Why do we pay for insurance.

[Green1]

Years ago I was invoved in a head on collision due to a car driving towards me on the wrong side of the road. I was doing less then 10mph as I was about to pull up.It bent my Transit like a bannana. It was finally settled and went 50/50
. When I complained and demanded a resson for it going 50/50 I was told it was because I was only Third party so would have no chance of wining. 
After that I have always gone full comp.
Last December I walked up to my van to find the rear doors were stoved in. Obviously no one left details so no one to claim against. So now another £500 out of pocket. Late January I was hit head on again because a BMW refused to giveway or even slow down. Again I was almost at a stop It was captured on film and a witness agreed it was all down to the third party not stopping.
It wasn;t just a tap on the nose I went without the van for a month as it needed a hole new front end it even bent the subframe.
Yesterday I had a phone call its been settled 50/50.
When I complained this time I got no response the person on the other end just went silent for a second and then carried on reading from his script.
I still see her driving around and she still refuses to give way and bullies other road users out of the way.
On the 18th this month I was punted across a roundabout when on the bike. Again no one to claim against.
I used the car for work today as I can't take riding the bike any longer every bump or ripple in the road is agony.I get home today to find someone has run into the back of my van again and again no details left.

Am I the only one that is honnest if I catch another car? Not that I have as I have eyes in the front of my head.

Rant over

[philward]

Bludy hell Mick, you have had some bad luck!
In my opinion, its our law industry who manipulate well intentioned laws to make huge amounts of money defending people who they know are guilty of breaking the law - driving the cost up and forcing insurance companies to defend via equally expensive defence lawyers.
My son backed his firms small pickup into the back of a £500 hatchback at 5mph (denting the back boot lid). He exchanged insurance details and told his boss who went round to the young girls house to offer to pay for repair (to save his insurance increasing). The girl/father initially said yes but then contacted a claims company and refused to then speak to him. At his next renewal his insurance premium rocketed so he rang ins company who advised it was due to a £13,500 claim! - 2 x wiplash (driver and passenger) and carhire (for driver and her mother who owned the car) and £500 for car. When he said why did you pay whiplash for a 5 mph bump, they said the cost of disputing the whiplash claim was too high and cheaper to pay the £13,500. Dishonest people and unethical law industry is the problem.
Second rant over!

[Moorey]

When it is 100% not your fault state on your claim form  no claim to be made against your insurance.

[SteveW]

Insurance companies want it to go 50/50. That way both sides lose their no claims and have a history of an accident against them.
Next renewal time both parties pay increased premiums, therefore more money for the insurance companies.

I was told that many years ago by an Insurance broker.

[Green1]

When it is 100% not your fault state on your claim form  no claim to be made against your insurance.

I would have thought footage would have been clear enough it wasn't my fault.
Thinking about it now I havn't been sent any paperwork at all. The only thing I signed was for a hire van.

I'm sitting at home today as I loaded the trailer this morning and my back went pop.

[Trigger]

It is because you are lazy Green 1.
You go through your insurance company and they take advantage of you. With a motor trade policy you never do a claim unless it unaffordable to your pocket. A trade policy can cost around £12,000 so, when you have it down to a 70% claims discount you don't want it to go back to the 12K a year.
What we do if someone knocks one of our vehicles or a customers vehicles that is under our responsibly is, do the leg work : inform the third party insurance company that we will be making a claim against them. They will insist that we have to take our vehicle to one of there recognized repairer but, no we don't. We get 3 estimates for the repair and damages and they have to payout for the lowest quote. This protects your no claims and you get the full amount.

A insurance company will tell you, this is not the way they work but, they soon change there mind if you tell them that if they do not except your quotes for the work then, you will hand the paper work for the claim over to your motoring solicitors and they will also have to pick up his bill. Strange at this point they send out a cheque   
   

[Laverda Dave]

When I had an accident on my VFR in 1999 caused by an idiot who rammed me from behind (he didn’t see my red bike behind a yellow double decker bus!) the police insisted I go to hospital as I could hardly move my head. The police asked me where I wanted my damaged bike taken to. I told them HGB, where I had bought it two months earlier.  When I was released from hospital after being fitted with a collar I caught the train home & popped into HGB to inspect the damage.
As soon as I walked into the shop they ran through the cost of the repairs (£2,500!!!) and told me they would contact my insurance company.  They then said there was another VFR ready for me to ride away! When I said riding a bike was out of the question due to my neck injury they said ‘Dont worry about that, this is £750/week hire charge and your insurance company will have to pay it as you need the bike for work and once we tell them the hire cost they will tell us to repair your bike asap.  We do this all the time and it makes the insurance company act quickly’.
In addition to the hire bike they sent me to see their own solicitor upstairs who started dealing with my claim. When I told him I had this service on my insurance again he said the same thing, all insurance companies are slow to act but when a third party solicitor becomes involved they act quickly as they pay the solicitors fees!
My insurance company went berserk when I told them I had a hire bike they were paying for (not that I could even ride it!) and I also had a solicitor on the case. Within a week I was sent to a consultant who confirmed I had a bad whiplash injury that would re-occur two or three times more in the year (he was right, my neck would just lock-up for two days at a time without warning). HGB were told to repair the bike for the full amount and I received a payout of £1,800 for my injury.  All the above was within a month of the accident. The HGB solicitor also made sure all the costs were paid by the third party insurer, my NCB was not affected.
Insurance companies charge a fortune and when they have your money they just want an easy life unless they are pushed into acting quickly. I would always use an idependent solicitor now to ensure the insurance companies act as they are supposed to, for their client and not themselves.