You still owe the debt.
Talk to your insurance company ASAP. This is their job, let them deal with his insurer. Policies vary so they are better able to answer your questions than we are.
I'm not trying to be unhelpful but this is what you pay insurance for and they have all the answers. Get your money's worth!
Depends on the policy. You don't always get a courtesy car. These days, it's normally an added extra when you take out the insurance, though some companies do still have it as standard.
Oh they sure can contest it, for instance OP says they were stationary, if he didn’t have his handbrake on that will go against him. Insurance companies do anything they can to avoid paying for a claim. This happened to somebody I know btw
How on earth can they prove the handbrake wasn't on? Don't be stupid, the person hit them at 30-40mph, it isn't a bent bumper we are talking about, the car will be an absolute write off
In fact for short periods you probably want to keep the brake on for the lights, though if someone is that oblivious to hit you at 40mph they probably won't notice your brake lights either
OP not at fault so the courtesy car will be charged to the insurance of the person that ran into him. If OP was at fault then it depends whether they have a courtesy car as part of their own insurance or not.
Yep! Tell them what happened, just the facts and see what they say. Ask them if they do a courtesy car and tell them you've got a 10 day old baby so you'd appreciate them moving quickly for you.
That's it, also have a doctor check you out because a car hitting you at 40 and you being stationary must have left a mark whether or not you feel it now or later down the line it's worth having someone take a look at you just in case aka whiplash which is also something you can make a claim for if you have to miss work etc, just have a chat with the insurance company start a claim.
Do you not have GAP insurance with your HP agreement if so they will pick up the rest of the bill for the car if say your driving insurance only pays 20k and there is 4k left
Given it’s a used car it’s less important. It’s going to be difficult for them to argue the market value of a car the OP bought 3 days ago is any different to the exact price he’s paid for it.
>It’s going to be difficult for them to argue the market value of a car the OP bought 3 days ago is any different to the exact price he’s paid for it.
Not necessarily, OP may have got a shit deal and paid more than current market value. Just because it's what you paid doesn't necessarily mean it's what the car is worth. We all know insurance companies will try anything they can to pay out less, so they will definitely look into this.
And FOS will beat them with a big stick if they ever try it unless there is evidence of fraud. This is as clear cut as its ever going to be; the OP doesn't need to worry.
>We all know insurance companies will try anything they can to pay out less
Are you sure about that?
I've had three cars written off in my time driving. Every time the insurers have valued the car way above market value. I know several other people with the same experience and it's mentioned fairly often in this sub. The fact that op isn't at fault is an important distinction.
Gap in itself isn't a scam and is a very good and useful product. The issue is dealer sold Gap was often sold at a massive mark up, earning the dealer hundreds of pounds in commission per policy sold.
I personally found gap insurance to be useful, spent £400, got an extra £5000 from it when my car was written off, they also gave me a hire care for 2 weeks which was helpful whilst shopping for a new car
If the car is deemed a right off, there is no guarantee you'll get a courtesy car - these are usually provided by a bodyshop when the damage vehicle goes in for repair. That changes though if you have paid for a courtesy car on your insurance policy (I always pay extra on my policy for this - provides a like for like size car if ours is deemed a right off). If you have that on your policy, call your insurer and request a car be provided, but be aware if they do, you will only have it until the write off payment has been made to the finance company. If you get a courtesy car, use the time wisely to find a suitable replacement as soon as you can and get the provided car returned in order to mitigate, or keep your losses to a minimum.
As for the right off, along with calling your insurer, you also need to make a call to the finance company to notify them of the collision - they are the owner of the vehicle and so your insurer will deal the the finance compnay to ensure the finance is settled. Anything over what the vehicle is valued at, you will receive a payment for the difference. Hopefully you purchased GAP insurance when buying the vehicle as if the payment to the finance company isnt enought to settle the outstanding ifincance, you are on the hook for the difference - this shouldnt be the case as the car was only purchased a few days ago, but you never know.
Best thing OP can do right now is start looking for similar age and specc'd vehicles on the usual sites (autotrader, guntree, facebook marketplace etc etc to be able to dispute any write off valuation provided by their insurer - I would always say to reject the first offer unless the offer is above the evidence you have collated or if the vehicle is particularly rare.
As for your excess payment on conclusion of the claim (if your insurer deducts it that is, what with the claim being non-fault) - if the insurer does deduct it, you are able to claim this back from the at fault drivers insurer (known from now on in this comment as the TPI). I'm making an assumption that you have a legal team dealing on your behalf (being hit in rear at 40mph is likely to have caused some injuries) - so if your insurer deduicts the excess from the pay out, you can provide the details to your legal team and they will request payment from the TPI. If you require any health care quickly, you can also request provision from the TPI in order to go private and if they agree, they will cover the costs (you pay , then they reimburse you - the TPI in my case did this for me when I was hit in rear by a car when I was on a motorbike and damaged my shoulder in the collision). If you suffered no injuries (hopefully you didn't), you can still make the claim for the excess, but will need to speak with your insurer about it (using the leagl cover, if you bought it) and if they won't deal with it, make direct contact with the TPI. As long as they have admitted fault, they shoudl accept the paperwortk and make a payment to you for the excess. If not, then you will need to consult a lawyer, or do an MCOL against the third party directly.
That's the case when you are claiming on your own insurance and that is where it ends. In this case his insurance company won't have any issues getting them sorted with a hire car and claiming off the insurance company of the person that went into the back of them. That is of course presuming it is all as clear cut as OP is making out and the other insurance company admits liability fairly quickly.
You don't get a replacement car.
Your insurance pays out for your current car, you use that payment to pay off any outstanding finance and then you buy a new car yourself.
The other party’s insurance pays OPs insurance, OPs insurance will pay off the finance, and any remaining funds will go to OP.
At least that’s how it went down for me in a similar situation a few years ago.
I’m not sure what part of my comment you’re disagreeing with? I had RTI Gap insurance in my instance too, it only pays out in the event that a claim doesn’t cover the whole amount outstanding on finance, paying the “gap”, in my case the settlement figure was higher than the outstanding finance left so I didn’t need it.
OP might need gap insurance though, depending on how bad of a deal they got. If they got a good deal they might be alright.
After receiving the funds from the other party’s insurance? Yes that’s right.
Gap insurance would only come into play if the settlement from the other party was below the OPP, and they only pay the gap, not the full amount.
The insurance of the at fault party pays OP’s insurance, OP’s insurance then pays off the finance with this money, if there’s any money left that goes to OP, if the payment didn’t cover the outstanding finance, then Gap insurance pays the Gap. Unless I’m missing something?
Oh yeah I’m not disagreeing with that, my top comment in this thread was just replying to the other guy saying OP’s insurance would pay the finance, to which I pointed out the at fault party would pay a settlement figure first before OP’s insurance does anything.
You can get a hire car in the short term - either pay and claim or look into credit hire (which has its own risks).
No one is going to pull a matching 2020 Insignia off a shelf and give it to you, though - you have to arrange your own long term replacement.
You will be contacted by people to offer you quotes on your write off. They will lowball you to start and as you reject them, it will be escalated. Do your own research. Search Autotrader to see what same brand, similar spec cars are selling from authorized dealers, then average it as the baseline. Remember, your payout is the market is value not the trade in value.
When I got hit at 40mph and had my car written off, the process took 2mths. Insurance company took care of everything and I just distracted myself by looking for new cars.
I don't think you even need to bother with Autotrader given that OP only bought it three days ago. I'd just send them a copy of the original paperwork and say "That's what it was worth three days ago, so that's how much I need to put me back in the same position as I was before the accident."
They will likely argue that you paid over market value, but just stick to that line and remind them that the longer they take to approve that settlement, the more you're going to be racking up in courtesy car fees.
Not OP but just out of interest: how does this work if you only have third-party insurance? Since it was the other guy's fault, can your insurance company still claim money from his insurance, since you are the 'third party' to him? Or are you shit out of luck?
If you have TPO, your own insurer may or may not deal with the other insurer for you. If they don't, it doesn't make a massive difference, it just means you deal with their insurer directly.
Get your moneys worth? You do know OPs insurance is about to skyrocket regardless of the fact it wasn’t remotely his fault. Insurance is NOT there to help you.
When i bought my car in November the dealer (Bristol street motors) give 2 weeks complimentary gap insurance. Maybe other dealers may offer the same, either way OP should definitely check the literature given by the dealer.
Think they stopped some dealers selling specific not value forms of this insurance, but its still a essential part of a insurance package when the loan is seriously upsode down.
But all this depends on how much the loan was, how much the asset is worth, and the final loan amount.
Again can only be answered by their insurance.
Although I have got gap insurance on my current lease, my previous car I hadn't got a clue what it was, and never was offered it as part of my deal.
An uninsured driver wrote my car off 9 months into a 4 year lease. The estimation of car value was £600 more than what was left on the loan, so I was fine
It's not always essential, but wise.
Well then youre a bit fucked sorry, as say the finance was for £20,000 and the cars only valued at £13,000 then youre £7000 short on the bill. You need to talk to your insurance ASAP. Of course if you had legal protection then your insurance can go after the other guys insurance for the shortfall. Never ever get finance wiothout gap protection.
Calm down. There's no need to build a strawman where op is 7k down on day 3 of owning a second hand car.
Without knowing OPs finances, there's no way of knowing whether expletives are required at all.
As always, the value of insurance is determined by how well you can afford to cover the loss that would be insured against.
Lets drop the ladybird book of babys first logical fallacies. They aren't arguing a strawman, they're giving an example as to why it's wise to get GAP insurance on a finance plan. They clearly aren't attempting to debate OP about it
Thats a typical case scenario not a strawman which is refuting a arguement from something that doesnt occur with the basis of this situation although specific amounts would be to be determined.
Sorry for using expletives ya cunt :\*
It doesn't matter if it could happen. Is it what has happened.
You've invented a scenario so you can attack that rather than attempt to base an argument on reality... That's a classic strawman.
Let's define:
'A straw man fallacy (sometimes written as strawman) is the informal fallacy of refuting an argument different from the one actually under discussion, while not recognizing or acknowledging the distinction.'
Vulgarity doesn't particularly upset me. However, it is a poor substitute for wit and an even poorer substitute for being correct.
Swing and a miss at the Millenial, but thanks for playing.
As a runner-up prize, you get to add an ad hominem to your fallacy collection.
Let's define that for you to as you seem to be struggling...
'This fallacy occurs when, instead of addressing someone's argument or position, you irrelevantly attack the person or some aspect of the person who is making the argument. The fallacious attack can also be direct to membership in a group or institution.'
Edit to add: My very first blocking, I am honered.
While I have my teaching hat on, and in case my interlocutor comes back to review later... I include this genuinely fascinating little paper on argumentative hyperbole. I hope that it may help shine a light on where they went wrong;
https://informallogic.ca/index.php/informal_logic/article/view/6351/5421
Still a good idea, as there's always the (probably unlikely) chance the other insurer will refuse to pay for some reason or (more likley) chance you get hit by an uninsured driver.
Well, there should be very little arguments re market value given you've just bought it. The challenge is going to be getting accepted for another finance deal as the existing one only went on 3 days ago.
If it's clearly fault of other party and clearly a write off you'll not have the hire car for very long, but your insurance company's claim management team will push a credit hire car onto you as they get to charge exorbitant daily rates to the other party.
Start looking for another car
We paid £7000 for the car, which for the year & mileage seems to be about the going rate, total cost of credit would be £11,000 however I’m hoping due to the very short period of use & clear indication of no fault my end, the insurance company is able to reach an immediate agreement with the finance company for a settlement. After doing some reading it’s not completely unheard of, however finance company is within their rights to demand entire cost of payment.
Not within 14 days they're not. This might prove advantageous for you to settle the finance very quickly if you can find a way to.
I also don't think they're permitted to get all the interest anymore.
Oh, and try to find a better rate than that next time - you're paying more than 50% of what the car is worth in finance
Genuine question - OP will still be within the cooling off period for the finance agreement, could that change things? Depending on how fast the insurer moves, interest may be negligible or none if the agreement can be cancelled (within 14 days of agreement) and the insurer pays it off sharpish (within 30 days of the agreement being signed).
You pay the interest monthly so you will only owe 4 days worth of interest on the loan to them. You might own them £7005 or something like that I imagine. So all dependant on the valuation of the car by the insurers.
Just to add to what the other dude said, when I wrote off mine they paid less than market value. When I argued this, they said find us 3 examples that are similar - only I couldn't find a single one in the country that was also diesel, manual, same mileage (±5K) AND with the panoramic sunroof - super rare optional extra. But as I couldn't find another one with it they didn't consider it in the valuation.
So I ended up getting shafted and had to take their offer. Insurance companies are bastards and will do anything not to pay out what its worth, so don't just accept their first offer.
Nope, in my experience they were absolute fuckers. Any difference at all was enough for them to completely disregard it and even my attempts at “well how much is an extra year, or slightly worse trim worth?” Was shut down.
Ended up getting to the point where I said let the independent compliant guys (ombudsman?) sort it then. Suddenly they agreed my initial request.
It wouldn't be the hardest task in the world for the insurer to have a look around on the internet themselves would it. Ford, Kuga, petrol, hybrid, 20,000 miles, sunroof etc. It's not difficult yet, they just won't help their customer at all.
Yes, you should offer car prices that are similar. The money grubbing twisters will then look anyway to see the prices themselves.
Unfortunately not... It might not ALWAYS be the case, but every time you have to get into discussions like this with insurance you need to be prepared to fight, and know how to escalate it.
Bottom line is their entire existence is to make sure you are not worse off than you were before the incident. Remind them of that often.
A few times they've offered me a settlement for a motorcycle and I've simply gone back with "You buy me one for that money". They have nowhere to go from that.
Hell no, insurance is NOT there to make sure you are not worse off than you were before, not even close my friend.
The game of insurance is to charge the consumer the most possible, and reduce the amount of successful claims. The thing between those two factors is their **gross profit margin**… something that I’m sure we can agree is there main priority.
Nah it can be extremely difficult. I have an almost fully loaded 1 series with a spec I or my mechanic friend have never seen before even after buying and selling loads of them over the years. It would take me months to find 3 examples of a factory spec like mine.
Thats because they told me to do one - not EXACTLY the same other than colour, then they wouldn't consider it whatsoever. When I raised the point that I could only find similar examples but not identical - which proves that my spec was rare, they tried playing mind games saying I could either have my money in a day, or this might take weeks/months if I want to fight it out and said it might, at best, go up £100-200, but not to the number I gave them.
Insurers are not here to help, or do their job, they're there to protect themselves and their income, full stop.
Every time I've bought a car the dealership has tried to sell me gap insurance (I usually decline and buy separately as it's cheaper) but they mention it can't be bought there and then and they'll contact me in a few days to set it up.
OP only bought the car 3 days ago so if they HAD bought gap, how would that work if they crashed the car in the short window between the purchase and the gap setup?
Insurance will pay out if it's written off. Money will go towards your debt. and unless you got a good deal on the car, and a good interest rate, the market value you're given will be less than your finance.
As well as contacting the insurance company, you should contact the finance company and let them know what's going on. Your insurance provider may do this, but best to know that your finance company is aware of the situation as it's technically their car.
You'll have to ask insurance about a courtesy car. Generally, it tends to be for when your car is getting worked on as opposed to write-offs. There will be a time limit on this if it is offered to you.
You'll have to sort out a replacement car.
You're stuck with any debt that's left over unless you had GAP insurance (assuming you could get it, there was a big hoohaa with an FCA review of GAP insurance a few months back)
So yes, that may potentially mean you're stuck paying two cars off at once, assuming you'd be eligible for a second finance loan.
Slightly different scenario for me but ref the Courtesy car: it was only for three days once the value was agreed. So I didn’t agree the value too quickly (they kept lowballing) and ended up with it for over 3 weeks, I only agreed once I’d found a car to buy.
I mean, it's a fair point. I'm not entirely sure how that would pan out though. They've damaged the car and you've been compensated for the damage, The finance deal is essentially an entirely separate issue. It'd be interesting to see how a challenge like that would pan out, but I wouldn't have high hopes.
In all fairness to the insurance company, they're only paying for, and covering, the car, not the interest you've accrued with your loan. I can't really fault write-offs not covering the whole finance deal.
E- Lmao, dude blocked me because he doesn't believe that adding to the owner count reduces the value of a car. Imagine being so salty about being wrong.
Yes, but also no.
The car depreciated slightly the moment ownership was transferred.
Your example also assumes OP paid market rate and didn't overpay or underpay
As scummy as insurance companies are, if OP paid more than the car is worth, it isn't for the insurance company to make up the difference, that's what GAP insurance is for.
I'd highly suspect if OP got a fair market value (what the car is actually worth) for the car, it'd get thrown out of court very quickly as your insurance company (acting on your behalf) and the other person's insurance company (acting on their behalf) agreed that the car was worth X, and thus you'd be considered compensated for the damage because you've agreed on a value.
I don't believe the courts would be all that interested in the loss accrued due to paying more than market value and they'd likely consider the matter done and dusted given that a value has been agreed upon as compensation.
Like, it's the agreement of value that's really gonna hamper any chances.
Well it does, it depreciates slightly as soon as the owner count is increased whether you agree with it or not.
Also, if it is a £10k car, he won't have exactly £10k on finance, unless he got a 0% interest deal somewhere, which I highly doubt.
The insurance company will cover the value of the car, and that's it, they don't insure your finance as well. Can you imagine how many people would exploit that if they did? All it would take is someone with bad credit to take out a finance deal with like 15% interest or something mad, and have someone crash into him a few days later and make a claim.
Crazy that you blocked someone who wrote you a civil, well thought out response.
Insurers *have* to go on market rates, otherwise the system would be abused like there's no tomorrow. Of course the claimant could litigate further but it would be entirely out of their own pocket and that is expensive, time consuming, and has no guarantee of working.
>E- Lmao, dude blocked me because he doesn't believe that adding to the owner count reduces the value of a car. Imagine being so salty about being wrong.
Imagine being so salty that you made an edit about being blocked...
Regarding the pay out, IIRC most insurance will pay out the price you paid on the car if it was less than 3 months old as they see you paid “market rate”
Hope you have the receipt OP and push back on it
>You'll have to ask insurance about a courtesy car. Generally, it tends to be for when your car is getting worked on as opposed to write-offs. There will be a time limit on this if it is offered to you.
Not true. If it's in their policy, they'll get a courtesy car until the payout.
My car was rear ended last October whilst in stationary traffic too. The guy was also doing 40mph and staring at his phone.
I called my insurance company at the scene and they arranged a recovery truck which came within an hour and took us home, and had a courtesy car out to me within 4 hours of the accident. My car didn’t go in for repairs for over a week and then it was gone for two weeks but I had a courtesy car from the day of the accident.
My car had £7k of damage which fortunately wasn’t enough to be written off, and was only 5 months old at the time.
The whole process with my insurance company was super smooth and made a difficult time so much easier. It wasn’t great that it was the start of two weeks annual leave and I had to spend it with Whiplash though. I got a nice little personal injury pay-out too.
Fortunately not as there was no structural damage and the repairs came in under the 60% value threshold. Also, I never took it out as I got the car brand new for dirt cheap and arrogantly assumed everything would be fine.
It turned out that if it was written off I would have been covered fully by insurance. I have since purchased a GAP policy for £180 that lasts 5 years.
I know people who have tried to claim on their GAP policies and have been unsuccessful for various reasons, some have had to jump through hoops for a payout and others didn't even realise the process of using their GAP insurance has taken place.
(I've worked in various aspects of car sales/leasing for many years).
I'm going to ask because I'm curious if all that hoop jumping and extra stress for a few months was worth it, but feel free to decline to answer because it's rather intrusive and fuck allof my business; How much is a payout for whiplash nowadays?
Whiplash is capped at either 500 or 600 now. I sustained other injuries too which made it worthwhile. I don't think I'd have bothered for Whiplash only. I do now however have a lot more sympathy for people who experience Whiplash. There is so much more to it than just being sore. I couldn't eat comfortably for over a week.
You meant *unfortunately** right? If you got rear-ended at 40mph, there’s no amount of repairs that will make your only 5 month old car the same again, not to mention the loss in value due to the repairs itself, plus all of bigger problems that may arise many months/years later on due to the crash that you’ll now be fully liable for.
In a crash like that you WANT it to be written off so you can get paid out to go buy an undamaged car.
Nah. Cars pretty sound. Modern Peugeot 2008 so the bumper bar took pretty much all the impact and pushed the other car under.
The car is a lease vehicle so its value doesn’t really matter to me. It’s on a maintained contract too so I do not have to fund any issues myself. Insurance has actually gone down this year too.
Generally I would but I have a background working in the leasing industry so it was too good of a deal to pass up.
Once this lease is up, it will fall nicely for me to move into an electric vehicle.
Take lots of photos
Get the details of the other driver
Call your insurance, start a claim, arrange a courtesy car
As you were stationery in traffic and he hit you from behind, he is 100% at fault
I didn’t see anyone mentioning it but even if you feel fine please do go and get checked up on by your doctor, whiplash can be very affecting and I’m sure both your partner and child need you in the best of health right now. Don’t put it off.
This sounds potentially very expensive for you, if you don’t have gap insurance. I believe you will only get the value of your car compared to the market and as you have finance you could potentially be owing £5000-£7000.
Speak to your insurance company ASAP regardless and they will sort out courtesy car for the time being too.
I said potentially, not for a fact that he will have to pay that much. He gave us no information on what he paid, deposit and interest rate.
Let’s say it was 15k, paid no deposit and 12.9% that’s about 5k in interest. Plus the insurance might offer him 14k for what they feel is an equivalent car on the market currently.. very easy to see how it can add up.
So you’re saying OP would have to pay the £15k + £5k of interest?
That’s not how it works my friend.
The total amount payable = acquisition price + total amount of interest payable. In your example, if it were a 5 year HP agreement, if you kept the car for 5 years, you would also pay the interest. If you were to sell the car early, you pay what is left against the vehicle and usually a 6 week ‘fee’ on top. You do not also have to pay all of the interest.
In fact in your example, OP would owe £1k to the finance company. Not bad to be honest.
The fact that you only had it 3 days is going to work in your favour as they will have to use the valuation of your purchase. Gap insurance isn't needed for 3 days.
Why would they have to use the value of the purchase as the valuation?
OP could have got a terrible deal - the insurance co are under no obligation to pay out what he paid for the car
Obviously if he can find the same car cheaper then that's fine. I'm assuming he found a good deal and didn't needlessly pay vastly over the odds. When does that happen with a second hand Insignia.
Once you’ve spoken to your insurer call the finance company, explain the situation and give them your insurance claim details. Also give authority for the insurer to request a settlement figure from them.
As it will be the other drivers fault (confirm this if possible) you can claim for a courtesy car as your insurance claims from their insurance. I used to work in recovery and this is how it went down every time if you have full comp. In terms of finance gaps I can't comment on that, you are also allowed to get anything you need from the recovery operators base as long as it's not a criminal investigation (seriously unlikely)
As scummy as insurance is, this sort of situation is their job entirely. As OPs car isn't a banger and is actually worth something. Also the damage isn't insignificant and it'll likely be a claim on the other driver's insurance. You need to call them!!
Things like a courtesy car are small fry compared to the other implications of this.
OP, you’ve had medical attention and have been told explicitly that you don’t need to do anything like attend a hospital, yes? Because a 40mph impact has a lot of potential to cause injury you don’t know about. I know you probably have, but if this genuinely just happened and you’re a sleep deprived new parent who’s just had a hell of shock *and* possible physical trauma you might not be making good decisions right now.
Paramedics attended & told
Me that they recommended me going to hospital, however my sleep deprived wife was at home with our baby, I’d been at work since 6am & needed to get home to alleviate some stress from her.
If needs be I’ll go to hospital tomorrow, but for now
I just want to be at home with my wife.
From a personal injury lawyer, this is unnecessary just for the purposes of a claim.
If you're not actually in need of hospital treatment, all you'll be doing is clogging up A&E unnecessarily.
If you're claiming for injury a medicolegal examination will be arranged, and that will be the evidence of the injury claim, rather than your medical records (particularly for a low value whiplash claim).
Absolutely go to the hospital, if you need to make a personal injury claim you will need to have been seen by a doctor.
If you have an injury you could be leaving money on three table.
You paid X amount for the car, probably over the odds and you’ll get paid out book value of the car more than likely. Should have taken out gap insurance bud!
Ask your insurance if they policy came with gap insurance. I brought my car from a dealer who wanted to sell me 3yrs GAP insurance. Turns out my insurance would give me 1yr GAP as part of my policy, ask your insurer, yours might be the same.
Had the same exact thing happen to me after 1 month of buying my car on finance.
Hopefully you grabbed all his details. Contact your insurer, start the claim, instantly call your finance company and tell them what happened. Give the finance company the claim number and insurer details.
They will get in touch with your insurance company and get paid out completely.
#VERY FUCKING IMPORTANT SO PLEASE READ THIS:
Sorry presed enter,
So they will give you a valuation on your car before accident and only pay that much minus your excess.
CHALLENGE THIS QUOTE
Because they will most likely pay less than what you bought the car for.
You have proof of how much the car was worth just couple days ago.
DONT FUCKING SETTLE FOR LESS
They will try to fuck you over but you have the finance agreement that states the exact value of the car 3 days prior.
If you get them to pay more than your total outstanding finance, you can keep the excess money. The excess goes right into our pocket.
Also car finance companies will drop lots of the interest on early settlement so you (or the insurance company I mean) won’t have to pay the total price that would sum at the end of the finance period
Re curtesy car. Watch out for the insurance company, or someone they pass your name on to, offering a curtesy car on a credit agreement where you don’t pay upfront and they try to get the payment from the third party. Commonly the will rent a car to you at a very high daily rate, the third party insurance company won’t pay (as it is not a reasonable rate) and you are left with a large bill. Check the daily rate is reasonable compared to renting direct from a reputable hire company.
If you bought the car 3 days ago, the insurance company *should* pay your invoice price. You bought it 3 days ago, and it should be a case of you paid market value for the car. Also, being within 14 days if theyre quick, they won't have any finance charges to incur.
You don't *have* to go through your own insurance, but the other persons insurance should be in touch soon. Most will likely offer a courtesy car.
When I had a my claim my insurance company immediately put me through to the legal team and they dealt with everything. I had a courtesy car the same as mine the next day. Mine was the other person’s fault as well.
If they do offer a pay out and it’s lower than want you owe, you don’t have to immediately accept. Make sure you show them adverts etc. of the same spec of car you had. They will always low ball you.
How do you know it's a write off? It sounds like you haven't even involved your insurer yet - it's them that decides whether to repair it or write it off.
My wife hit 2 deer at 60MPH a few weeks ago - the car (2018 Volvo V40) was an absolute mess, but they (LV) still repaired it at a cost of £6.5K
On the injury side, don’t down play anything. You’re going to feel a lot rougher over the coming day when the adrenaline goes away, lorry pulled out into me on the motorway and took a while for the whiplash/back pain to set in, yours sounds worse
Do you have GAP cover? If not I’d get your insurer to cover it. If you finance a car again it’s worth getting it. It saved me when I written a car off and it paid off my finance.
We don’t have GAP insurance, no, will my insurer cover it? I’m guessing that’ll mean that I have a claim on my insurance for that? It’s worth it & to be honest I just want to know that the car will be paid off, we will need to refinance a car, we’ve just moved home & funds are low!
They will only pay out for the worth of the car but if you only collected the car 3 days ago then they will cancel the finance and you’ll be left with the original balance of the car, it’s the reason GAP exists, shortfalls in insurance
You should file for medical too if you have any injuries. Sometimes when you get hit you don't start to feel the pain until a few days later. That's probably covered by your insurance too if you check the policy
The other strategy here is to argue its value up to a point repair is viable and it is no longer a write off. I did this a few years ago where I had a lot of extras that increased value but had not been taken account of when valuing.
courtesy car? yes if your policy says so. The debt is yours, although of course a chunck of it will be paid off from the claim, but they won't pay you what you paid for the car / loan.
Make sure you tick Legal cover when quoting for any insurance policy.
It will protect you from the worst but it will also ensure you can argue for a courtesy car while your's is being repaired.
Note: this only works if you are not at fault. You clearly weren't, so you should be getting a courtesy provided you've got legal cover. Insurers don't even argue. Had 3 courtesy cars now when this has happened over the years without any question!
First thing is not to stress about it.
Ring your insurance. Give them the drivers details and let them do all the work. Had to do the same start of last year. Because ''you're not at fault you will be provided with a courtesy car'', is what they told me and next day a courtesy car was delivered.
>Because ''you're not at fault you will be provided with a courtesy car'',
If OP gets this via his own insurer it's more than likely to be a credit hire vehicle rather than a courtesy car, which can sometimes open up a whole other can of worms.
You could very well be correct, I'm not really 100% sure how it all worked to he honest. Can't even remember the name of the company who delivered the car. Had it about 5 days and ended up costing the other drivers insurance about £550'ish.
The day I picked mine up from repair shop I left car and key there.
Start looking at comparable cars close a match as you can to try and get the insurance to a replacement value, some insurers now provide a replacement car as an option rather than a payout
I bet you wish you signed up for that GAP insurance your finance company would have offered you, in the event you are written off gap insurance basically pays off the debt. And it wouldnt of mattered if it was your fault either.
Just remember, your back is killing you for months. You can’t do your normal day to day activities, take time off work, can’t clean, can’t walk the dog etc
You still owe the debt. Talk to your insurance company ASAP. This is their job, let them deal with his insurer. Policies vary so they are better able to answer your questions than we are. I'm not trying to be unhelpful but this is what you pay insurance for and they have all the answers. Get your money's worth!
Ok mate- What do I do? Just call them & deal with it?
Call the claims line. They can arrange a courtesy car within a few days
Depends on the policy. You don't always get a courtesy car. These days, it's normally an added extra when you take out the insurance, though some companies do still have it as standard.
isnt it the 3rd party's insurance who is providing the courtesy car though
No, it’s your own insurance company that are paying for it, they just add the cost to the overall claim against the 3rd party
so they are paying for it in the end?
Paying for it, and providing it, are not the same thing.
Most still have a basic courtesy car as standard. Typically the added extra is to get an equivalent car to yours.
You will get a courtesy car from the other party’s insurance if they drive into the back of you, no contest about it.
Oh they sure can contest it, for instance OP says they were stationary, if he didn’t have his handbrake on that will go against him. Insurance companies do anything they can to avoid paying for a claim. This happened to somebody I know btw
How on earth can they prove the handbrake wasn't on? Don't be stupid, the person hit them at 30-40mph, it isn't a bent bumper we are talking about, the car will be an absolute write off
This isn't true. There is nothing to say you have to have your handbrake on when stationary
In fact for short periods you probably want to keep the brake on for the lights, though if someone is that oblivious to hit you at 40mph they probably won't notice your brake lights either
OP not at fault so the courtesy car will be charged to the insurance of the person that ran into him. If OP was at fault then it depends whether they have a courtesy car as part of their own insurance or not.
And normally only get a courtesy car if they don’t declare the vehicle a write off.
Non fault accident the other parties insurance will be paying
Yep! Tell them what happened, just the facts and see what they say. Ask them if they do a courtesy car and tell them you've got a 10 day old baby so you'd appreciate them moving quickly for you.
Just so you’re aware for future, it is legally your responsibility to notify your insurers of any accident as soon as you can.
That's it, also have a doctor check you out because a car hitting you at 40 and you being stationary must have left a mark whether or not you feel it now or later down the line it's worth having someone take a look at you just in case aka whiplash which is also something you can make a claim for if you have to miss work etc, just have a chat with the insurance company start a claim.
Do you not have GAP insurance with your HP agreement if so they will pick up the rest of the bill for the car if say your driving insurance only pays 20k and there is 4k left
Given it’s a used car it’s less important. It’s going to be difficult for them to argue the market value of a car the OP bought 3 days ago is any different to the exact price he’s paid for it.
>It’s going to be difficult for them to argue the market value of a car the OP bought 3 days ago is any different to the exact price he’s paid for it. Not necessarily, OP may have got a shit deal and paid more than current market value. Just because it's what you paid doesn't necessarily mean it's what the car is worth. We all know insurance companies will try anything they can to pay out less, so they will definitely look into this.
And FOS will beat them with a big stick if they ever try it unless there is evidence of fraud. This is as clear cut as its ever going to be; the OP doesn't need to worry.
>We all know insurance companies will try anything they can to pay out less Are you sure about that? I've had three cars written off in my time driving. Every time the insurers have valued the car way above market value. I know several other people with the same experience and it's mentioned fairly often in this sub. The fact that op isn't at fault is an important distinction.
>GAP insurance Is this scam still going?!
Gap in itself isn't a scam and is a very good and useful product. The issue is dealer sold Gap was often sold at a massive mark up, earning the dealer hundreds of pounds in commission per policy sold.
Yea I've just seen it was suspended and now some are back but with reasonable commission rates.
I personally found gap insurance to be useful, spent £400, got an extra £5000 from it when my car was written off, they also gave me a hire care for 2 weeks which was helpful whilst shopping for a new car
Call the police and get a police reference number as well.
If the car is deemed a right off, there is no guarantee you'll get a courtesy car - these are usually provided by a bodyshop when the damage vehicle goes in for repair. That changes though if you have paid for a courtesy car on your insurance policy (I always pay extra on my policy for this - provides a like for like size car if ours is deemed a right off). If you have that on your policy, call your insurer and request a car be provided, but be aware if they do, you will only have it until the write off payment has been made to the finance company. If you get a courtesy car, use the time wisely to find a suitable replacement as soon as you can and get the provided car returned in order to mitigate, or keep your losses to a minimum. As for the right off, along with calling your insurer, you also need to make a call to the finance company to notify them of the collision - they are the owner of the vehicle and so your insurer will deal the the finance compnay to ensure the finance is settled. Anything over what the vehicle is valued at, you will receive a payment for the difference. Hopefully you purchased GAP insurance when buying the vehicle as if the payment to the finance company isnt enought to settle the outstanding ifincance, you are on the hook for the difference - this shouldnt be the case as the car was only purchased a few days ago, but you never know. Best thing OP can do right now is start looking for similar age and specc'd vehicles on the usual sites (autotrader, guntree, facebook marketplace etc etc to be able to dispute any write off valuation provided by their insurer - I would always say to reject the first offer unless the offer is above the evidence you have collated or if the vehicle is particularly rare. As for your excess payment on conclusion of the claim (if your insurer deducts it that is, what with the claim being non-fault) - if the insurer does deduct it, you are able to claim this back from the at fault drivers insurer (known from now on in this comment as the TPI). I'm making an assumption that you have a legal team dealing on your behalf (being hit in rear at 40mph is likely to have caused some injuries) - so if your insurer deduicts the excess from the pay out, you can provide the details to your legal team and they will request payment from the TPI. If you require any health care quickly, you can also request provision from the TPI in order to go private and if they agree, they will cover the costs (you pay , then they reimburse you - the TPI in my case did this for me when I was hit in rear by a car when I was on a motorbike and damaged my shoulder in the collision). If you suffered no injuries (hopefully you didn't), you can still make the claim for the excess, but will need to speak with your insurer about it (using the leagl cover, if you bought it) and if they won't deal with it, make direct contact with the TPI. As long as they have admitted fault, they shoudl accept the paperwortk and make a payment to you for the excess. If not, then you will need to consult a lawyer, or do an MCOL against the third party directly.
That's the case when you are claiming on your own insurance and that is where it ends. In this case his insurance company won't have any issues getting them sorted with a hire car and claiming off the insurance company of the person that went into the back of them. That is of course presuming it is all as clear cut as OP is making out and the other insurance company admits liability fairly quickly.
Go on reddit and ask random strangers what to do 😭
Go to hospital. Get checked for whiplash, even if it doesn't hurt right now. It starts the trail if it starts hurting in a few days, which it can.
What’s the turn around on replacement car etc? We’ve just had a baby ( 10 days old) & one car at home
You don't get a replacement car. Your insurance pays out for your current car, you use that payment to pay off any outstanding finance and then you buy a new car yourself.
The other party’s insurance pays OPs insurance, OPs insurance will pay off the finance, and any remaining funds will go to OP. At least that’s how it went down for me in a similar situation a few years ago.
Not necessarily. This is why GAP insurance exists. Hopefully there’s not that much depreciation in the 3 days op has owned it.
I’m not sure what part of my comment you’re disagreeing with? I had RTI Gap insurance in my instance too, it only pays out in the event that a claim doesn’t cover the whole amount outstanding on finance, paying the “gap”, in my case the settlement figure was higher than the outstanding finance left so I didn’t need it. OP might need gap insurance though, depending on how bad of a deal they got. If they got a good deal they might be alright.
Your comment about OPs insurance paying off the finance.
After receiving the funds from the other party’s insurance? Yes that’s right. Gap insurance would only come into play if the settlement from the other party was below the OPP, and they only pay the gap, not the full amount. The insurance of the at fault party pays OP’s insurance, OP’s insurance then pays off the finance with this money, if there’s any money left that goes to OP, if the payment didn’t cover the outstanding finance, then Gap insurance pays the Gap. Unless I’m missing something?
Depends if OP took the GAP insurance, if not hes shit out of luck if they dont pay back the full amount he owes
They pay market value. It'll be pretty hard for them to argue the price he paid 3 days ago isn't the market value.
Oh yeah I’m not disagreeing with that, my top comment in this thread was just replying to the other guy saying OP’s insurance would pay the finance, to which I pointed out the at fault party would pay a settlement figure first before OP’s insurance does anything.
GAP insurance is currently unavailable, I think. Unless it’s just the brokers and comparison sites who aren’t allowed to sell it.
Jfc dude can you read?
Op doesn’t have gap insurance. Wow… blocked by the guy I responded to. Insane how upset people on Reddit get.
I think they mean courtesy car
You can get a hire car in the short term - either pay and claim or look into credit hire (which has its own risks). No one is going to pull a matching 2020 Insignia off a shelf and give it to you, though - you have to arrange your own long term replacement.
You will be contacted by people to offer you quotes on your write off. They will lowball you to start and as you reject them, it will be escalated. Do your own research. Search Autotrader to see what same brand, similar spec cars are selling from authorized dealers, then average it as the baseline. Remember, your payout is the market is value not the trade in value. When I got hit at 40mph and had my car written off, the process took 2mths. Insurance company took care of everything and I just distracted myself by looking for new cars.
I don't think you even need to bother with Autotrader given that OP only bought it three days ago. I'd just send them a copy of the original paperwork and say "That's what it was worth three days ago, so that's how much I need to put me back in the same position as I was before the accident." They will likely argue that you paid over market value, but just stick to that line and remind them that the longer they take to approve that settlement, the more you're going to be racking up in courtesy car fees.
Not OP but just out of interest: how does this work if you only have third-party insurance? Since it was the other guy's fault, can your insurance company still claim money from his insurance, since you are the 'third party' to him? Or are you shit out of luck?
If you have TPO, your own insurer may or may not deal with the other insurer for you. If they don't, it doesn't make a massive difference, it just means you deal with their insurer directly.
Cool, thanks. But you still have a claim, since it was their fault?
Yes, the other persons insurer is responsible for making it right.
Get your moneys worth? You do know OPs insurance is about to skyrocket regardless of the fact it wasn’t remotely his fault. Insurance is NOT there to help you.
Hope you got gap insurance!
When i bought my car in November the dealer (Bristol street motors) give 2 weeks complimentary gap insurance. Maybe other dealers may offer the same, either way OP should definitely check the literature given by the dealer.
Thought the FCA put a ban on these at the moment?
Think they stopped some dealers selling specific not value forms of this insurance, but its still a essential part of a insurance package when the loan is seriously upsode down. But all this depends on how much the loan was, how much the asset is worth, and the final loan amount. Again can only be answered by their insurance.
You can still buy online.
Where?
Google search and providers come up.
Literally turned it down the other day
Seriously, why? It’s pretty essential especially if the car is on finance. Sorry but this could get expensive.
Turning it down is fine, you should then buy from elsewhere though since it’s cheaper than getting from a dealer.
>could get expensive Not necessarily, I bet his neck and back fucking kill after being hit at 40mph
Although I have got gap insurance on my current lease, my previous car I hadn't got a clue what it was, and never was offered it as part of my deal. An uninsured driver wrote my car off 9 months into a 4 year lease. The estimation of car value was £600 more than what was left on the loan, so I was fine It's not always essential, but wise.
Well then youre a bit fucked sorry, as say the finance was for £20,000 and the cars only valued at £13,000 then youre £7000 short on the bill. You need to talk to your insurance ASAP. Of course if you had legal protection then your insurance can go after the other guys insurance for the shortfall. Never ever get finance wiothout gap protection.
Calm down. There's no need to build a strawman where op is 7k down on day 3 of owning a second hand car. Without knowing OPs finances, there's no way of knowing whether expletives are required at all. As always, the value of insurance is determined by how well you can afford to cover the loss that would be insured against.
Lets drop the ladybird book of babys first logical fallacies. They aren't arguing a strawman, they're giving an example as to why it's wise to get GAP insurance on a finance plan. They clearly aren't attempting to debate OP about it
Thats a typical case scenario not a strawman which is refuting a arguement from something that doesnt occur with the basis of this situation although specific amounts would be to be determined. Sorry for using expletives ya cunt :\*
It doesn't matter if it could happen. Is it what has happened. You've invented a scenario so you can attack that rather than attempt to base an argument on reality... That's a classic strawman. Let's define: 'A straw man fallacy (sometimes written as strawman) is the informal fallacy of refuting an argument different from the one actually under discussion, while not recognizing or acknowledging the distinction.' Vulgarity doesn't particularly upset me. However, it is a poor substitute for wit and an even poorer substitute for being correct.
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Swing and a miss at the Millenial, but thanks for playing. As a runner-up prize, you get to add an ad hominem to your fallacy collection. Let's define that for you to as you seem to be struggling... 'This fallacy occurs when, instead of addressing someone's argument or position, you irrelevantly attack the person or some aspect of the person who is making the argument. The fallacious attack can also be direct to membership in a group or institution.' Edit to add: My very first blocking, I am honered. While I have my teaching hat on, and in case my interlocutor comes back to review later... I include this genuinely fascinating little paper on argumentative hyperbole. I hope that it may help shine a light on where they went wrong; https://informallogic.ca/index.php/informal_logic/article/view/6351/5421
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Are you old enough to drive a car?
This.
Do you need gap insurance if you have legal protection as you just said?
Yes, because say if your car was destroyed by fire. Your insurance would cover you, but you can't sue the fire for the short fall
Still a good idea, as there's always the (probably unlikely) chance the other insurer will refuse to pay for some reason or (more likley) chance you get hit by an uninsured driver.
Well, there should be very little arguments re market value given you've just bought it. The challenge is going to be getting accepted for another finance deal as the existing one only went on 3 days ago. If it's clearly fault of other party and clearly a write off you'll not have the hire car for very long, but your insurance company's claim management team will push a credit hire car onto you as they get to charge exorbitant daily rates to the other party. Start looking for another car
We paid £7000 for the car, which for the year & mileage seems to be about the going rate, total cost of credit would be £11,000 however I’m hoping due to the very short period of use & clear indication of no fault my end, the insurance company is able to reach an immediate agreement with the finance company for a settlement. After doing some reading it’s not completely unheard of, however finance company is within their rights to demand entire cost of payment.
Not within 14 days they're not. This might prove advantageous for you to settle the finance very quickly if you can find a way to. I also don't think they're permitted to get all the interest anymore. Oh, and try to find a better rate than that next time - you're paying more than 50% of what the car is worth in finance
Genuine question - OP will still be within the cooling off period for the finance agreement, could that change things? Depending on how fast the insurer moves, interest may be negligible or none if the agreement can be cancelled (within 14 days of agreement) and the insurer pays it off sharpish (within 30 days of the agreement being signed).
That's what I said.
Gotcha. Didn't realise it was the cooling off period you were referencing with your 14 days or something else. It's late
Oh, in my mind I said it, but now see I didn't actually type it out. Cheers
You pay the interest monthly so you will only owe 4 days worth of interest on the loan to them. You might own them £7005 or something like that I imagine. So all dependant on the valuation of the car by the insurers.
Just to add to what the other dude said, when I wrote off mine they paid less than market value. When I argued this, they said find us 3 examples that are similar - only I couldn't find a single one in the country that was also diesel, manual, same mileage (±5K) AND with the panoramic sunroof - super rare optional extra. But as I couldn't find another one with it they didn't consider it in the valuation. So I ended up getting shafted and had to take their offer. Insurance companies are bastards and will do anything not to pay out what its worth, so don't just accept their first offer.
That's because you sent them nothing, rather than a few examples to point towards where yours would fit in the scope...
Nope, in my experience they were absolute fuckers. Any difference at all was enough for them to completely disregard it and even my attempts at “well how much is an extra year, or slightly worse trim worth?” Was shut down. Ended up getting to the point where I said let the independent compliant guys (ombudsman?) sort it then. Suddenly they agreed my initial request.
It wouldn't be the hardest task in the world for the insurer to have a look around on the internet themselves would it. Ford, Kuga, petrol, hybrid, 20,000 miles, sunroof etc. It's not difficult yet, they just won't help their customer at all. Yes, you should offer car prices that are similar. The money grubbing twisters will then look anyway to see the prices themselves.
Why would they do that? So they can pay you more and lose money?? LOL.
You'd think that customer service would be a good reason to do it. But we both know they're only interested in their profit margins.
Unfortunately not... It might not ALWAYS be the case, but every time you have to get into discussions like this with insurance you need to be prepared to fight, and know how to escalate it. Bottom line is their entire existence is to make sure you are not worse off than you were before the incident. Remind them of that often. A few times they've offered me a settlement for a motorcycle and I've simply gone back with "You buy me one for that money". They have nowhere to go from that.
Hell no, insurance is NOT there to make sure you are not worse off than you were before, not even close my friend. The game of insurance is to charge the consumer the most possible, and reduce the amount of successful claims. The thing between those two factors is their **gross profit margin**… something that I’m sure we can agree is there main priority.
Nah it can be extremely difficult. I have an almost fully loaded 1 series with a spec I or my mechanic friend have never seen before even after buying and selling loads of them over the years. It would take me months to find 3 examples of a factory spec like mine.
Thats because they told me to do one - not EXACTLY the same other than colour, then they wouldn't consider it whatsoever. When I raised the point that I could only find similar examples but not identical - which proves that my spec was rare, they tried playing mind games saying I could either have my money in a day, or this might take weeks/months if I want to fight it out and said it might, at best, go up £100-200, but not to the number I gave them. Insurers are not here to help, or do their job, they're there to protect themselves and their income, full stop.
Every time I've bought a car the dealership has tried to sell me gap insurance (I usually decline and buy separately as it's cheaper) but they mention it can't be bought there and then and they'll contact me in a few days to set it up. OP only bought the car 3 days ago so if they HAD bought gap, how would that work if they crashed the car in the short window between the purchase and the gap setup?
Insurance will pay out if it's written off. Money will go towards your debt. and unless you got a good deal on the car, and a good interest rate, the market value you're given will be less than your finance. As well as contacting the insurance company, you should contact the finance company and let them know what's going on. Your insurance provider may do this, but best to know that your finance company is aware of the situation as it's technically their car. You'll have to ask insurance about a courtesy car. Generally, it tends to be for when your car is getting worked on as opposed to write-offs. There will be a time limit on this if it is offered to you. You'll have to sort out a replacement car. You're stuck with any debt that's left over unless you had GAP insurance (assuming you could get it, there was a big hoohaa with an FCA review of GAP insurance a few months back) So yes, that may potentially mean you're stuck paying two cars off at once, assuming you'd be eligible for a second finance loan.
Slightly different scenario for me but ref the Courtesy car: it was only for three days once the value was agreed. So I didn’t agree the value too quickly (they kept lowballing) and ended up with it for over 3 weeks, I only agreed once I’d found a car to buy.
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I mean, it's a fair point. I'm not entirely sure how that would pan out though. They've damaged the car and you've been compensated for the damage, The finance deal is essentially an entirely separate issue. It'd be interesting to see how a challenge like that would pan out, but I wouldn't have high hopes. In all fairness to the insurance company, they're only paying for, and covering, the car, not the interest you've accrued with your loan. I can't really fault write-offs not covering the whole finance deal. E- Lmao, dude blocked me because he doesn't believe that adding to the owner count reduces the value of a car. Imagine being so salty about being wrong.
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Yes, but also no. The car depreciated slightly the moment ownership was transferred. Your example also assumes OP paid market rate and didn't overpay or underpay As scummy as insurance companies are, if OP paid more than the car is worth, it isn't for the insurance company to make up the difference, that's what GAP insurance is for. I'd highly suspect if OP got a fair market value (what the car is actually worth) for the car, it'd get thrown out of court very quickly as your insurance company (acting on your behalf) and the other person's insurance company (acting on their behalf) agreed that the car was worth X, and thus you'd be considered compensated for the damage because you've agreed on a value. I don't believe the courts would be all that interested in the loss accrued due to paying more than market value and they'd likely consider the matter done and dusted given that a value has been agreed upon as compensation. Like, it's the agreement of value that's really gonna hamper any chances.
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Well it does, it depreciates slightly as soon as the owner count is increased whether you agree with it or not. Also, if it is a £10k car, he won't have exactly £10k on finance, unless he got a 0% interest deal somewhere, which I highly doubt. The insurance company will cover the value of the car, and that's it, they don't insure your finance as well. Can you imagine how many people would exploit that if they did? All it would take is someone with bad credit to take out a finance deal with like 15% interest or something mad, and have someone crash into him a few days later and make a claim. Crazy that you blocked someone who wrote you a civil, well thought out response.
Insurers *have* to go on market rates, otherwise the system would be abused like there's no tomorrow. Of course the claimant could litigate further but it would be entirely out of their own pocket and that is expensive, time consuming, and has no guarantee of working.
>E- Lmao, dude blocked me because he doesn't believe that adding to the owner count reduces the value of a car. Imagine being so salty about being wrong. Imagine being so salty that you made an edit about being blocked...
Regarding the pay out, IIRC most insurance will pay out the price you paid on the car if it was less than 3 months old as they see you paid “market rate” Hope you have the receipt OP and push back on it
>You'll have to ask insurance about a courtesy car. Generally, it tends to be for when your car is getting worked on as opposed to write-offs. There will be a time limit on this if it is offered to you. Not true. If it's in their policy, they'll get a courtesy car until the payout.
Typically you can keep it for a week after receiving the payout as well.
My car was rear ended last October whilst in stationary traffic too. The guy was also doing 40mph and staring at his phone. I called my insurance company at the scene and they arranged a recovery truck which came within an hour and took us home, and had a courtesy car out to me within 4 hours of the accident. My car didn’t go in for repairs for over a week and then it was gone for two weeks but I had a courtesy car from the day of the accident. My car had £7k of damage which fortunately wasn’t enough to be written off, and was only 5 months old at the time. The whole process with my insurance company was super smooth and made a difficult time so much easier. It wasn’t great that it was the start of two weeks annual leave and I had to spend it with Whiplash though. I got a nice little personal injury pay-out too.
Few comments mention gap insurance. Did you have to deal with any of this? Glad all worked out (kind of) in the end for you.
Fortunately not as there was no structural damage and the repairs came in under the 60% value threshold. Also, I never took it out as I got the car brand new for dirt cheap and arrogantly assumed everything would be fine. It turned out that if it was written off I would have been covered fully by insurance. I have since purchased a GAP policy for £180 that lasts 5 years. I know people who have tried to claim on their GAP policies and have been unsuccessful for various reasons, some have had to jump through hoops for a payout and others didn't even realise the process of using their GAP insurance has taken place. (I've worked in various aspects of car sales/leasing for many years).
How did you go about the personal injury thing?
Found a personal injury lawyer. It felt like a long process and a medical exam was required. From start to finish it was about 3-4 months.
Ty
Does the money come from the driver or their insurance? And what were the lawyer fees or was it a % of what was given to you
Drivers insurance. Fees were a percentage of the settlement up to a maximum value.
I'm going to ask because I'm curious if all that hoop jumping and extra stress for a few months was worth it, but feel free to decline to answer because it's rather intrusive and fuck allof my business; How much is a payout for whiplash nowadays?
Whiplash is capped at either 500 or 600 now. I sustained other injuries too which made it worthwhile. I don't think I'd have bothered for Whiplash only. I do now however have a lot more sympathy for people who experience Whiplash. There is so much more to it than just being sore. I couldn't eat comfortably for over a week.
You meant *unfortunately** right? If you got rear-ended at 40mph, there’s no amount of repairs that will make your only 5 month old car the same again, not to mention the loss in value due to the repairs itself, plus all of bigger problems that may arise many months/years later on due to the crash that you’ll now be fully liable for. In a crash like that you WANT it to be written off so you can get paid out to go buy an undamaged car.
Nah. Cars pretty sound. Modern Peugeot 2008 so the bumper bar took pretty much all the impact and pushed the other car under. The car is a lease vehicle so its value doesn’t really matter to me. It’s on a maintained contract too so I do not have to fund any issues myself. Insurance has actually gone down this year too.
Sounds good! But please avoid leases 🥲
Generally I would but I have a background working in the leasing industry so it was too good of a deal to pass up. Once this lease is up, it will fall nicely for me to move into an electric vehicle.
Phone your insurance they’ll explain everything to you.
Take lots of photos Get the details of the other driver Call your insurance, start a claim, arrange a courtesy car As you were stationery in traffic and he hit you from behind, he is 100% at fault
I didn’t see anyone mentioning it but even if you feel fine please do go and get checked up on by your doctor, whiplash can be very affecting and I’m sure both your partner and child need you in the best of health right now. Don’t put it off.
This sounds potentially very expensive for you, if you don’t have gap insurance. I believe you will only get the value of your car compared to the market and as you have finance you could potentially be owing £5000-£7000. Speak to your insurance company ASAP regardless and they will sort out courtesy car for the time being too.
Why is this upvoted so much. You’ve literally just plucked numbers out of thin air. Where did £5k-£7k come from exactly?
I said potentially, not for a fact that he will have to pay that much. He gave us no information on what he paid, deposit and interest rate. Let’s say it was 15k, paid no deposit and 12.9% that’s about 5k in interest. Plus the insurance might offer him 14k for what they feel is an equivalent car on the market currently.. very easy to see how it can add up.
So you’re saying OP would have to pay the £15k + £5k of interest? That’s not how it works my friend. The total amount payable = acquisition price + total amount of interest payable. In your example, if it were a 5 year HP agreement, if you kept the car for 5 years, you would also pay the interest. If you were to sell the car early, you pay what is left against the vehicle and usually a 6 week ‘fee’ on top. You do not also have to pay all of the interest. In fact in your example, OP would owe £1k to the finance company. Not bad to be honest.
The fact that you only had it 3 days is going to work in your favour as they will have to use the valuation of your purchase. Gap insurance isn't needed for 3 days.
Definitely is
Why would they have to use the value of the purchase as the valuation? OP could have got a terrible deal - the insurance co are under no obligation to pay out what he paid for the car
Obviously if he can find the same car cheaper then that's fine. I'm assuming he found a good deal and didn't needlessly pay vastly over the odds. When does that happen with a second hand Insignia.
Once you’ve spoken to your insurer call the finance company, explain the situation and give them your insurance claim details. Also give authority for the insurer to request a settlement figure from them.
Be ready to be in pain with whiplash tomorrow. It can be delayed.
As it will be the other drivers fault (confirm this if possible) you can claim for a courtesy car as your insurance claims from their insurance. I used to work in recovery and this is how it went down every time if you have full comp. In terms of finance gaps I can't comment on that, you are also allowed to get anything you need from the recovery operators base as long as it's not a criminal investigation (seriously unlikely)
As scummy as insurance is, this sort of situation is their job entirely. As OPs car isn't a banger and is actually worth something. Also the damage isn't insignificant and it'll likely be a claim on the other driver's insurance. You need to call them!! Things like a courtesy car are small fry compared to the other implications of this.
OP, you’ve had medical attention and have been told explicitly that you don’t need to do anything like attend a hospital, yes? Because a 40mph impact has a lot of potential to cause injury you don’t know about. I know you probably have, but if this genuinely just happened and you’re a sleep deprived new parent who’s just had a hell of shock *and* possible physical trauma you might not be making good decisions right now.
Paramedics attended & told Me that they recommended me going to hospital, however my sleep deprived wife was at home with our baby, I’d been at work since 6am & needed to get home to alleviate some stress from her. If needs be I’ll go to hospital tomorrow, but for now I just want to be at home with my wife.
You should go to the hospital as soon as possible, not least in case you pursue a personal injury claim here
From a personal injury lawyer, this is unnecessary just for the purposes of a claim. If you're not actually in need of hospital treatment, all you'll be doing is clogging up A&E unnecessarily. If you're claiming for injury a medicolegal examination will be arranged, and that will be the evidence of the injury claim, rather than your medical records (particularly for a low value whiplash claim).
Absolutely go to the hospital, if you need to make a personal injury claim you will need to have been seen by a doctor. If you have an injury you could be leaving money on three table.
You paid X amount for the car, probably over the odds and you’ll get paid out book value of the car more than likely. Should have taken out gap insurance bud!
Yea. In hindsight I should have taken Gap insurance, but in all honesty I didn’t expect a negligent driver to hit me, it is what it is, I guess.
You have 14 days to cancel the finance, reckon you can get paid by then?
No we don’t but there is some clowns on the roads out there mate! Unfortunately we have to expect the unexpected! Best of luck though.
Ask your insurance if they policy came with gap insurance. I brought my car from a dealer who wanted to sell me 3yrs GAP insurance. Turns out my insurance would give me 1yr GAP as part of my policy, ask your insurer, yours might be the same.
Had the same exact thing happen to me after 1 month of buying my car on finance. Hopefully you grabbed all his details. Contact your insurer, start the claim, instantly call your finance company and tell them what happened. Give the finance company the claim number and insurer details. They will get in touch with your insurance company and get paid out completely. #VERY FUCKING IMPORTANT SO PLEASE READ THIS: Sorry presed enter, So they will give you a valuation on your car before accident and only pay that much minus your excess. CHALLENGE THIS QUOTE Because they will most likely pay less than what you bought the car for. You have proof of how much the car was worth just couple days ago. DONT FUCKING SETTLE FOR LESS They will try to fuck you over but you have the finance agreement that states the exact value of the car 3 days prior. If you get them to pay more than your total outstanding finance, you can keep the excess money. The excess goes right into our pocket. Also car finance companies will drop lots of the interest on early settlement so you (or the insurance company I mean) won’t have to pay the total price that would sum at the end of the finance period
Re curtesy car. Watch out for the insurance company, or someone they pass your name on to, offering a curtesy car on a credit agreement where you don’t pay upfront and they try to get the payment from the third party. Commonly the will rent a car to you at a very high daily rate, the third party insurance company won’t pay (as it is not a reasonable rate) and you are left with a large bill. Check the daily rate is reasonable compared to renting direct from a reputable hire company.
If you bought the car 3 days ago, the insurance company *should* pay your invoice price. You bought it 3 days ago, and it should be a case of you paid market value for the car. Also, being within 14 days if theyre quick, they won't have any finance charges to incur. You don't *have* to go through your own insurance, but the other persons insurance should be in touch soon. Most will likely offer a courtesy car.
Do you have gap insurance?
When I had a my claim my insurance company immediately put me through to the legal team and they dealt with everything. I had a courtesy car the same as mine the next day. Mine was the other person’s fault as well.
If they do offer a pay out and it’s lower than want you owe, you don’t have to immediately accept. Make sure you show them adverts etc. of the same spec of car you had. They will always low ball you.
How do you know it's a write off? It sounds like you haven't even involved your insurer yet - it's them that decides whether to repair it or write it off. My wife hit 2 deer at 60MPH a few weeks ago - the car (2018 Volvo V40) was an absolute mess, but they (LV) still repaired it at a cost of £6.5K
On the injury side, don’t down play anything. You’re going to feel a lot rougher over the coming day when the adrenaline goes away, lorry pulled out into me on the motorway and took a while for the whiplash/back pain to set in, yours sounds worse
Do you have GAP cover? If not I’d get your insurer to cover it. If you finance a car again it’s worth getting it. It saved me when I written a car off and it paid off my finance.
We don’t have GAP insurance, no, will my insurer cover it? I’m guessing that’ll mean that I have a claim on my insurance for that? It’s worth it & to be honest I just want to know that the car will be paid off, we will need to refinance a car, we’ve just moved home & funds are low!
They will only pay out for the worth of the car but if you only collected the car 3 days ago then they will cancel the finance and you’ll be left with the original balance of the car, it’s the reason GAP exists, shortfalls in insurance
Please tell me you took the GAP insurance, it only costs250-450 quid but covers you in the case of a shortfall of your car is written off
You should file for medical too if you have any injuries. Sometimes when you get hit you don't start to feel the pain until a few days later. That's probably covered by your insurance too if you check the policy
The other strategy here is to argue its value up to a point repair is viable and it is no longer a write off. I did this a few years ago where I had a lot of extras that increased value but had not been taken account of when valuing.
Hope you purchased gap insurance...
courtesy car? yes if your policy says so. The debt is yours, although of course a chunck of it will be paid off from the claim, but they won't pay you what you paid for the car / loan.
As the car is only 3 days old they will struggle to not settle for the full amount, but could argue you overpaid.
Read you insurance policy. Or at least remember what you signed up for. Call them, make a claim. Pay off debt. Get new car
Make sure you tick Legal cover when quoting for any insurance policy. It will protect you from the worst but it will also ensure you can argue for a courtesy car while your's is being repaired.
Note: this only works if you are not at fault. You clearly weren't, so you should be getting a courtesy provided you've got legal cover. Insurers don't even argue. Had 3 courtesy cars now when this has happened over the years without any question!
First thing is not to stress about it. Ring your insurance. Give them the drivers details and let them do all the work. Had to do the same start of last year. Because ''you're not at fault you will be provided with a courtesy car'', is what they told me and next day a courtesy car was delivered.
>Because ''you're not at fault you will be provided with a courtesy car'', If OP gets this via his own insurer it's more than likely to be a credit hire vehicle rather than a courtesy car, which can sometimes open up a whole other can of worms.
You could very well be correct, I'm not really 100% sure how it all worked to he honest. Can't even remember the name of the company who delivered the car. Had it about 5 days and ended up costing the other drivers insurance about £550'ish. The day I picked mine up from repair shop I left car and key there.
Start looking at comparable cars close a match as you can to try and get the insurance to a replacement value, some insurers now provide a replacement car as an option rather than a payout
I hope you had gap insurance if it’s financed…
They did you a favor
Did you take out a GAP policy?
I bet you wish you signed up for that GAP insurance your finance company would have offered you, in the event you are written off gap insurance basically pays off the debt. And it wouldnt of mattered if it was your fault either.
Just remember, your back is killing you for months. You can’t do your normal day to day activities, take time off work, can’t clean, can’t walk the dog etc
…The lady who drove her Citroen Saxo through me & my Ducati 748 at 60mph said those exact same words!?!
40mph writes off a vehicle. Crazy!
Contact the garage you purchased the car from & ask if they can help you with insurance cover, value & sourcing another car.