Each year the car insurance policy changes slightly. Having just received my renewal quote, there's an exciting new (to me anyway) minor annoyance. Now they want to add a £200 excess if I don't use one of their recommended repairers.
I've never had that in a policy before.
This is with LV. Is this common and everyone else has it? Have I just been lucky not to have had this so far?
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I think it's just you.
I renewed with LV two weeks ago, and they didn't specify anything like that.
I think it is targeted and completely personal.
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>> I think it's just you.
>>
>> I renewed with LV two weeks ago, and they didn't specify anything like that.
>>
>> I think it is targeted and completely personal.
>>
Both of ours renewed earlier this year and both had the new excesss. It's a bit buried in the renewal information - appears as part of policyholder (and named drivers) info.
For my old Merc the premium is still so reasonable I don't cross check it, but wife's Tiguan renewel seems to go up streadily every year, however it has both "kids" on it with business cover for them - when I've tried to get quotes elsewhere with the same cover, it all starts getting a bit vague.
It's possible you might not see it if you still have one of their older style policies - I did on the Merc until a few years ago but the premium became too expensive.
Last edited by: Bill Payer on Sun 23 Jun 19 at 11:22
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I'm with LV so I'll be looking out for that, I don't think it's a good idea and I wonder if it's actually right.
Imagine you have a brand new 1 year old car, I would want to have it repaired by the manufacture to maintain it's various warranties, I've bad experience of a 'recommended' repairer, yes you might get a 5 year warrantee but I bet they expect you not to still have the car so any defects would be passed onto a new owner (not sure if they can claim).
To me this is a bit like when PCs were shipped with installed software but they made it VERY difficult uninstall and use a third party, wasn't that made illegal? (sorry I'm not 100% on this).
So what if next year they raised it to £500 then £1000?
If I had a no fault claim then I would want to take my car to a trusted repairer of my choice, this seems to be very unfair and doesn't smell right to me.
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>> If I had a no fault claim then I would want to take my car
>> to a trusted repairer of my choice, this seems to be very unfair and doesn't
>> smell right to me.
Then take out an insurance policy with a different company.
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I've now had a run through of comparison sites, and LV (of the ones I'm prepared to consider), at £300, are cheapest for me. As I was impressed with their service when someone went into the back of the Zoe, I'm sticking with them, even with this new clause.
However, a little digging shows this non-LV recommended excess thing is now standard with them since last December, so look out if you are an LV customer who hadn't seen this.
See
help.lv.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2483/~/im-using-my-own-garage%2C-where-do-i-send-the-estimate%3F
The good news is they still do this, which I've used lots of times and saved a few tenners by doing so:
help.lv.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/53/related/1
Last edited by: Crankcase on Sun 23 Jun 19 at 10:09
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"......... and we can't offer a courtesy car" - that part has been the case for years and years, but not seen the additional excess before - will keep an eye open thanks.
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...and there will be no warranty …
I assume they mean from them, rather than the garage you choose directly of course.
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Still seems a sharp practice to me... they (and I suspect others) are gently forcing drivers to use garages they have an association with (before they often said things like 'there could be a delay in processing your claim'), I have a very local body-shop to me which is a two-man operation, restores historic cars and carries out insurance claims, wouldn't this start to squeeze out the smaller businesses? On top of that many new cars now have lengthy manufactures paint and anti-perforation warranties which, to be maintained, I suspect require bodywork to be done by them. I've successfully claimed on my 12 year anti-perferation warrantee right up to a month before it ended I don't think that this would have been the same if I had used a third-party during my ownership.
I guess if I had a no fault claim the £200 could be recovered from the other party, suspect like most insurance issues this has been driven by dodgy claims or over inflated estimates, bit like the windscreen excess which has gone up due to more complex/expensive screen and people smashing an old/tired screen just to get a new one on the cheap.
Don't know why this erks me, but seems a small amount of choice is being taken away.
CGN - sorry I took so long writing my post you've mentioned what I thought.
Last edited by: Rudedog on Sun 23 Jun 19 at 15:59
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>>Still seems a sharp practice to me..
For some years they have been saying to certain repairers "adhere to our standards, follow our policies, and give us a discount and we'll encourage people to come to you".
And now they've raised that to include "...and if you don't, we'll stop them coming to you".
And since people choose their motor insurance by which is the cheapest *to the penny* then not only is that approach necessary, it will also work.
Because it'll make their insurance policies £5.00 cheaper and that'll get them a ton of business.
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>> For some years they have been saying to certain repairers "adhere to our standards, follow
>> our policies, and give us a discount and we'll encourage people to come to you".
>>
>> And now they've raised that to include "...and if you don't, we'll stop them coming
>> to you".
>>
I'm not sure of the exact relationship but I think LV own many of the bodyshops they use.
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>> >> If I had a no fault claim then I would want to take my
>> car
>> >> to a trusted repairer of my choice, this seems to be very unfair
>>
If you have a no fault claim then you can simply recover the xs from the TP
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A third party needs to put you back to the same position that you were before the accident, including warranty and if this can only be achieved by using the manufacturers approved workshops then that is what that need to do.
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Yes.
This will only apply when someone is claiming for accidental damage that was their fault really. If LV saw an increase in cancellations or drop in new business they would remove the excess, but they won't.
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Non approved repairer excess may be new to LV but has been a standard condition for many Insurers for years
A quick Google reveals that Aviva/Quote Me Happy and Cooperative all use this and I expect so do many more. Check your policy!
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I had a claim 3 years ago when I hit a badger at ~70 mph on the M9 in the Kizashi.
Think I was with Admiral and they had similar policy - John Clark motors took the car away and had it back about 10 days later.
New bumper, new washer bottle (sits behind bumper), paint and some odds'n'sods - £1500ish claim and as far as I could see they did an immaculate job.
Even removed the bits of hair from the grille... :-(
Was offered a courtesy car but I just hit about in the Forester 'til it was ready.
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New insurance clause - Duncan
