Insurers ...why do they never pay out at the insured value?

[Gkinghorn]

One for our insurer supporters here. Love to hear their formal response to this.

I buy a car from a dealer , say at £25k. I fill in the insurers form saying value of car is 25k and my premium takes into account it's that figure...I drive out of the showroom , have it a week , write it off and my insurer offers me ,at a guess ,22k max for it. They would never offer me the 25k would they?

They offer that because that's the Glazs's price for it I guess yet you actually cannot buy the same spec for that amount anywhere.

This is the sole reason GAP insurance had taken off because insurers do not pay out the full amount due.but if this is a legal contract how do they get away with it....

 

[television]

Playing the waiting game the gap insureres probably only ever pay out on half of the claims

 

[cleverdicky]

Because they are thieving scum.
And would rather sit on their fat behinds in front of a pc screen than do a real days work.

Whenever I renew my insurance and they ask ME what i consider its value is, I tell them I dont know but what ever they consider its market value is.

This puts them on the back foot rather. Because they cant then say my estimate differs from the market value, and have to quote based on the market value.

And if they do value it at renewal time at 'market value' they cant then very well say its less/ different if / when they might have to pay out.

Not sure it would work, and hope never to find out.
But based on a claim once that was no fault of mine they will try and screw you any legal way they can.

 

[whitenemesis]

Pretty sure the only way to get what you consider correct is to go for an "agreed value" policy?

 

[television]

Pretty sure the only way to get what you consider correct is to go for an "agreed value" policy?

Sounds good to me How does this work then, I buy a car for £30k and insure it on an agreed policy for that. 4 years later the car is a write off, are they going to pay out that £30k or is it reviewed every year.

 

[Philedge]

A few years back my wife claimed from Tesco for a written off honda jazz. As the car was in daily use it had dog hair in the boot and the "normal" dirt/litter you get in a daily run around. It also had a shallow dent in one of the rear doors.

Tesco made a pittance of an offer and they were told to shove it. They massively undervalued the car. They made an excessive deduction for the grot in the car which could have been vacuumed in 15 mins. And they massively over estimated the cost of repairing the door. In the process of fighting this, I got the breakdown for the door repair and they were deducting more for the parts than the Honda list price!!!!!

After a couple of months battle I got a 20% hike in the offer which was still £500-£1000 less than a like for like replacement!

Learning point 1- Dont insure with Tesco.

Learning point 2- If you have a crash likely to write your car off, have it recovered home then valet it and do any repairs before it gets taken away to the repairers/assessors

Learning point 3- "Market value" is what it costs to replace the car in your area- fight for a fair valuation.

 

[Gkinghorn]

Our insurance supporters seem quiet?

Sent from my GT-N5110 using Tapatalk 4

 

[Gkinghorn]

Sounds good to me How does this work then, I buy a car for £30k and insure it on an agreed policy for that. 4 years later the car is a write off, are they going to pay out that £30k or is it reviewed every year.

I think that's what gap insurance can do as well?

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[EmilysDad]

.... have it recovered home then valet it and do any repairs before it gets taken away to the repairers/assessors .....

From experience I'd get the car home anyway & then have it assessed there. Years ago, EmilysMum's car was side swiped by a skip wagon, it was still quite usable, albeit a little battered on the offside. It went to a huge insurance yard in Trafford Park to be assessed, it sat there, & sat there, & sat there for weeks while it was waiting. In that time it gained extra dents on it in various places from what I reckon was the yard's mobile jump-start battery. And then it was written off. Too many parties are making money out of hire car charges, storage charges & inflated repair prices when they know an insurance company is paying.
I had a scooter nicked, & when it was found it was recovered to a local yard. Insurance wanted it recovered then to 'their' yard miles away in Preston, they were miffed when I told them it was going to live in MY garage till they'd sorted the claim out & it could go to my repairers.

 

[television]

Our insurance supporters seem quiet?

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They all earn so much money they do not work on fridays

 

[EmilysDad]

.... they do not work on fridays

POETS day

 

[Naraic]

POETS day

Indeed...works for me.

 

[geraldrobins]

In defence of Tesco, although this is only my experience, 'we' had a small coming together last year, 'our fault' and Tesco dealt with the claim and repairs to both cars, and provided courtesy cars etc, in a very efficient manner.

 

[Philedge]

In defence of Tesco, although this is only my experience, 'we' had a small coming together last year, 'our fault' and Tesco dealt with the claim and repairs to both cars, and provided courtesy cars etc, in a very efficient manner.

But they were'nt paying you off in settlement of a claim. In your case, who knows how they dealt with the other party or the hire car provider.

Their claims handling company were a disgrace. When I raised the issue of deducting more than the list price for repair parts they just said tough and changed the subject. They valued the car at the lowest possible price they could find and initially made no allowance for the low mileage. Total sharks.

 

[Terrycufc]

I have wondered why car insurers don't operate in the same way as some home contents insurers where the insurance company supplies the item being claimed for.
Perhaps we should reject any money offer and just ask the insurance company to supply a car of same spec/age/mileage etc as the one written off.
With their buying power the insurance company could probably buy the £25k car for £20k anyway, give it to the customer who is then happy, and the insurance company is better off having shelled out less.
This would work with most standard cars.

terry

 

[davemercedes]

Rules of Engagement

With pension funds and life insurance it's simple - you are betting the insurer you will live long enough to collect more than the value of your payments plus the profits they made and in turn they are betting you'll snuff it first.

With motor insurance it's very different but they hold all the cards. First they want to know what it's value is but they also ask what you paid for it - so you can't really say it's worth more even if you got a crazy bargain. Then in the small print it says they will only pay the market value at the time of write-off (so what was the point of asking the value/price paid in the first place?).

Regarding parts and repairs they will tell you that you are insured to have the vehicle returned to the condition it was in before the accident... but then when the crunch comes (no pun intended!) they decide that's too expensive and they play the "beyond economical repair" joker. And they stick to this even when you are not at fault - because the insurance companies all stick together. A bit like bankers. Oh, maybe that's why they're all in financial services....

 

[lwbnick]

Because they are thieving scum.
And would rather sit on their fat behinds in front of a pc screen than do a real days work.

Do you work down a mine or at a shipyard?

 

[cleverdicky]

Do you work down a mine or at a shipyard?

No, strangely

 

[lwbnick]

No, strangely

About time you did, do a real days work...

 

[brandwooddixon]

It is occasionally possible, but rare to get a proper price.

I do know someone who had an agreed value on a Cobra replica, but had to fight pretty hard to get it paid out when it was involved in a smash. Funnily enough, he saw it for sale a few weeks later for spares or repair, even though they had written it off previously!

I certainly think that car insurers should be made to provide you with a replacement vehicle, of the same specification, condition and age rather than just the cash and has been said why bother asking for an estimate of its value if they know that they wont honour it.