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Original poster

Admiral claim payments scandal

28 replies

AdmiralScam · 30/04/2025 14:13

Has anyone experienced Admiral Insurance's refusal to pay the true market value of their car that has been written off? My 21 year-old daughter's car was totalled by a driver, Admiral agreed her no-fault claim but would only pay two thirds of the value of the car, spuriously claiming that they use up to the minute valuations. We took them to the Financial Ombudsman who ruled on our side and told Admiral to pay the rest. This took considerable effort including providing alot of marketplace evidence as to the value of that car. The person dealing with our claim at the Financial Ombudsman confirmed that they are continually trying to make insurance companies pay properly as they try not to.

OP posts:
BoyDoIMissSecrets · 30/04/2025 14:15

The opposite. The amount they gave DS when his old banger was written off last year in a crash was way more than we had paid for it 4 years earlier. I know car prices have gone up, but he got a really decent amount, plus £400 in lieu of a hire car. We were actually very impressed.

Original poster
AdmiralScam · 30/04/2025 16:41

I am glad that you were happy with that. Secondhand care prices have more than tripled over that period.

OP posts:
CozyCoupe · 30/04/2025 17:24

We had the opposite experience! Have had 2 claims with Admiral in the past couple years - one of over £35k (car was a write off) and they were incredibly quick, efficient and the claim was paid in just a week. We are on the platinum level policy, dint know if it makes any odds, but we've stayed with them because they were so good at sorting our claims.

PassingStranger · 30/04/2025 18:25

AdmiralScam · 30/04/2025 14:13

Has anyone experienced Admiral Insurance's refusal to pay the true market value of their car that has been written off? My 21 year-old daughter's car was totalled by a driver, Admiral agreed her no-fault claim but would only pay two thirds of the value of the car, spuriously claiming that they use up to the minute valuations. We took them to the Financial Ombudsman who ruled on our side and told Admiral to pay the rest. This took considerable effort including providing alot of marketplace evidence as to the value of that car. The person dealing with our claim at the Financial Ombudsman confirmed that they are continually trying to make insurance companies pay properly as they try not to.

Isn't that typical of insurance companies.

Original poster
AdmiralScam · 30/04/2025 19:37

I am glad your experience was positive. My daughter worked all summer last year to buy a 17 year old Polo for £3.2k, she is a student nurse and needs a car to get to placements, it was written off a month later by a third party driving into her. Admiral agreed the no-fault claim, while they waited for the third party's insurer to admit liability, but then refused to pay more than £2k, in spite of the evidence of the trade sales invoice and multiple examples of Polos of the same spec, age, mileage on sale on Auto Trader for £3.5-4k. The pricing on Auto Trader is competitive, which you will know if you have ever bought from there. Admiral say they use the Glasses Guide (irrelevant gor old cars), Auto Trader and others, but their valuation was clearly spurious. They offer the lowest premiums to attract young drivers but cynically refuse to pay out properly, knowing that most will give up.

OP posts:
FrenchandSaunders · 30/04/2025 19:40

That sounds a lot for a 17 year old car!

RedHelenB · 30/04/2025 19:43

I've always done OK, but fingers crossed my accidents have been when I've had the car a while and am near to needing a newer one.

Blushingm · 30/04/2025 19:50

That’s a lot for a 17 year old polo. Just because you paid that doesn’t mean it’s worth that

and I doubt someone at the ombudsman would make such a comment either.

Ive had very good experience with Admiral

Original poster
AdmiralScam · 30/04/2025 19:53

Good. The point I guess is to ensure that you get the true market value, however old the car. You won't get anything close to reliable for less than £2.5-3k right now.

OP posts:
MemorableTrenchcoat · 30/04/2025 19:53

AdmiralScam · 30/04/2025 19:37

I am glad your experience was positive. My daughter worked all summer last year to buy a 17 year old Polo for £3.2k, she is a student nurse and needs a car to get to placements, it was written off a month later by a third party driving into her. Admiral agreed the no-fault claim, while they waited for the third party's insurer to admit liability, but then refused to pay more than £2k, in spite of the evidence of the trade sales invoice and multiple examples of Polos of the same spec, age, mileage on sale on Auto Trader for £3.5-4k. The pricing on Auto Trader is competitive, which you will know if you have ever bought from there. Admiral say they use the Glasses Guide (irrelevant gor old cars), Auto Trader and others, but their valuation was clearly spurious. They offer the lowest premiums to attract young drivers but cynically refuse to pay out properly, knowing that most will give up.

£3,200 for an almost 20 year old Polo? They saw your daughter coming!

Original poster
AdmiralScam · 30/04/2025 19:54

Look on Auto Trader

OP posts:
HugelyExpensiveCrystalDuck · 30/04/2025 20:01

AdmiralScam · 30/04/2025 19:53

Good. The point I guess is to ensure that you get the true market value, however old the car. You won't get anything close to reliable for less than £2.5-3k right now.

We just bought a 2016 Renault Zoe for £2500.

My insurance is with admiral and someone went in to the back of me at a roundabout and admiral were really good.

BeNiceWhenItsFinished · 30/04/2025 20:03

It's not just that insurer, they will all make the smallest offer they think they can possibly get away with at first. It is literally the loss adjuster's job to ensure that the payout costs the insurance company as little as possible.

It means refusing their first offer point blank, telling them the figure you are prepared to accept and why. Back it up with figures - attach screenshots of like-for-like replacement vehicles for sale showing price etc, and just badger away at them until they back down and cough up.

Threatening them with the ombudsman also helps.

PluckyBamboo · 30/04/2025 20:08

We were with Admiral when DH wrote our car off via black ice.

They paid out on the book price, no haggling required. This was our 1st claim on car insurance and I was surprised at how simple it was compared to what I was expecting.

Can you provide a link to the Ombudsman decision as it would be good to read the reported case?

PotteringAlonggotkickedoutandhadtoreregister · 30/04/2025 21:22

Admiral were excellent when someone drove into the back of me. I moved to a multi-car policy and stayed with them because of how excellent they were

eurochick · 01/05/2025 07:28

CozyCoupe · 30/04/2025 17:24

We had the opposite experience! Have had 2 claims with Admiral in the past couple years - one of over £35k (car was a write off) and they were incredibly quick, efficient and the claim was paid in just a week. We are on the platinum level policy, dint know if it makes any odds, but we've stayed with them because they were so good at sorting our claims.

We had a good experience with Admiral. We were burgled and had our car taken four days after we had bought it. They insisted on paying the guide price which was more than we had paid for it.

RedHelenB · 01/05/2025 07:37

MemorableTrenchcoat · 30/04/2025 19:53

£3,200 for an almost 20 year old Polo? They saw your daughter coming!

Show quote history

This. Had a quick Google and £2008 polo is under £2000

Jen579 · 01/05/2025 07:46

We had an awful time with Aviva, husband had taken the car to work the day before (50 mile round trip) and we were about to go to the airport (100 miles) when we were hit, just before a bend, on a narrow road by a transit van.

We were stationary and they weren't going that fast but our car wouldn't work properly afterwards and then started smoking. Aviva said they'd only pay for cosmetic damage as 'their engineer' had said the car couldn't have been working before the accident. This was complete bull shit.

Fortunately the other guy admitted liability or we'd have been screwed. I had no idea about the ombudsman and taking a claim there if they don't give you market value so that is really good to know. I would avoid shitty Aviva at all costs though.

HugelyExpensiveCrystalDuck · 01/05/2025 12:04

RedHelenB · 01/05/2025 07:37

This. Had a quick Google and £2008 polo is under £2000

Show quote history

Me too, the one on auto trader for £3200 is half the age of the OPs.

Original poster
AdmiralScam · 01/05/2025 14:48

You can find lots of cars at lots of different prices. The value is determined by the make, model, age, mileage and condition. The car in question was valued by Admiral at £2k. The evidence in the market was £3.2-4k. The Financial Ombudsman researched the value of the car and agreed that Admiral was undervaluing it. Admiral agreed to pay up. The point is that Admiral were deliberately undervaluing it as many insurance companies do and as BeNiceWhenItsFinished above confirms. If you are not bothered what the actual value of your car is when its written off that's fine, but £1k to a student is alot. Thank goodness that we have a Financial Ombudsman.

OP posts:
Original poster
AdmiralScam · 02/05/2025 10:50

The response hasn't been published on their site yet

OP posts:
RareGoalsVerge · 02/05/2025 10:56

AdmiralScam · 30/04/2025 19:37

I am glad your experience was positive. My daughter worked all summer last year to buy a 17 year old Polo for £3.2k, she is a student nurse and needs a car to get to placements, it was written off a month later by a third party driving into her. Admiral agreed the no-fault claim, while they waited for the third party's insurer to admit liability, but then refused to pay more than £2k, in spite of the evidence of the trade sales invoice and multiple examples of Polos of the same spec, age, mileage on sale on Auto Trader for £3.5-4k. The pricing on Auto Trader is competitive, which you will know if you have ever bought from there. Admiral say they use the Glasses Guide (irrelevant gor old cars), Auto Trader and others, but their valuation was clearly spurious. They offer the lowest premiums to attract young drivers but cynically refuse to pay out properly, knowing that most will give up.

The price that a 17 yo polo is for sale for is irrelevant. The market value that write-offs are insured for is the trade-in-value - ie if the crash hadn't happened, and she went to a 2nd hand car dealer today asking to buy a different used car, and had the previous car available to offer in part-exchange, how much would the trader buy the previous car for? This will obviously be significantly less than the £3.5=4k that the same car would be then sold for, because the insurance payout never covers the car dealer's profit-margin markup. It is possible to buy supplementary insurance which covers the difference between your insurer's write-off value vs the actual cost of replacement, but such policies are expensive.

Original poster
AdmiralScam · 02/05/2025 17:04

That's not correct, insurance is not set up on the basis that everyone trades in a car when selling it. It is the market value that one insures, the replacement value, as determined in this case by the Financial Ombudsman.

OP posts:
Hedjwitch · 02/05/2025 17:10

I am currently in the middle of a holiday insurance claim as my husband fell and broke his hip a week before we were due to leave. They are querying the hotel bookings as they are in my name,not his. I book.through Booking.com as I get a discount( use it for work). The bookings all say 2 people and are for double room,but in my name. I'm a bit worried they are going to be difficult about it.

DinoLil · 02/05/2025 17:11

@AdmiralScamBlimey! My current 17yr old car cost me £950 3yrs ago. It had a genuine 42k on the clock, one owner and a brand new MOT. I think you're looking in the wrong direction as to the scam.

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