Insurance Chancers

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Harrythedog

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My son hit another vehicle last week and I've now recieved a letter from the drivers solicitors claiming for personal injury and the fact the car is now a write off ( 02 plate Galaxy). See picture below.
Never have I put a letter in the bin so quick. No wonder insurance premiums are soaring and my insurance company doesn't appear to be bothered.
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Those Galaxy bumpers are astronomy-cally expensive.

Sorry, couldn't stop myself. :D
 
Unfortunately of all the cars he had to hit this one is a Taxi!. Incidently does anyone know a what impact speed does an airbag deploy?
 
Never have I put a letter in the bin so quick.

I hope you didn't do that, and did in fact have your son forward it to his insurance company?
 
The thing with personal injury claims particularly motor vehicle accidents is that people claim to have a whiplash injury, when they are true then there is no problem. However it is very difficult for a doctor to prove that a whiplash injury hasn't happened. You can sleep funny and give yourself the same symptoms as that type of injury. Hence the insurers will pay out as they cannot prove otherwise. Because it is so easy to claim thousands with this type of injury the insurers cover themselves with increased premiums.
 
I hope you didn't do that, and did in fact have your son forward it to his insurance company?


No I put it in the bin. I informed my insurance company about the letter and they told me to ignore it and only to give the third party details of my insurance which I had done.
 
The thing with personal injury claims particularly motor vehicle accidents is that people claim to have a whiplash injury, when they are true then there is no problem. However it is very difficult for a doctor to prove that a whiplash injury hasn't happened. You can sleep funny and give yourself the same symptoms as that type of injury. Hence the insurers will pay out as they cannot prove otherwise. Because it is so easy to claim thousands with this type of injury the insurers cover themselves with increased premiums.

Quite understand that but I think a write-off is stretching it a bit
 
Indeed. My other half slipped into the car in front of her at a junction, we suffered a scratched bumper and the other party the same (or so we thought). The other driver was a kind elderly lady who we later learnt lived in the vicinity.

No so. First she called us to say that we will need to notify our insurance because the garage said that 'the damage is about £4k'. This is on an old Peugeot... a couple of weeks later we received a 'courtesy call' from our insurer informing us that the lady has put in a claim for 'personal injury'.

It seems that there are looters in all walks of life, only the manifestation is different...
 
Indeed. My other half slipped into the car in front of her at a junction, we suffered a scratched bumper and the other party the same (or so we thought). The other driver was a kind elderly lady who we later learnt lived in the vicinity.

No so. First she called us to say that we will need to notify our insurance because the garage said that 'the damage is about £4k'. This is on an old Peugeot... a couple of weeks later we received a 'courtesy call' from our insurer informing us that the lady has put in a claim for 'personal injury'.

It seems that there are looters in all walks of life, only the manifestation is different...


Agreed Markjay.
Insurance companies must see it as an easy option just to pay up rather than fight a case and pass on the cost to the motorist. Perhaps if the Insurance companies actually fought some of these claims and won then the costs incurred by these ambulance chasers might make them think twice or better still put a few of them out of business.
 
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Agreed Markjay.
Insurance companies must see it as an easy option just to pay up rather than fight a case and pass on the cost to the motorist. Perhaps if the Insurance companies actually fought some of these claims and won then the costs incurred by these ambulance chasers might make them think twice or better still put a few of them out of business.


This they will not do. In fact, if you are third party to an incident, insurers today pay small claims very very quickly in order to prevent intervention of 'accident management' companies.

Some years ago my wife's car was hit, the other driver accepted responsibility, his insurer called us immediately, and the car went to the main dealer for repair. While at the main dealer, I was 'kindly' offered by the main dealer the assistance of an accident management company, which I naively accepted. I was told I had nothing to worry about as all the cots will be paid be claimed off the insurer directly by the accident management company. We were provided with a hire vehicle identical to our own, and were allowed to keep it for a number of weeks while our own car was awaiting some parts which were apparently in short supply.

A few weeks later we received phone calls and a letter from the accident management company. Basically, they said that the insurer refused to pay them, telling them that their claim does not tally with what we told the insurer over the phone, and while the insurer had the transcription of the phone call they could not provide a copy to the accident management company due to data protection act.

The accident management company then asked us to provide them with written permission to receive a copy of the transcripts from the insurer. I wrote to them saying that firstly I would like them to confirm to me in writing what I was told when collecting the hire vehicle, i.e. that under no circumstances they will ask me for payment.

They refused, and after several more letters I wrote to them saying that I do not expect to hear from them again.

The point is that an entire industry seems to have sprung up behind insurance claims, from 'accident management' companies whose sole purpose is to extract as much money as possible from the insurer, through bogus 'personal injury' claims and 'ambulance chaser' solicitors, all being fed from our premiums that keep going up.
 
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It is very important that whenever we involved in an accident, make sure we take as much pics as we could of the damages, to stop people taking the mick! :devil:
 
It is very important that whenever we involved in an accident, make sure we take as much pics as we could of the damages, to stop people taking the mick! :devil:

You can take pics of the bumper, but you can't take X-Ray of their spine...:crazy:
 
You can take pics of the bumper, but you can't take X-Ray of their spine...:crazy:
Yes I know, but at least it could stop some people trying to put a claim in for the actual damage plus a bare metal respray for the whole car :rolleyes: :doh:
 
Update;
Had a call from my insurers this afternoon and while they accept liability for the collison they are questioning the amount of damages claimed. They've asked for the photos we took, something they weren't interested in a week ago so hope springs eternal!
 
No I put it in the bin. I informed my insurance company about the letter and they told me to ignore it and only to give the third party details of my insurance which I had done.

Fair enough. You didn't mention the second bit in your original post.

Bear in mind that if the 3rd party fails to get satisfaction from your sons insurer then they may well come after him directly.

The claims management industry has been fueled to a large extent by insurance companies themseves. Admiral group even claim that commission from referrals to AM's helps keep their customers premiums down.
 
Fair enough. You didn't mention the second bit in your original post.

Bear in mind that if the 3rd party fails to get satisfaction from your sons insurer then they may well come after him directly.

The claims management industry has been fueled to a large extent by insurance companies themseves. Admiral group even claim that commission from referrals to AM's helps keep their customers premiums down.

I put it in the bin before I rang the insurance company. I phoned them out of courtesy to warn them of what was coming. The third party was given all my insurance details so that was end of our acquaintance as far as I was concerned.
Some information should anyone have a similar experience. The solicitors sent a form with a number of questions on it, at the bottom of the page there was a section for me to sign but above that was a line stating that I was at fault for the accident!
 

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