Insurance claim - car collision not my fault

[Beaumon]

I'd be very grateful for some advice on this - I've never claimed on car insurance before and something isn't quite sitting right with me.

On Sunday another driver ran into the back of me while I was waiting to enter a roundabout - lot of damage to the back of my car and moderate damage to the front of his. I also have a witness who saw the accident and gave me her number. So all in all, I'm confident it's a pretty clear case of him being at fault.

I phoned the insurance straight away, car has been carted off to a garage. I'd be extremely surprised if it's not a write off (old car which now has a massive dent in the back). My question is about the options the insurance company offered to me:

1. I go through my underwriter. I pay my excess but should be able to claim it back. I'd get a hire car (not sure how long for, policy suggests 28 days), probably through Enterprise.
2. The whole thing goes through Enterprise, they handle getting me a hire car and dealing with the repair of old car (though as I say I don't think it's repairable - I'd be delighted if it was, I loved my knackered old car) and claim it all back from the at fault drivers insurance. I don't have to pay my excess.

The guy I spoke to seemed to really be pushing the second option and I'm not sure why. I checked and he was definitely from my insurance company, not one of these dodgy companies which supply hire cars at exorbitant costs. I don't want to be part of the problem of massively inflated insurance payouts (which push up premiums for everyone) but equally, I don't feel it's solely on me to solve that problem and I do need to get it sorted.

Is there a catch I can't see? Do I need to ask more questions? (and if so, what?) Is one option more likely than the other to lead to my premiums going up next year?

Thanks in advance for any thoughts on this.

You don't usually get a hire car if they are going to write off your car, only if they are going to repair it.

This happened to me - they were pushing for the 2nd option as well ..... I did the first option; as I thought it would be fixable - they said it was a write off; so I had a hire car for 14 days until they sent their report saying so.
My excess was only £100 and I did get it back once the car had been written off & I was paid out. Took about a month to get the payment for the write off once their report had been sent to the insurance.

My insurance went up the next year - but it always goes up recently lol 😂 not by a lot so wasn't even worth worrying about

I found it best to go through the third party's insurer. Thankfully they called me and offered. My insurer's were aware and happy for this.

They provided an Enterprise hire car for acouple of weeks, which was until they sent the payout from the car being written off. They paid for replacement child car seats with no issue. No excess to pay.

BTW, the payout that they offered and I accepted, was a couple of thousand more than I'd paid for the car about 6 months earlier!

In your position, I would not choose option 2.

Is enterprise an accident management company? I'd be wary, they aim to charge the at fault insurer inflated costs for courtesy car, if the insurer challengethat cost you become liable for it. Stick with your insurance company.
Whats usually even better is go through the party at faults insurer.
I was with admiral once and a car rear ended me, admiral tried to palm me off onto their accident management company who wanted to take out a hire agreement on a courtesy car, but I declined, called the at fault insurer, privilege, who dealt with my repairs and courtesy car very efficiently.

Ah, thanks, I didn't know this. That would be a pain as I'd mainly need it for going to look at replacement cars. I'm in a small town with limited public transport and not many second hand cars for sale!

Thanks @bridesmaid1024 , it's really helpful to hear about your experience. My excess is about £200 but it's not a problem if I don't get it back for a bit. Good to know you weren't waiting ages for the payout.

If you're 100% certain you're not at fault in any way, go direct to their insurance company, and NOT your own. Their insurance firm will determine whether it's repairable or is a write off and if you require a hire car in the meantime, THEY will provide one for you. It usually takes several days for them to check the vehicle and confirm whether it's written off, and you usually get the hire car for that time and then for around a week or 10 days AFTER they've paid out the claim for the write off, to give you time to source a replacement car. If you go direct with the third party insurers, you don't have the risk and faff of one insurance firm claiming against another, or the risk of claims management firms (and risky credit agreement hire cars) getting involved. You're basically dealing direct, so there's no come back nor argument about what they provide you with. When you use a claims management firm, credit agreement hire car or your own insurance firm, there's always the risk you end up out of pocket because the third party insurance firm don't pay out or start arguing about amounts of loss, etc.

When a moronic neighbour wrote off our car, I just claimed directly against her insurance. They were a pain to deal with, and they took ages to do everything, but I got the hire car from them the day after the accident and kept it for about a month because the insurers were initially slow to have the damage evaluated, and then even once it was determined to be a write off, it took them another 2/3 weeks to come up with a write off valuation to pay me, and then I had another week until they collected the hire car, by which time, I'd spent the money (actually on getting the car repaired as I bought it back from them to repair myself!).

Thanks for this, I hadn't considered going through the other driver's insurer. Had you given the other driver your number? I remember giving him my name, but can't remember if I gave him my number (was on phone giving lots of details to insurers at the time). Would it be worth texting him and asking him to give my no. to his insurers?

Yes, definitely leaning towards option 1 at the moment, thanks for your input.

This is very helpful, thanks. I thought Enterprise were just a car hire company but on googling yes, they are also an accident management company. And it looks like that's something I want to avoid.

He should have given you HIS insurance details, that's what you need to claim against him. If not and you can't contact him, then you can ask your own insurance company for details of the third party insurers if you give them his registration number - they can trace the insurer via the national database. When you know who it is, just phone them, give them his name and registration number and they will be able to trace his policy, then you give them the details of the accident and say you're making a claim against their policyholder.

Yes, best to avoid them if you can as you'll run up costs, such as for the credit hire car, and if they can't reclaim from the third party insurer, you'd end up having to pay for the hire, which will be at rates FAR higher than normal car hire prices. Sometimes, the third party insurer will try to wriggle out if they claim you didn't actually need a hire car or hired a bigger/better car than you need. That's why it's safer for you to deal direct with the third party insurer and let them sort out the hire car for you!

We've had 3 non fault accidents in the last 2 years, each time we've gone to our own insurers and they've dealt with the other parties insurers directly. Paid our excess up front and then always had it back at the end. We've had a hire car from enterprise each time and they've always been great, had no issues at all. I wouldn't have even known where to start with doing it myself and dealing with the other parties insurers, but I know a lot of people do

Thanks @taxguru . I do have his insurance details, as well as his contact details.

Do I need to tell my insurers I'm contacting his insurers? I left it with them that I was going to get back to them once I'd thought about their two options. I guess I should tell them, just so everything is above board.

And thanks for this as well. Yes, this is what I had read about and had concerns about. Thanks, I'm a lot clearer about my options now.

My daughters car was written off in a similar accident- no fault to her. She was provided woth a courtesy car through her own insurance for 3 weeks while her claim was settled and was able to sort a replacwmebt in that time.

Avoid option 2 - I have read some horror stories from people getting a hire car through a claims management company, at fault driver refusing to cover the cost and receiving a huge bill and having to go to court to refute this.

I went to my insurance company and they did the rest, I had a courtesy car for a month which came out of the other sides insurance (car was written off). I claimed for injury and had to attend a few apps and physio for a while but it was an easy process though the other driver did accept fault immediately.

You do get a hire car if they are going to write your car off but they take it back the moment the settlement, ie money for your car is sent to you.

Depends on the insurer. I had mine for a week or so after settlement was paid. And for the few weeks whilst the insurer was dithering about re inspecting the damage and then dithering about the write off value. They told me the date they'd be collecting it in the same phone call as we finally agreed the write off value. They did a bank transfer the same day as the phone call! All that was going direct with the third party insurer.