Claims management companies

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Wed 26 Mar 2025 19:29
Claims management companies - Steveieb

Tonight’s Watchdog highlighted claimants been told to contact the phone number on their policy by , in these cases their broker.

Ended up racking huge bills for car hire which had to be claimed back from the guilty party.

Trying to cancel the claim ended up with a similar big bill.

So is this procedure common in the car insurance world or restricted to policies taken out through brokers ?

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Wed 26 Mar 2025 21:08
Claims management companies - daveyjp

It has been the case for decades that if you have an accident your insurance company will very likely pass you to a claims (mis) management company.

I avoid them like the plague after a neighbour ran into my wife's car and the claims company quoted over £2,000 for a repair (plus car hire etc) - this was almost 20 years ago. As soon as we said we didn't need a hire car the claims company simply weren't interested in dealing with us, so I sorted it myself at a local body shop - £240 of work invoiced direct to the third party insurer.

They are one reason so many cars are written off. Damage may be light, but their repair costs will be high, add in two weeks of car hire at inflated prices and the claim costs balloon.

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Wed 26 Mar 2025 22:26
Claims management companies - Marlin1

I avoid them like the plague

A good policy.

I have had business dealings with claims management companies / credit hire companies over 30 years in business and there are some good companies and some charlatans.

They are all expensive. Mainly because they front the money upfront to hire the vehicles (they buy most of them). This is interest free to the user so the cost has to be born by the 3rd party.

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Thu 27 Mar 2025 07:35
Claims management companies - Steveieb

Is there any way of telling whether you are dealing with the insurance company direct or a claims management company?

In the case of the Watchdog investigation all the motorists involved thought they were dealing with the insurance company where they were given the contact details of a claims management company.

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Thu 27 Mar 2025 09:32
Claims management companies - FoxyJukebox
If the car is seriously damaged-then of course “make a claim”. If it’s minor damage or purely cosmetic-then it’s more economical to pay for it yourself.
Plus-you’re not “ making play” with a no claims bonus.
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Thu 27 Mar 2025 17:13
Claims management companies - davecooper

Interestingly, I was directed to a claims management company by the manufacturer themselves via their "who to contact in the event of an accident" literature with the car. The only thing that was good about the experience was that the repair was done very well considering the amount of damage. Apart from this it was a disaster. No one could decide who was supposed to be picking up the damaged car, the courtesy car was a saga and whoever valeted the car after the repair did more harm than good. It also came back with some electrical issues that eventually made me get rid of the car.

My insurer Direct Line subsequently told me it would have been better had I contacted them first. Hopefully there won't be a next time, but if there is, I will certainly take their advice

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Thu 27 Mar 2025 18:06
Claims management companies - RT

Interestingly, I was directed to a claims management company by the manufacturer themselves via their "who to contact in the event of an accident" literature with the car. The only thing that was good about the experience was that the repair was done very well considering the amount of damage. Apart from this it was a disaster. No one could decide who was supposed to be picking up the damaged car, the courtesy car was a saga and whoever valeted the car after the repair did more harm than good. It also came back with some electrical issues that eventually made me get rid of the car.

My insurer Direct Line subsequently told me it would have been better had I contacted them first. Hopefully there won't be a next time, but if there is, I will certainly take their advice

Volkswagen offer free "VW Ensurance" which is a claims company - ironically when my VW Touareg's door mirror was damaged by a truck I tried to get the truck company to pay for the £1500 repairs directly but they prevaricated for weeks so I used VW Ensurance who provided a nice Mercedes-Benz GLE and added another £1500 to the total bill - you can't help some people.

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