While on holiday in France my Berlingo's windscreen developed a crack which rapidly extended itself across the drivers field of view. The 'call Autoglass' solution as in UK was not available and replacement at a local garage cost a whisker under 600Euro.
Claimed by e-mail on Monday 14 August with copy of invoice and screen shot of my credit card's transaction list showing the charge converted to £.
Cheque for full amount less excess received yesterday.
|
That has been my experience with LV also. All good.
Both SWMBO and I are insured with them.
You only find out how good or bad a company are when you make a claim and when my Accord tourer was written off they were very helpful and gave a very fair settlement .
|
|
The glass excess, or the general excess? Mine with LV are £90 and £400 respectively
|
>> The glass excess, or the general excess? Mine with LV are £90 and £400 respectively
Glass excess which is £100 on my policy.
|
>> >> The glass excess, or the general excess? Mine with LV are £90 and £400
>> respectively
>>
>> Glass excess which is £100 on my policy.
>>
We have all our insurance - both cars, house and travel, with LV= and they do seem to be steadily creeping the excesses up.
Excesses generally really annoy me - have £0 voluntary on the cars although I think my car has a mandatory £100. To my mind, if you're going through the hassle of dealing with an incident you don't want it to also cost you money. I forget the exact figure, but escape of water on the house policy is a few hundred pounds excess now.
|
>> Excesses generally really annoy me - have £0 voluntary on the cars although I think
>> my car has a mandatory £100. To my mind, if you're going through the hassle
>> of dealing with an incident you don't want it to also cost you money. I
>> forget the exact figure, but escape of water on the house policy is a few
>> hundred pounds excess now.
>>
I figure that out of choice, say a self inflicted scrape on a wall, I would not claim if less than around £400/£500 due to no claim bonus etc, so I might as well have a corresponding excess, I think the current excess on both cars is actually around £250.
|
>> I figure that out of choice, say a self inflicted scrape on a wall, I
>> would not claim if less than around £400/£500 due to no claim bonus etc, so
>> I might as well have a corresponding excess,
I use that 'logic' too, but I know it isn't really logical - you're right, I wouldn't claim for £500 but if I did have a claim then I'd want it paid in full. However, I tell myself that if I have a big claim it will be somebody else's fault:) So far, so good...
I found out about 18 months ago that my glass excess was £90 with LV, had to get the screen changed for the MoT - I thought it was £70, so they are creeping up. I'd better check mine is still £90.
|
>> I use that 'logic' too, but I know it isn't really logical - you're right,
>> I wouldn't claim for £500 but if I did have a claim then I'd want
>> it paid in full.
Exactly my thinking too. I'd prefer a "minimum claim value" than an excess.
|
>> I figure that out of choice, say a self inflicted scrape on a wall, I
>> would not claim if less than around £400/£500 due to no claim bonus etc, so
>> I might as well have a corresponding excess,
Very flawed thinking;
Let us say that you have calculated that a claim will cost you £500 in lost NCB and the like.
Thus, if your damage is only £500 then there is no point in claiming since you will receive a net £0. Knowing that you take a £500 excess.
Let us assume then that your next accident damage is £1,000. If you claim that £1,000 you will receive £1,000 less your new £500xs less £500 increased premiums and thus a net £0
So what then? a bigger excess or better logic?
The motivation for accepting a voluntary excess can only be justified on the premium savings it represents. It must be self funding given that in the event of a claim it is a loss.
Whether or not it is worthwhile claiming for smaller amounts is unrelated.
|
There are a few too many moving parts to make it a simple calculation, even if you had all the numbers. The hardest one is whether you will actually have a claim to make. You'd have to make assumptions about likelihood of a claim, value of claim. You need to know how much premium you could save, and how much your premium would increase after a claim.
I look at whether the higher excess feels like good value. The comparison sites make it fairly easy. A few years ago it was something like 4:1. £400 additional excess knocked about £100 off the premium. But at the time my premium was c. £500. It's considerably lower now and it's easy to see why that £100 is now a smaller saving. Reductio ad absurdum, if my premium was only £100 to start with, I clearly couldn't save £100 by increasing the excess by £400.
It's become less attractive for me to have a large excess, and I am minded to reduce it in future, at least until my premiums start going up again.
People paying bigger premiums will likely save more for a big excess.
|
>>Very flawed thinking >>
Clearly I would not simply choose to have a higher excess unless there is a corresponding saving in premium, and I also explaned that our current excess is around £250.
It's all around risk, how likely it is that an accident will happen and how likely it is a claim will be made.
If say, the premium is £300 and it is calculated that it would "cost" at least £300 to make a claim in respect of increased future premiums. Then if the likelihood of having an accident is small, then the likelihood of making a claim is even smaller, because a claim would only be made if the value is over £300. So if say, a saving of £50 can be made on the basis of accepting a £300 excess then that is a genuine saving in the event of no accidents occurring and also in the event of any accident occurring costing up to £350 ( "cost" of making a claim in respect of increased future premiums + premium saved) and would only lead to a loss in the event of an accident costing over £350.
It's a gamble though the £50 saving based on a £300 excess is worthwhile if the likelihood of making a claim is 5:1 or greater (5 times more likely not to claim than to claim) whereas the actual odds of making claim over £350 a great deal longer than that.
|
I have always taken a voluntary excess over my 50 years of car ownership.
Currently I have to pay the a £350 total excess saving some £20 / year.
Logic - any bumper scrape etc I would pay myself anyway as even with a modest £100 excess any claim would result in lost NCB/Premium increase.
Only claims in the past have been where the 3rd party paid up directly i.e. I did not claim
on my policy or the 3rd party insurer refunded my excess when the final settlement happened.
On the last occasion the 3rd party insurer took 23 months to admit liability @ 4pm on the eve of the court case when their insured admitted it was their fault - I think perjury / sphincter issues with taking the stand had a baring.
My car damage was some £1200, lawyer+medical+court etc etc came to £1800 -both the other drivers were with the same insurer & both denied it was their fault - I had been sitting @ a red traffic light for say 2 minutes when I was hit..
|
|
I have the largest excess I can, on all forms of insurance. I never buy domestic appliance insurance, mobile phone insurance, postage insurance etc. etc.
|
>>I never buy domestic appliance insurance, mobile phone insurance, postage insurance etc. etc.
Likewise - I only insure things you could not readily cover out of your own pocket should something go wrong.
Careful driving, looking after your possessions, locking house windows & doors, avoidance of risks cuts the chances of being out of pocket.
|
>>Logic - any bumper scrape etc I would pay myself anyway as even with a modest £100 excess any claim would result in lost NCB/Premium increase.
Technically you need to tell your insurer about these as well as the are notifiable incidents.
Don't know anyone who does though!
|
Odd experience just now, I thought I was heading for a fall out with LV=.
My car renewal was 5 August. I rang LV= to inform them of a non fault, no claim accident that my wife (a named driver) had in her own car in March; the third party admitted liability and her insurer, Direct Line, paid for our repairs. We dealt with it direct. The renewal premium I had been quoted went up by £10, which I accepted. LV= asked for no more details.
My wife's renewal date is 28 August. I rang LV= on her behalf to update them on the same incident, not relying on them reading across from one policy record to the other. To begin with, the CSR I spoke to (despite selecting the 'information has changed' option) seemed unable to understand that I was not making a claim. I was passed on. I was asked for full details, date, time of day, location, type and colour of the other car, name of third party, claim number - none of which they had been interested in 3 weeks ago. I was then put through to 'renewals' from whom I was now expecting a major premium hike.
No effect at all. Premium unchanged. So we are still friends.
|
>> I rang LV= to inform them of a non
>> fault, no claim accident that my wife (a named driver) had in her own car
>> in March; the third party admitted liability and her insurer, Direct Line, paid for our
>> repairs. We dealt with it direct.
Surely that's still a claim? It's one that you made it to the third party's insurer, rather than your own.
|
|
Technically it is a claim by the third party, I think, to discharge her liability to my wife.
|
LV= - Excellent Service - Hard Cheese
