Credit hire nightmare

[Worriedwendywon]

So I just added this for advice on another post but I'm super panicked about it so thought I'd start my own thread in the hope of advice.

We had someone reverse into my car, while it was parked on my driveway. A neighbour was having work done and one of their builders witnessed it. I called my insurance company (or maybe I didn't?) And they either put my in touch with the claim management or there was another number on Google that came up in place of my insurance company and they pretended to be them. Either way I ended up with a CMC somehow, without actually realising. I thought I was getting a courtesy car because I have that on my policy and it was implied that is what I was getting. I did sign the forms. Obviously I wish I'd read the small print! Once they had my car, the CMC basically did everything in their power to maximize costs. I was chasing every week to get my car back and was told there were no garages with availability anywhere. They ended up having my car for 4 months, didn't even fix it, as they said they were getting nowhere with 3rd party so returned it to me still broken. I managed to get it fixed myself within 5 days so the 4 months was absolutely just a con. Also when my car came back it was absolutely riddled with mould internally, despite them billing over £4k for "secure climate controlled storage" anyway after hearing nothing since I returned the hire car 4 months ago, I just had a call today to say they are referring me to a solicitor to take on "my" case against the 3rd party to try and reclaim the over £18,000 worth of costs. It's insane. The actual cost of repair was about £280 in all and took me 5 days to sort once I got my car back. I absolutely would NOT have agreed to any of this if I'd understood what I was getting into. But once they have your car they start using intimidation techniques, like saying if I demand my car back (which I tried to do after about a month), then it could be stated in court that I hadn't actually NEEDED a hire car in the first place, so would have to pay the costs myself. Also I shouldn't speak to 3rd party if they try and contact me as that is being uncooperative. With hindsight this is obviously because HAD I spoken to 3rd party they'd have leant me a car for a few days and saved thousands. What do I do? Will I have to pay it all? I do have emails from the CMC saying as long as I haven't committed fraud (obviously I haven't) and I cooperate I won't be personally liable but honestly I don't even want ANYONE even 3rd party to have to pay these scam costs. It's practice like this that means everyone's policy is way more expensive than it should be.

The other thing I'm worried about is they said on the phone I'd likely have to provide bank statements to show I couldn't have afforded to hire a car at regular daily rates. But honestly I COULD have done. If it had been for a week or 2 at regular car hire rates like when you're on holiday, but I didn't understand what I was getting into. I would 100% have just done that otherwise and try and claim it back later.

How can these companies get away with this? The lies (well not exactly lies, but certainly they imply the situation is different to what it is), the intimidation, the deliberate stringing out to maximise costs? I mean obviously I should have read all the small print and I'm kicking myself now, but I'm not in the industry and I don't have a legal brain. I'm just a regular person who fell for a scam. Will a judge see that? Or is it literally just "you signed it, you pay it" even when I tried my absolute best to end it as quickly as possible once I understood.

At the absolute least I can't be liable for storage can I? When they gave it back completely mouldy? (I do have photographic evidence of that and email chains where they admitted it and agreed to pay my valet cost of £100)

If you got this far then thank you!!

I'm so scared 🙁

I just wanted to offer my solidarity here
I fell for the same thing
I googled my car insurance company, it came up with their number
I added the word 'claim' to the search and it came up with the scammers instead
I was vulnerable and shaky, it an easy mistake to make. They also only do this for phone searches (not pc or tablet searches) again looking for vulnerable roadside people after an accident

Partly lucky for me. I realised within the 2 week credit hire period and cancelled the contract and my original insurers They still charges me for non required storage (I thought this was whilst they repaired my car, as for others they did nothing) and refused to give my car back, lying to my insurers as to where it was
Such a lot of stress, at a time when my mum was seriously ill
They didn't collect the car for weeks but still are claiming for the extended period after I cancelled the contract. They really are scum

I have trashed them on trust pilot, LinkedIn, Google reviews, Facebook. Continually. And by them I mean the original company I contacted, the legal firm they hide behind ( they really hate this) and the company they passed me on to. I use friends accounts to add more comments. Find the people at the top and name them

I have reported them to regulators ( legal and financial) and fraud report

This may not achieve change for me, bu if it annoys them and takes up their time it's good for me

I am happy to name names, or if anyone wants to DM me I will discuss directly

You really have my sympathies

This really boils my piss, we pay FAR too much for insurance because of chancers like this. I'm insured with admiral and a lorry hit my car.
First admiral put me into the CMC as the only way I'd get my large excess back, but I cancelled that when I ended up talking to who knows what company who seemed mostly interested in getting me a courtesy car I didn't want and who sent me the credit hire agreement. I was not willing to do anything with the word "credit" in it.
I asked admiral to handle my claim as they were my insurer. Firstly they said they wouldn't recover my excess and couldn't give a decent answer as to why the fuck they wouldn't just pass on the full cost of repair, then they lost the admission of liability by the other insurer (I had a copy myself) so I would have had to pay for the inflated repair cost at the approved repaired then wait for them to Fanny about before I got any money back.
I then contacted the other insurance Co (of the lorry) and between us we arranged a repair very quickly that didn't cost me a penny.

Moral of the story, always go the the insurance company of the party at fault when there is no grounds for doubt of whose fault it is. The fewer companies involved, the fewer crooks with their fingers in the pie

Thank you @GrumpyMenopausalWombWielder .
That's reassuring to read.

Sorry, I didn't get notifications of replies to this.

As Sleep says, it's about taking advantage of someone in a high stress situation who isn't fully focused on the minutiae of the conversation. People in shock after an accident don't process things the same way you would normally do in any given situation.

I've worked in insurance for about 30 years & even with all I know about what you're supposed to do after an accident, the only thing in my mind was to get the other person's reg number because everything else can be traced from that. So when I was trying to get the person who hit the back of my car to pay the damage, I wasn't believed because I didn't take her name, only her number at the accident scene.

These scam companies are set up to be helpful & sort everything out for you, which is exactly what you are looking for on a dark wet night stuck at the side of a road miles from home etc.

It's easily done as they know ow exactly how distracted people are immediately after an accident & that's how they get away with it often.

San happ Ned to me about 5 years ago. Refused to sign the credit agreement. I was insulted and the rest.

Called the other party insurance company, told them I had a quote half the price of what the other company had suggested. They agreed to get in contact directly with them and paid them directly. It was so much quicker too.

Since then, I pay more for an insurer who don't use such arrangements.

@Worriedwendywon

Hi! My daughter had a similar incident. A neighbour backed into her car and admitted liability. Somehow, she got embroiled with a CMC and is now being asked to agree that the CMC's solicitors should try to recover costs for the hire car and repairs 'on her behalf'. I won't go into it in detail, suffice it to say that my daughter's experience is virtually identical to yours, apart from the fact that her car was repaired and not kept for any length of time in storage. I was interested to know what the current position is with you. I don't think there's been an update from you. Apologies if I missed it. Having now looked into Credit Hire (as many of the correspondents on this thread have) I can only sympathise with you. This is sharp practice and (as sleepwouldbenice said) 'it's about taking advantage of someone in a high stress situation who isn't fully focused on the minutiae of the conversation'. I couldn't have put it better myself.

There isn't much to report from me really. I got a phone call from the credit hire people back in June, saying that it was being passed to their solicitors on my behalf
They asked on the same call whether I could have afforded to hire a car at spot rates, to which I told them that yes I could have. And nothing since. I'm hoping they've dropped it because I could and would have just hired a car if I'd have not been hoodwinked by them in the first place. And they can't outright ask me to lie in court. So I guess if it did go to court they'd be shown to have taken advantage. Or at least that's what I'm hoping.
Hope your daughter doesn't have too much stress with it. It's such a scam. I honestly don't understand how these companies don't get shut down.

@Worriedwendywon

Might I add that the insurance company, credit management company, and solicitor involved all belong to the same group, based is south Yorkshire. The harassment and outright 'bullying' by the CMC and solicitor in particular, has been breath taking.

@Worriedwendywon

Thanks for your prompt reply. My reading of the situation is that if she is not 'co-operative', things could get nasty, even though her only mistake was to be duped by these so-called professionals. Hope all goes well with you, too.

Yes you have to cooperate but I think that just means stuff like providing information when requested. You can't be legally asked to lie in court, surely?

@Worriedwendywon

Absolutely. You are not at fault. Neither is my daughter. In my research, I read the following from a lawyer: "The reality is that if an insurer thinks that you are not at fault for the accident, then they may put you in touch with, or arrange for you to be contacted by, a claims management company or credit hire company offering credit hire instead". It's all a nice, cosy arrangement with no thought for the anxiety it can cause for the innocent party.

I had this as well
Storage company who weren't necessary ( as they weren't repairing my car) trading company and legal company all connected through directors
I trashed them all on Google, LinkedIn, trust pilot , named the directors publically, took up lots of their time
It made me happier anyway

Hi I'm the victim if the same scam can anyone offer me advice how to deal with them please.. thanks

Hi, do you have any details on what’s happened? I’d recommend speaking to your own ins co & asking them to refer the case to their fraud team to review. Beyond that, without specifics, it’s hard to give advice.

When did it happen? Do your insurance company know? How long have you had the hire car?

I had a crash early January, I phoned them up immediately thinking they were my insurance company after a google search, they came collected my vehicle and gave me a hire car all within 24 hours after i signed the agreement. 1 week later my insurance company call me up and ask why I haven't got in contact with them. I call up the accident management company and they convince me to stay with them as there will be no charge . I manage to return the vehicle after 3 weeks and after 2 months get them to release my car only after I agreed to make a claim on my insurance who came and collected it yesterday.. My insurance company said they was no charge but after reading reviews i fear they'll come after me...

It happened in January, and I had the hire car for 3 weeks but they kept my car in storage for 2 months only releasing it to my insurance company after I had to make a claim on my own policy.

Not dissimilar to me
Horrible isn't it
In my case I just about cancelled hire car within the 2 week period when I got uncomfortable about them asking for bank information and realised they my error and they weren't connected to my insurance company
My proper insurance company dealt with getting my car back and sorted repair and pick up. But I had to pay the original sods for storage, which I realised hadn't been necessary as they hadn't been doing much about getting the car repaired... they even lied about where my car was kept....
Where are you based? Mine were companies in Manchester

Thanks for the additional details.

i don’t know what your insurance co did, but I'm confident they company won’t come after you for any costs. I’m assuming that your insurance co were able to determine from their initial & subsequent contact that you’d been scammed by the Google ad scam, and therefore were able to take over the management of your claim on the basis the misrepresentation by the scammers isn’t a basis for them to have any claim against you for hire cost or storage etc.

Entering into a credit agreement, as they managed to get you to do by posing as your ins co, it needs to be based on clear & transparent information - you need to have a clear understanding of what you were signing, and they can’t prove you did as their contact includes scamming you into thinking you were dealing with your insurer. They were not honest about who they were, and duped you.

I am not a lawyer & if you have concerns, it would be worth speaking to your insurer to get some reassurance if you need it. But if they attempted to claim the hire cost or storage charges off the back of what has happened, I don’t believe they’d have a leg to stand on. If you receive anything from them, or any legal co appointed, pass it immediately onto your ins co.

I hope that helps, but please do speak to your insurer co if you are worried. They can explain what happened their end, and their thoughts on any attempt to get hire or storage costs from you.

the fact your ins co managed to get the car back from them without paying any charges suggests to me that legal pressure that referenced the scam/duping you when they took possession of your car was what resulted in the release of the car with no charges.

Your ins co usually has a legal advice dept that you can speak to, if you need some specific legal advice. Have a look at your policy booklet for a contact number & phone them, if you still need specific legal advice.

They're based in London, why did you pay for the storage charge? They released my car to my to my insurance company and said no charge to them. But maybe ill get it...

I refused to give access to my bank accounts.

didn't they try and send you to court ?

No. My case was slightly different. The other party’s insurers wouldn’t reply to my insurers, even after the hire car was returned.

I refused to give my bank details on the basis that it was a joint account, and therefore, I was not prepared to share details that belonged to someone else.

A couple of weeks later, (over a year after the collision), I had a letter saying that the costs had been settled.

The scammers refused to give my car back, even lied about the address more than once, unless someone settled the storage costs, so we had to as our insurers wouldn't
Needless to say, when you look at who the directors are via companies house, it was the same people as the directors of the scammers.

In terms of liability, the 3rd party paid for the brief hire car. The scammers even managed to get money off the 3rd party for a repair estimate. The 3rd party then didn't want to pay "again" fir the repair so my insurers had to force the scammers to repay that bit

And we wonder why car insurance costs a fortune!

I do agree you probably won't be taken to court. But don't forget the scammers present things differently. They say you know who you were ringing and they did nothing wrong. All crap of course, they deliberately get you when you are mentally shaken from an accident, the Google search issue only comes up on mobile phones for example as you are more likely to be vulnerable after the accident

I have seen the odd consumer program about this but I do wish someone would really sort it out. It's really unscrupulous and costs us all money.

I also had lots of battles about the online reviews I did. I reviewed the legal firm that was hiding behind the scam company and specifically mentioned the partners. They were furious but I was able to keep the review up. Luckily I was off work at the time so I had the time to fight

was you ordered to pay anything ?