To think this is ridiculous/unfair? (car accident related)

[ThreeJumpersIsNotEnough]

Last month, I was hit by another car. The other driver admitted fault in front of three independent witnesses. There was no doubt that I was not to blame.

My insurance company supplied me with a hire car, however, I cannot believe the amount of time and money this accident has cost me and it wasn't even my fault!

1. I had to take a half day annual leave to sort out my car getting to the garage and collecting the hire car.

1. I then paid £70 for an insurance excess waiver thingy on the hire car (not recoverable as this was non-compulsory)

1. I had to clean the hire car inside and out before taking it back to the hire place as I'd be charged if it was not in the same condition as when I received it

1. I had to take another half day annual leave to take back the hire car and collect my own car from the garage

1. I had to pay the £300 excess on my own insurance to the garage for the repairs. The law company I get through my insurance said they cannot work to reclaim this until I could send them proof of payment.

1. I have spent at least an hour on the phone in total sorting everything out (insurance, hire car, garage, law company who recover costs)

1. Yesterday, I received a 40 page document from the law company which I have to complete in order to reclaim my insurance excess. This will easily take me 90 minutes at least. Why? I have already given an in depth description to them and my insurance company via telephone. What was the point of doing that when a) i still had to pay the excess up front and b) they want it all written down anyway?

I am royally pissed off. Another driver makes a stupid mistake and I have to go through all this trouble to get my excess back and to restore my no claims discount.

AIBU to think that if the other driver is blatantly at fault - and admits so - the accident should be immediately recorded as non-fault (for the non-fault driver) and the NF driver shouldn't have to pay the excess?

I was hit this year by a company van, driver admitted fault as he was drinking from a can and didn't notice I had slowed down to get out past a cyclist until too late.
I managed to get home, called insurance. By the next day we had a hire car delivered and cash in account to cover car seat, no excess paid. They also offered numerous times money for any time off/inconvenience for me and for any injuries but thankfully there were none. Car collected on Monday and written off by the end of the week at a fair price. Money in account by following Monday and we were allowed to keep hire car for an extra week while we sorted new car.
Got a letter 2 weeks later saying driver had officially admitted fault and then a month or two later saying all had been settled. No change to no claims.
My renewal was up this year however my husband did a quote and then negotiated with our original insurance to lower to normal price.

I also think you have a bad company. I was hit by a truck, they left a note on the car. All I did was ring the insurance company and gave the other parties details. They did the rest, I dropped my car at the garage as it was driveable, took the hire car, and swapped them again a week later all done. No form filling, no hassle nothing. They would have brought the hire car to me but it would have taken a couple of days longer and I CBA. I think it was Arriva at the time.

I also didn't gave to pay an excess, they confirmed that on the one and only phone call and sent a follow up letter.

It seems like the £70 excess waiver thing is the only item you won't get back. The rest you will, so I'm not sure what the problem is. Of course you'd have to provide proof of payment of £300 to get that amount back!

Yes, you have to fill out forms, very tedious but normal with anything to be honest. Also taking the time off to collect cars etc, with all due respect that's hardly anyone's fault.

I've had a no fault of my own accident and I spent a hell of a lot more time than an hour on the phone. My car had £9,500 worth of damage, they wouldn't write it off, it cost me a far lot more than that. Unfortunately, that's life.

You only know how good an insurance company is when you have an accident. I've added all sorts of things to my policy. When I had the bad accident, I could only hire a car for something like 2 weeks... it took months to get the work done and I spent hours on the phone fighting it to get other party's insurance company to give me a hire car for longer. I make sure that's covered now. Also legal assistance should I need it.

I honestly don't think your experience sounds too bad. I was in an accident earlier this year, I was in a taxi so it was not possible to be at fault.
Despite not having seemingly bad injuries at the time I had to have four months off work, I am still in pain now and will continue to be so for the foreseeable future.

The driver responsible gave a false name and address to the DVLA. So despite me being able to get independent evidence, two independent witnesses, dash can footage etc. The Police have been dreadful and I have to go through the process with the MIB.
This was not in any way my fault but I have lost thousands, come very close to losing my job and it has put endless stress on my relationship.

Things could have been a lot worse OP.

Poor insurance.

We got hit yesterday (everyone ok, car still driveable, but two panels wrecked.)

The garage is going to pick up, fix and return our car at a convenient time and location. When that goes, we will have a hire car dropped off and collected at a convenient time and location (£50 excess only if he trash it.)
We are getting vouchers to replace our car seat.

The costs will be recovered from the other side (a taxi firm who are trying to pressure us to do it off the books 🙄)

The form and missing time off work would particularly piss me off!

If the other driver was at fault you should have been claiming against their insurance not your own.

I was exceptionally lucky when I was hit by a white van man looking at his phone.

Turned out we were both insured by the same company so I didn't have to pay anything. You do say that the excess you paid on your hire car was voluntary too.

Having your car damaged is a pain. It’s inconvenient, time consuming and there can be costs involved that you don’t get back for ages.

I use a third party accident management law firm now and it made it so much better. We live on country lanes and town drivers often don’t realise the risks of driving excessively fast on our narrow, twisty roads - our ring mirrors suffer!

The insurance business needs a good shake up. They are slow, and wouldn't know customer focus if it slapped them in the face!
Too much small print and paying up
Front then having to claim back.
This pisses me off A LOT. People behind the scenes work bloody hard to get through the work load. And their hard work and what you call slowness bht what is actually vigilence is what means your premium doesnt sky rocket year on year. Sorry OP but from what youve described, youve had the easiest ride in terms of a non fault accident. Thank your lucky stars your did sustain life changing injurys that meant you had to wait for years of investigation before getting the compensation which would pay for the adaptations to your house now you have one less limb. Just an example.
Some people will find anything to moan about

Thanks all. Good to rant. Seems like it varies enormously. My insurance is one of Tesco's underwriters. Couldn't claim against the other drivers as she was a named driver on her dad's policy (and she didn't know who her dad was insured with). So I left it to my own insurance to investigate. Sorry to hear about everyone else's losses!

I had a load of mither sorting mine out when a young learner on a motorbike was driving down the middle of 2 lanes of traffic at speed and a pedestrian crossed between cars in front of him so he went into my car sidewards luckily he was fine and accepted liability but it was a pain sorting it all, they did however collect my car and drop the hire car off and then bring it back

Couldn't claim against the other drivers as she was a named driver on her dad's policy (and she didn't know who her dad was insured with).

That's ridiculous. Of course you could. As if she couldn't find out who the insurer was. I hope you had her reg number and it was checked out?

So I left it to my own insurance to investigate.

And this is why you ended up with all the complaints you have listed. Had you claimed through the fault cars insurer, you would not have had that hassle or costs.

I'm sorry this happened, but your decision to claim against t your own insurance is what led you to all the problems.

I have two non fault incidents (hit in rear & hit whilst parked) in recent years. Both occasions I was looked after very well by the third party insurance companies.

However, what I find very unfair is when I've declared these incidents on renewal my own insurance has gone up by 25 percent, despite my NCD not been affected.

You’re statistically a much higher risk for making a fault claim now. Higher risk = higher premium. 50% off ahigher premium = higher price.

And was there a reason why she couldn't get in touch with her Dad, get the policy details and pass them on to you? The whole point of her being named on his insurance is so that she is insured!! If she wasn't able to exchange her details, you should have contacted 101 and logged it, with a note of her reg number. That way there is something to pass on to your insurer - as they can then get in touch with the police and request a MID check, which would provide the details of her Dad's insurance.

Sounds like you have been sold a crock of bullshit to me, and if they can't verify the other driver and have no details to go on then it will be treated as a claim where you are at fault - because you can't prove otherwise. However it's probably a bit late in the day to try and do anything now.

And this is why you ended up with all the complaints you have listed. Had you claimed through the fault cars insurer, you would not have had that hassle or costs.

I disagree with this - I've posted my own experience earlier in the thread.

The OP's problem is largely caused by the fact that her insurer appears to be having trouble trying to get to the bottom of who was at fault - which has been exacerbated by the fact that the other driver did not give their insurance details. This makes it easy for them to deny it after the fact - and then you are stuck unless you have witnesses, CCTV or dashcam footage.

In addition to this, the key to good claims service is having a good insurer. More often than not it means not paying the cheapest possible premium, because you get what you pay for. And as PP have said, the extras on your policy - courtesy cars, legal cover etc - can be very valuable in circumstances such as this.

Having had the experience of going via the other side's insurer, and then having claimed from my own and them pursuing the other side for costs, I would always go via my own insurer.

Oh yes,been there and done that,YANBU.

Some careless person damages your car and suddenly you have to engage with a process that causes you expense and hassle.

The last time i had my car damaged by some careless imbecile who rear ended me at a red light,, he thought he was so cock sure but having gathered lots of knowledge about how car insurance works, i fried his ass big time and the whole claim was a rewarding experience for me.

You need "askMiD"
www.mib.org.uk/managing-insurance-data/the-motor-insurance-database-mid/public-access/

This checks all the insurance details of a vehicle.
You sometimes have to pay but their a free mobile version and you can also check your "own" vehicle.

Some idiot hit my brand new car in a Tesco car park last year and drove off. Luckily, two independent witnesses found me (via the tannoy) and shared the reg number. I checked askMID and found his insurer and make a claim directly on his policy. He must have got a surprise when his insurer contacted him and he admitted full liability. No excess for me to pay

resistance. Your experience is just that though, your experience. It's not typical of every insurance claim.

OP was complaining about having to pay her excess. Had she gone through the other party insurance she would not be paying her company an excess. So yes it was caused by the decision to claim on their own insurance.

As above, i dealt direct with the third party insurers and had a very positive experience. They wanted to help because they are worried about you going to some shyster claims handling company.

Emp I work in the industry have done for over 20 years. Sadly OP's experience is not uncommon. The customer experience is very much dictated by the company you're insured with.

you choose the insurance company and policy, yabu

Correct answer.

Plus, you decided to take a policy with a £300 xs in order to keep your premiums low. So don't complain that you now have a £300 xs to pay and recover.

Most people buy insurance solely on price, without any consideration for the reputation or quality of the company or the service provided.

Basically, you went into Greggs, and now you're moaning it's not like The Savoy.

The customer experience is very much dictated by the company you're insured with.

Indeed. However this isn't about who the OP chose to be insured with, not is it about the policy type they chose. OP made a conscious decision to claim against her own insurance, for whatever reason, rather than the insurance of the person at fault. That and that alone led to the problems OP has outlined.

I hit someone. My fault entirely and freely admitted. I put a note on the car with my name, address, insurer etc. and asked them to contact me. I thought it would be better for me just to pay for the damage, but the other driver went to their insurer, who sent me threatening letters (why? I admitted it and gave my insurance details!) anyway my insurance company told me they'd sort it and not to worry. And they did: they told me that the claim was sorted by the other drivers insurance! I felt so sorry for her. She'd have had excess and probably been penalised in future renewal premiums. Mine went up by about £20 the next year.
If she'd contacted me I'd have paid and no one's insurance would have been compromised.

This is why I no longer just go for the cheapest insurance quote. Had a real ballache a few years ago when I pranged a parked car in a car park, obviously admitted fault immediately, and it took months and months and months, and the other party threatening small claims court, for my insurance company (a small, cheap company) to pay up.

My Mum was with Admiral when she backed into my car and wrecked the tailgate. Within a week Admiral had arranged for my car to be collected from my office and a hire car dropped off, repairs done within a fortnight and my car dropped back off to my office and the hire car picked up. Totally easy, no fuss, and I didn't pay a penny. I now always pay a bit extra to insure through a decent company.

It could be worse. I was in a car accident 8 months ago that was not my fault. I sustained a back injury and I'm still in agony. I've just got out of hospital after having a procedure that will hopefully reduce the pain but I've been told it will probably be an ongoing problem.
It's having a huge impact on my quality of life at the moment.