other side backed down before the court hearing and paid my claim and the courtesy car fee too.

What Ive learnt from this is that I will NEVER take a car from my insurer again if I am involved in another accident whilst mine is fixed. It was so stressful and took up so much of my time that I wont be doing it again. Id rather gets lifts with family and friends then go through it again.

Good luck as I know how stressful it is.

You would have agreed at the outset to cooperate with the credit hire firm; so now they are asking for your cooperation.

This. You would have agreed to cooperate.

I'm in a similar situation but actually went through my insurers so I don't think it's necessarily that you used an agency. I'm annoyed as I have courtesy car cover but didn't realise it was different to the hire car they gave me (stupid mistake, I know.)

Hi, thanks for responses and esp comments stating I agreed to cooperate and signed credit car agreement. I will send over bank details etc.

@CalistoNoSolo it has not affected my no claims and my insurance company is aware. But lesson learnt and I have their number in my phone

It's credit hire, which would have cost a fortune compared to standard hire. If the insurance refuses to pay because you didn't actually need credit hire and could have made alternative arrangements then you may be liable to pay for the credit hire. You would have signed the credit hire agreement explaining this.

BeckettandCastle · Today 12:52

From what my claim handler told me, its really commonplace now for the 'other side' to refuse to pay for the courtesy car as they have got really expensive and demand for you to evidence through bank statements etc that you couldnt have paid for a hire car yourself...

We were rear ended and for our diesel Passat, they gave us an Audi A4. I found more suitable ones, but they didn't want to know. I had to give them 3 months before and after bank and credit card statements.

We didn't pay anything in the end, but it was annoying. Everything is done by a claims company, not the insurance company and they make money by having car hire subsidiaries, which they use to lease cars to themselves...