kindertons accident management

[TF_gunta]

A bit of a long shot , sorry its not fishing related but was wondering if anyone on here had any experience of kindertons.Some toe rag has hit my daughters car ,drove off then went to police station half hour later but is refusing to hand over insurance details.His fault as he pulled out from being stationary at side of road as daughter was passing.i have his address looks like car is a right off, marked all of the side from front to back.cant decide to leave it in her insurers hands or use kindertons.Repair garage reccommended kindertons and passed her brochure.Seen lots of advice on here from all walks of life,any feedback much appreciated.

[TF_gunta]

bttt

[MadScientist]

Personally I’d report it to the police at the station he went to. He’s already commited an offence of leaving the scene of an accident, I guess, and now refusing to give details. The police can obtainm his details and insurances etc. At least you may find out if he is covered or not?

Sounds like an uninsured driver TBH.

[deemanParticipant]

Similar thing happened to me a few years back and I was told by my insurers solicitors that that if you report your suspisions that the driver was uninsured to the police within 2 weeks of the accident then the police have an obligation to investigate. OK if they’re not it doesn’t help your daughter with an insurance claim but if he isn’t then at least he will be prosecuted (Hopefully).

As long as your daughter can provide her insurance company with the details of the car i.e make, model, reg then they will be able to track down his insurers, if any.

Took over 18 months to sort out even involved private investigators to find her as she had moved. But the bitch paid in the end and alot more than the repair costs.

[TF_gunta]

yeh she reported it straight away , she actually seen him outside on her way out of station , before he went in, reported it after he refused to give details aswell went straight down and told them (2 offences no charge), police wont say about insurance, data protection if hes insured or not.They have phoned him he wont answer, and sent a letter , but slow process.I think i will take a chance and try these people.usual story no justice for the innocent.at least i know where he lives.

[TF_cheffieVRSParticipant]

Gunta, Send patch round!!

[TF_Gary]

I had a similar (albeit slightly more straightforward) situation when a drunk driver crashed in to my car while it was parked outside my house. Clearly it was a no-fault accident from my perspective, so my claim was handled by a company called Help Hire, who I believe are similar to Kindertons. These companies are extremely unpopular with insurers because they provide an excellent service, but certainly know how to charge for it and are pushing up the overall cost of car insurance claims.

For people like you and I who have been innocent victims in incidents like this, I think we deserve the good service that companies like these can provide, but they do actually rip off the insurers by charging exorbitant rates for courtesy cars and the like. Obviously this is no skin off your nose if you do not have to pick up the tab.

Luckily, in my case, the driver was insured (and also prosecuted) so it was pretty black and white and the other guy’s insurance company picked up the tab. I am not sure how the circumstances in your daughters case may make this more complex, but it is probably worth understanding this before you pass the claim over to a third party.

[TF_Runcton]

I had the same thing a few years ago. I just gave all the details to my insurance company and they sorted it out. I didnt loose my no claims as it was the other persons fault. My insurance company was able to get the details of the other persons insurance even though they would not give it to me.

[TF_Gary]

Taken from Kindertons’ website:

“OFTEN (my emphasis) the total cost of the claim will be recovered directly from the “at faultâ€

[TF_macca63]

A lot of the accident management companies are signatories to the ABI (Association of British Insurers) so they will have agreed rates with the insurance companies to hire out vehicles so don’t rip off the insurance company as someone has put it. Gunta I’ve sent you a PM mate

[TF_gunta]

cheers macca pm back

[TF_Gary]

Perhaps ‘rip off’ is a strong term, but the point is that the rental rates that these companies charge tend to be higher than would be the case if you sorted your own car hire out. My point was, if the accident management company is not able to recover the costs from the other driver, then you do not want to end up stuck with a huge bill.

macca, I do not know if you work in the insurance industry, but I am pretty close to it and I know that accident management companies are generally considered to be a nuisance (or worse) by most of the insurers that I have dealings with!

[TF_macca63]

Gary you are correct there are some unscrupulous accident management companies out there which do give the good guys like us a bad name. I work for an accident management company and it amazes me some of the stunts insurers will try and pull to get out of paying up so the feeling towards some insurance companies is mutual.

The problem with insurance companies is the fact they don’t always advise you what you are legally entitled to whereas we do – you pay premiums on your car then to add insult to injury at your time of need they try to stick you in the most basic cheapest car they can get their hands on just to save themselves money and they expect you to be grateful, talk about kicking a dog when its down.

[TF_Gary]

macca, as you will see from my original post, my experience dealing with an accident management company (Help Hire) was overwhelmingly positive. In fact, it was so good, that I was suspicious and did more research, which is the basis for my comments above. I think you are right that the AMCs are filling a gap in the market and often provide a great service to customers, but they are definitely increasing the overall cost of claims and hence car insurance premiums.

[TF_Gary]

gunta, if your daughter’s car is a write-off, another piece of advice that I would offer is do not accept the first offer that the insurance company (or their loss adjuster) makes for your car. If you go onto Auto Trader and find some equivalent cars that cost more than the offer you have had, send these over to your loss adjuster and you should be able to extract a higher settlement. I gained an extra 10-15% on my original offer by doing this – money for nothing!

[Author]

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