credit card hire advice needed urgently

[MySereneGreyBear]

Hi, so I had an accident on 7th May. Phoned my insurance, other party has admitted fault and this is confirmed by my insurance company, 1st central. I have an email that confirms it.

It's been an absolute nightmare, I was passed onto a credit hire car company (enterprise). I was due to go to an appointment today but after reading horror stories I rang and cancelled as I didn't realize I could potentially end up in court or be liable for the cost if the 3rd party refuses to pay the fees. I am entitled to a courtesy car on my policy so I don't understand why this has been pushed on me and I'm now going to have to faff around on the phone again Monday to see if the garage that's apparently fixing my car on the 3rd of June (nearly a month after the accident) and even then it might be a write off, can give me a courtesy car (if it is fixable).

I was told I wouldn't need to pay the excess but now I'm worried they will expect it off me as I dont want to use the credit mamagent company. I wouldnt mind, the enterprise guy over the phone lied and said this car they were giving me was a courtesy car until I said well, actually it's not it's a credit agreement and I don't want that potentially back firing on me and then the cheeky shit said it would go against you if we're lieing about the accident!

Has anyone got experience with anything like this or advice? And has anyone dealt with 1st central as this is taking the piss the length of time it's taking just to get my car into a garage. Oh and I'm expected to drop the car off at the garage despite being told I wasn't allowed to drive it 😡.. surely if they give me a courtesy car they should take mine away.

My advice is to take the courtesy car from Enterprise. You know the other party has admitted liability so why do you think it wouldn't be covered?

I think you may have got the wrong end of the stick with Enterprise. But you'll need to phone the insurance company again to clarify how you're expected to get a wrecked vehicle to the garage (!) so you might as well re-check the courtesy car situation while you're speaking to them.

Sorry you're going through this, it does shake you up.

I've read horror stories about the third party disputing the costs and people ending up in court having to provide months of bank statements, prove why they needed the car etc. It totally put me off tbh, it seems like they try making money at you're expense and I just don't want the extra stress. I'd be quite happy with the courtesy car that I'm fully entitled too for free! It just seems like a way for them all to make money out of a bad situation, id probably dispute the cost if it was taking a garage 4 weeks to get it into even look at it too!

Yes that's exactly what I'm going to do. I think googling and looking what the credit hire company is, it just seems silly to potentially put myself in a worse off position when I'm entitled to a group A car provided for free by my insurer. I do think they should be sorting the car to be taken to the garage though. I recorded the car as drivable, they decided to change it, I'm assuming it's because they wanted to palm me off to this hire car company who charge the other party thousands of pounds for me to use a car.

Who passed you on to enterprise? In my experience that would be the courtesy car provided by your insurer but you seem to think these are 2 separate things. It’s not too clear who has put you in touch with enterprise though.

It was my insurance, however my insurance doesn't cover hire car cover, therefore they want me to sign a hire car agreement which if the third party refuses to pay it could potentially land on me to pay or go to court. A courtesy car is a group A small car like a small Kia, they basically said I could have similar to mine if I went down the hire car route and they'd recover the cost but should I need to appear in court i would have to work with them. I also don't have legal cover. It doesn't sit right with me having to take a bank card in for them to have a record of it, I shouldn't be out of pocket at all, I was not at fault.