Mazda6 - Claimfast - any satisfied customers out there

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Mon 26 Sep 2011 17:09
Mazda6 - Claimfast - any satisfied customers out there - D P Dance

My car was very slightly dented by another car in a Tesco car park recently. The offending driver inspected the damage and drove off. Unfortunately for him, the incident was witnessed and the other driver has since been formally cautioned by the police. I reported it to my insurance company, and Claimfast, also part of the holding company, Acromas, telephoned me yesterday.

The telephone call was long and complicated, not high pressure, but a bit pushy, the chap on the other end seemed to want to make all my decisions for me.

Basically, what Claimfast want me to do is enter into a credit hire agreement with their preferred hirer, Enterprise, to hire a similar car to my own, for up to three months, but it seems to me that, as my name will be on the consumer credit agreement, if things went wrong, I should ultimately be responsible for the hire charge, which, I am lead to believe, could be considerably more than the spot rate.

My current insurance does not include a replacement vehicle, and I am mindful of my common law duty to mitigate the TPI’s losses.

I have read much on here, and various law reports on the internet, and it does seem to me that firms like Claimfast have been set up to make a profit from non fault clients, perhaps through “introductory fees” from car hire firms, crash repairers, and personal injury solicitors. Has anyone on here dealt with Claimfast and is willing to share his or her experience?

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Tue 27 Sep 2011 09:15
Mazda6 - Claimfast - any satisfied customers out there - daveyjp

Claims fast sound like every other claims handling company - their sole reason for being is to get as much out of the third party as possible - it is not to get your claim sorted fast!

If you can still drive your car tell Claimfast it will not be going into any bodyshop until the third party company has admitted 100% liability and this is confirmed to you in writing.

If you use thier method you will have to pay an excess once the car is repaired and it will be a fault claim against you, potentially reducing your NCB. At the monent you have a accident which needs declaring, but you have no claim to affect your NCB.

Edited by daveyjp on 27/09/2011 at 09:15

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Tue 27 Sep 2011 10:22
Mazda6 - Claimfast - any satisfied customers out there - SlidingPillar

The last paragraph of the above could be a bit misleading.

If you claim via your insurance, you will have to pay your excess. Until you recover that from the other insurer, you are in a position of having made a claim, with the effect of reducing (or whatever your policy does) your NCB.

It sounds as though the bump was minor, and hopefully a bodyshop won't take long to do the repair, once the paperwork is sorted.

As a comsequence the 'credit car hire' bill could be the biggest part. My advice is, on behalf of all motorists, don't have it! Expensive credit car hire puts up the insurance bill for all of us.

Some bodyshops do have a courtesy car, and if you don't pick a big name provider, car hire - when you need it, is not that expensive. Just keep the reciept and claim it along with your excess from the other insurer.

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Tue 27 Sep 2011 11:16
Mazda6 - Claimfast - any satisfied customers out there - Falkirk Bairn

Some bodyshops do have a courtesy car, and if you don't pick a big name provider, car hire - when you need it, is not that expensive. Just keep the reciept and claim it along with your excess from the other insurer.

I had a no fault claim - the bodyshop offer was a beaten up Micra - I called 3rd party insurer directly and asked for an equivalent car at their expense and them covering Large excess of rental cars.

They said NO - I said reply to NO to the email of the suggestion to save your company money and I will hire the car at the nearest Avis/Hertz @ £60 /day. (they hire cars @ £20+ approx via their Enterprise link)............20 mins later no email just a phone call saying they would give me a car for the repair time (my car was driveable) - initial 5 day repair took about 10 days as wrong trim parts were ordered/provided to the bodyshop.

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Tue 27 Sep 2011 17:37
Mazda6 - Claimfast - any satisfied customers out there - D P Dance

I have just received the bundle from Claimfast, they seem most anxious that I hire a like for like car for up to 90 days from Enterprise under a credit hire contract.

However, they also want me to sign a Mitigation Statement saying that I am aware that I must keep my claims against the TPI within reasionable limits. How is paying inflated daily hire rates to Enterprise for credit hire going to achieve that?

Anyway, I am driving to Spain in the car in two weeks and will stay until Christmas, so the car will not go into the body shop until next January.

I find it strange that Claimfast are so on the ball now, but two years ago, when I was involved in a head on collision in Spain, (not my fault), the other car was overtaking a police car), Saga did not want to know about my third party losses. Could it be that they saw nothing in it for themselves.

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Tue 27 Sep 2011 19:48
Mazda6 - Claimfast - any satisfied customers out there - daveyjp

Have they made you aware of how much this hire car is?

FWIW Drive (Un) Assist were the same with us - they were most purturbed when my wife rang to cancel the hire car they tried to force upon us (you have to have one etc etc).

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Wed 28 Sep 2011 17:33
Mazda6 - Claimfast - any satisfied customers out there - D P Dance

Have they made you aware of how much this hire car is?

Not yet, but their spot rate for a Vauxhall Insignia is about £35 a day, and for a smaller car a little less.

My main concern is that, in my case, impecuniosity is not an issue, and, having read District Judge Yates in The Law Society Gazette,

http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRQH4YhBtilmX1mGmyS-blLd_ZMv3B1351HrNxICuKKoKPSCWV_2Q

it seems to me that one could easily find oneself having to defend one's actions in court, fill in a large amount of paperwork, and being coached in how to answer questions, all perhaps in a court miles from ones home. Better to pay the hire oneself and send the bill to Claimfast.

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Wed 11 Jan 2012 17:55
Mazda6 - Claimfast - any satisfied customers out there - bear123

If imprecuniosity is not an issue then you can not get a credit hire vehicle as it means you can afford to pay for it youself. Therefore if you are provided with a credit hire vehicle and the company finds out then you could end up with the bill as the agreement would be breached and could face legal action against you. If you was to hire a vehicle yourself you would not be able to send the bill to the credit hire company. This would need to be sent to the Third Party Insurer. They will only pay you if they accept their customer caused the incident. You could potentially suffer a loss. Most Insurers will provide a courtesy car if you use their repairer which can keep you mobile for the duration of your repairs. Therefore you would have no worries or stress about a hire vehicle or it's bill.

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Wed 28 Sep 2011 00:46
Mazda6 - Claimfast - any satisfied customers out there - stivvy

I posted a while ago about our experience with Claimfast and car-hire. Not very pleasant, uncomfortable weeks with possible repercussions re Credit Hire Agreement, including paying for the hire, forms by the shed-load, lawyers involved and so on. We no longer insure with SAGA for this reason, You are quite right to be wary and yes Claimfast was "pushy" hiding behind the principle that "we're here to help". Not likely!

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Wed 28 Sep 2011 17:33
Mazda6 - Claimfast - any satisfied customers out there - jacks

I posted a while ago about our experience with Claimfast and car-hire. Not very pleasant, uncomfortable weeks with possible repercussions re Credit Hire Agreement, including paying for the hire, forms by the shed-load, lawyers involved and so on. We no longer insure with SAGA for this reason, You are quite right to be wary and yes Claimfast was "pushy" hiding behind the principle that "we're here to help". Not likely!

I don't know anything about Claimfast BUT

A few years ago my car was rear ended, I used a credit hire company (well known name) but only hired for one week.

What happened next was - apparantly - the Third Party never reported the incident to his Insurance company and was eventually sued by my Insurance company and they were awarded judgement but due to some kind of paperwork error (no fault of mine) the credit hire company did not get their hire charges included in the (full and final) judgement and therefore missed out.

The credit hire company then turned on me with an immediate solicitors letter demanding payment within 7 days, they waved away my protests and pointed out that buried in the small print in the form that I had to sign to take delivery of the car was a clause that I was liable for the hire charges if they failed to collect them from the other party for any reason even when -as in this case - they messed up.

It was very worrying, several threatening letters followed and I was about to pay up when I decided to have one last appeal and I contacted the CEO of the CH Co directly and asked him to intervene otherwise I would send the file of letters to What Car, Watchdog, Which etc as a warning to other motorists. I received an immediate letter back waiving the charges.

As the OP says it's a minor bump I would liase with you Ins. Co to arrange a local repair, keep the costs reasonable, maybe get a lift for 1 or 2 days and avoid all the potential hassle of solicitors, possible court appearance etc you're already feeling uneasy at their tone and by their methods.

These CH companies are not out there to help you, you are simply a conduit through which they can arrange high rental charges over a contrived lengthy hire period with their costs loaded on top - and all this is done in YOUR name.

J

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Sun 5 Feb 2012 12:39
Mazda6 - Claimfast - any satisfied customers out there - D P Dance

It has now all been sorted. The TPI arranged the car hire, Claimfast handled the repair. No excess, no hassle, and no reduction in NCB.

On the basis of this, I would venture that perhaps Claimfast are acting less aggressively than they may have done in the past.

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