Insurance co's are dumb!

**placidfemme** · 5th July 2005, 14:58

Originally Posted by ManDownUnder

Quick calculation time...

If you will only get a payout of $100, find out how much you lose in your no claims bonus (get them to tell you how much per year, as well as the total amount until the point where your no claims bonus level gets back to where it was...)

It sounds like it MIGHT be cheaper to just pay for it...?!?

I haven't gone back over the thread in detail, but I'm fundamentally curious about why the person that hit Sam isn't paying all this stuff...!?? You shouldn't be losing ANYTHING!

Also - Look up the policy, and remind the insurance co if they provide cash for a loan vehicles while Sam is unable to use her bike. She might get a cage to use in the meantime...

MDU

lol you havn't seen Sam drive... she'd be in more danger in a cage then riding a bike with no gear and blindfolded

*has been in a cage when she drives and nearly shat myself

and we havn't even got out the yard yet*

I'll read through my policy tonight (it's at home) and see what it says about it.

In a nut shell:

The lady who hit Sam was going to pay by credit card, then freaked when she saw the amount ($611) and then went to her insurance... who said that my insurance had to pay because I have full cover and that they (her insurance) would re-fund my Insurance co. And unhingedlizard reckons that my insurance co might ask me to pay the excess and then at a later date they will refund me...

Unfortunatly, if thats the case I won't be able to get the bike fixed for a while... unless we take it out the "new bike" fund for Sam, which will set her back about 2 months... arrggg...

*doesn't want to live with bitching and moaning for 2 months*

**MSTRS:Me** · 5th July 2005, 15:18

I would be very surprised if you had to cough up the excess (in advance or otherwise) or if you lost your no-claims bonus. You are going thru your insurer, but the claim is effectively on the other parties' insurance so is not your financial problem.

**Lou Girardin** · 5th July 2005, 15:22

There's some confusing advice in here.
As I understand it Swann are your insurers. If you haven't made a claim, do so.
They then recover your excess from her insurer, you should not have to pay it first, particularly in view of the fact that they are the same company. You do not have to deal with State personally.
Do you have witnesses to her admission of guilt? Although the facts do speak for themselves.
Keep the pressure on and get names of everyone you deal with, make diary notes too.
I have never had to pay an excess first in a claim that wasn't my fault.

**Suney** · 5th July 2005, 21:50

State insurance sucks. Fullstop. All my ,friends and parent who were with them had trouble dealing with them,
They are good when it comes to receiving money but good luck trying to get a dime off them!
My friend just had his family's policy canceled with state (which inlcuded, house, cars, contents..etc) because they suck so much.
He had his car , mags, stereo stolen. Paid his $1000 excess and all he got back was a car on steelies $100 when he paid $2000 for his mag wheels.

**Mr Skid** · 5th July 2005, 22:00

Originally Posted by Suney

State insurance sucks. Fullstop. All my ,friends and parent who were with them had trouble dealing with them,
They are good when it comes to receiving money but good luck trying to get a dime off them!
My friend just had his family's policy canceled with state (which inlcuded, house, cars, contents..etc) because they suck so much.
He had his car , mags, stereo stolen. Paid his $1000 excess and all he got back was a car on steelies $100 when he paid $2000 for his mag wheels.

Did he have his mags specified on the insurance?
Most insurers ask you to specify if you've got audio equipment or wheels worth over a certain amount.

**placidfemme** · 6th July 2005, 07:47

Originally Posted by Lou Girardin

There's some confusing advice in here.
As I understand it Swann are your insurers. If you haven't made a claim, do so.
They then recover your excess from her insurer, you should not have to pay it first, particularly in view of the fact that they are the same company. You do not have to deal with State personally.
Do you have witnesses to her admission of guilt? Although the facts do speak for themselves.
Keep the pressure on and get names of everyone you deal with, make diary notes too.
I have never had to pay an excess first in a claim that wasn't my fault.

Yep I have filled out a claims form and given it back... I should hopefully hear back from them by the end of the week...

On the claims form they asked: "Please detail Driver/Riders movements 8 hours before the accident" lol I thought about saying to Sam "So how many times did you go to the toilet?" hehe

those claims forms are dumb, they ask the same question about 6 times...

Yes we do have witnesses who heard the lady admit fault was her own. They were our friends who went to help Sam as I had just got home and knew that if I tried to rush back into town in the shitty weather that day I'd proberly have come off myself... they (our friends) helped Sam at the scene and spoke with the lady and she even admitted to them the fault was hers...

**MSTRS:Me** · 6th July 2005, 08:56

Originally Posted by Mr Skid

Did he have his mags specified on the insurance?
Most insurers ask you to specify if you've got audio equipment or wheels worth over a certain amount.

This is correct. Policies normally are adjusted individually to cover non-standard items. BTW why is there so much bagging of State? I've had various types of cover from them for over 30 years - in that time I have made 6 claims (IIRC) and there was never any problem & was paid out promptly each time.

**unhingedlizard** · 6th July 2005, 08:58

kinda off topic but is your partner alright? No injuries or such?

**placidfemme** · 6th July 2005, 09:21

Originally Posted by unhingedlizard

kinda off topic but is your partner alright? No injuries or such?

Yep Sam's ok. She hurt her ankle when the bike went down (not sure how... maybe she twisted it or it was under the bike when it fell... not sure...) she had a nice bruise up her ankle and a nice limp for about 5 days. Went to the doctor and they said she had a sprain and to just rest her ankle for a few days... but she is all good now

Thanks for asking

**FlyingDutchMan** · 6th July 2005, 11:14

Originally Posted by MSTRS

This is correct. Policies normally are adjusted individually to cover non-standard items. BTW why is there so much bagging of State? I've had various types of cover from them for over 30 years - in that time I have made 6 claims (IIRC) and there was never any problem & was paid out promptly each time.

Why so much bagging of state? I've heard a lot of stories like this about state, you've been the first person I know who's said something nice about them. I'm with AMI, and they've been awesome so far ($1600 cheque three days after my bike got backed into, so I could fix it myself).

**Lou Girardin** · 6th July 2005, 12:08

Originally Posted by placidfemme

Yep I have filled out a claims form and given it back... I should hopefully hear back from them by the end of the week...

On the claims form they asked: "Please detail Driver/Riders movements 8 hours before the accident" lol I thought about saying to Sam "So how many times did you go to the toilet?" hehe

those claims forms are dumb, they ask the same question about 6 times...

Yes we do have witnesses who heard the lady admit fault was her own. They were our friends who went to help Sam as I had just got home and knew that if I tried to rush back into town in the shitty weather that day I'd proberly have come off myself... they (our friends) helped Sam at the scene and spoke with the lady and she even admitted to them the fault was hers...

Sounds good, you have right on your side, just hang in there. Nil Bastardus Carborandum!

**WRT** · 6th July 2005, 13:30

I am insured with State and recently wrote off my TLR. Had it insured for 12k, they offered me 8.5 (less my excess of 1500). I didnt loose my cool, just stated that I disputed their valuation, and asked how I could get my own valuation done. I suspected that things would wind up at the omsbudmans, but after I had my valuation done by Colemans, State sent their own guy out (the first guy apparently didnt even look at the wreck), and also backed that up with photos of the bike prior to the accident. His pre-accident valuation came in at 11.5k, which I accepted. Money in the bank about 2 working days later.

In my experience, State themselves were great, however . . . IAG (the underwriters) were very very reluctant to pay out. I think they offered me 8.5k to begin with just on the off chance that I would need the money and have to accept. As I didnt, and was prepared to argue the point I wound up with 10k in the hand as opposed to 7k - BIG difference. The whole incident from crash to cash took around 5 weeks, mostly due to their "rapid response team", which they claim take 48 hours to get back to you. In my experience, its more like 3-4 days, more if it falls over a weekend . . .

**vifferman** · 6th July 2005, 14:01

I'm insured with State too - 3 cars, the bike, house, contents. The only beef I have is that the excess on the VFR is... well... excessive. $1500 whether it's crashed, vandalised, stolen, drowns, gets sucked up by a tornado or catches fire, just because it's so HUGE (over 600cc or summat...)
That's just dumb, as the risk of it getting stolen is very low - it lives most of the time in a locked gargre: the one at work has security gates, and the one at home has an alarm. Also I suspect that the "over 600cc" thing is a result of all the HDs that have been flogged, and all the Suzukis that have been crashed...

I've had three bike claims through State (all on other people's policies), and all of them were handled OK. Also had no problems with a burglary claim, nor with the one car claim.

**placidfemme** · 16th July 2005, 10:22

Well just a quick update as to how slow these damn insurance co's are.

They got the claim form back from me last week (Wednesday I think... maybe sooner) and I called them up everyday since I posted it to hassle them (as they say the squeaky wheel gets the oil). And every day they said "We havn't recieved it yet". I called them up on Thursday and they said "We havn't recieved it". Got home Thursday night... in the post was a letter from them thanking us for the claim and giving us our claim number...

Called them up on Friday, the guy who I've been dealing with since the very first phone call says "We still havn't recieved it" and I said "Then why did you post me a letter saying you had and given me my claim number?". He rushes off and comes back 5 minutes later and advised me that they have recieved it (Duh!

). So I ask how long until the bike is fixed, I tell him that by them taking so long they already set me back over $100 in damn busfare and about $150+ in lost hours from work due to late busses, and this is unacceptable, and that if my bike is not sorted in a week then I'm changing Insurance co's.

He then tells me thier guy who checks the damage and aprroves the amount for repairs can only see the bike next week "sometime". I said that was unacdeptable. I want an EXACT date and an EXACT time. He mumbles something about being busy... and then promises it will be checked out by Wednesday at the latest.

Then who knows how long the repairs will take once the money has been paid...

ARRGGGG....

It's coming on 3 weeks now (or is it 4?) This is just stupid... If I had known it was going to take this damn long I would have proberly paid for it myself, would have taken less than 4 weeks to save the $611 to get it fixed...