Plan Assist
Motor Claims FAQ's
What is an excess?
Why do I have to pay an excess when the accident wasn’t my fault?
What does my free £50,000 Legal Expenses Insurance cover me for?
Will Plan Assist’s Legal Expenses Cover help me claim for personal injuries?
What should I do if I am involved in a motor accident?
What should I do if I need to make a claim on my motor insurance
What do I do if one my vehicle is involved in a motor accident and the vehicle isn't driveable?
Do I need to report incidents if I don't intend claiming?
Do I need to report incidents to the police?
Do you provide a courtesy car if I have an accident?
Do I have to accept the amount offered to me by insurance company to settle my claim?
What is legal cover?
How will my claim history affect my Insurance premium?
How do I file a claim?
How can I help speed up the claim process?
Most insurance policies have an excess. An excess is the first amount of a claim that you are not
insured for (sometimes known as a deductible.) Your insurance company will not pay out unless
the claim is over the excess amount.
If the claim is over
the excess amount the insurers will remove this from the
amount they pay out. The excess therefore is something not
covered under the policy. The excess is your responsibility, and it is important you are aware of the excess amount when you take out your policy. You can often increase the amount of excess you pay on your policy in order to reduce the premium amount. This is called a voluntary excess.
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During non fault claims confusion often occurs between customers and insurance
companies because a large percentage of customers
believe that the insurance company should claim back
the excess on their behalf. However it is not your insurance company’s responsibility to claim your excess for you.
Plan Assist will act on your behalf to recover your
outstanding excess as swiftly as possible. Plan Assist will chase
the excess as part of the Free £50,000 Legal Expense Cover provided with your motor policy.
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Free Legal Expenses Insurance Cover provides indemnity of
up to £50,000 to cover the cost of recovering the losses
incurred from a guilty party or their insurers for anything
which is not covered on the policy, this includes excess and
other things like injury claims.
In the event of a claim a solicitor will assigned to pursue recovery of any uninsured
losses. Legal expenses are an additional service to most
insurance policies, many companies will charge but Plan Assist
provides this service free of charge.
Free Legal Expenses Cover is most beneficial when policies are not
covered fully comprehensive as it will assist in Accident loss
recovery. Accident loss recovery is the pursuit of claims
for recovery of policy excess (as discussed above) or repair costs
(when third party insured) following damage or total loss of
the insured vehicle.
For example if your vehicle is insured third party and it is written
off in an accident Plan Assist’s Legal Expenses Cover will reclaim
the replacement value of the vehicle from the other party on your behalf.
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Free Legal Expenses Cover will also help with the pursuit of claims following
personal injury. For example if you or a passenger
are injured in an accident and wish to claim damages then
there are usually £50,000’s worth of expenses to do this.
Pursuit of claims for the cost of replacement or repair of
any personal belongings damaged in an accident is also
included.
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Obtain full details of all parties involved in the accident, including vehicle registration numbers, drivers names and addresses and any insurance company details along with policy numbers. (They are obliged to provide these details under the Road Traffic Act)
Obtain full names and addresses of any witnesses.
Contact the Plan Assist Claim Line on 0844 826 9093 as soon as possible to inform us of your accident.
Go to hospital or your GP if you are injured.
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Plan Assist provides a Full Accident Management Service for motor related claims. As soon as an incident occurs you should call Plan Assist your dedicated claims assistance service for advice on the Claim Line number 0870 112 6980.
Make sure you have the name of your insurer and your policy number to hand.
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If you're involved in an accident and your vehicle isn't driveable, and you have Plan Breakdown Recovery Cover then please call Plan Assist’s 24 hour Recovery Line on 0844 826 9092 and we will arrange recovery of your vehicle.
If you have not specifically added Breakdown Recovery cover to your policy then whether you receive Breakdown Cover or not depends on the cover provided by your insurer. Please see your policy documentation for details or call the Plan Assist Claim Line 0844 826 9093.
Take out Plan Assist Breakdown Recovery Cover today. Benefits include-
- Roadside Assistance
- Roadside Start
- 24 Hour Cover – 365 days a year
For a full list of benefits please see Plan Assist
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You should report all accidents, thefts, attempted thefts, fire and malicious damage incidents, even if you are not going to make a claim against your insurance.
For any motor related claims please call the Plan Assist Claim Line 0844 826 9093. For all other claims please see our useful numbers page for your Insurer's claim line number.
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Theft, attempted theft and malicious damage incidents must be reported to the police within 48 hours. Please note the crime reference number as it will be required when you notify us of the incident.
For your Insurer's claim line number please link through to our useful numbers page.
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Whether you receive a courtesy vehicle or not is dependent on the particular insurance policy you have purchased. Courtesy cars are normally provided by comprehensive insurance whether the accident you were involved in was your fault or not. However all motor insurance policies have exclusions and conditions. You must check your policy document for full details of the motor insurance cover provided.
In the event that you are involved in a non-fault accident, where fault has been established as the third party’s, Plan Assist will seek to arrange a courtesy car for you.
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You do not have to accept an offer made to you by your insurer if you are not satisfied with it.
For example the wear and tear of your vehicle may be much less than the insurer or loss adjuster has taken into account in their valuation. The vehicle may have held its value more than they have realised.
If you would like to challenge an insurer’s valuation and claim settlement offer you need to build your case as to why their offer is insufficient. They may ask you for photo’s of the car that demonstrate it was in excellent condition. You could look for adverts in trade magazines for the same model and age car that support your valuation.
Once you have built your case you can then go back to your insurance company and ask them to re-evaluate their offer. Your claim advisor at Plan Assist will help you pursue the matter in order to resolve it as quickly as possible.
However if their offer if your insurer’s offer is still unsatisfactory to you, you have the right to refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service.
Their address is:
Financial Ombudsman Service
South Quay Plaza 2
183 Marsh Wall
London
E14 9SR
Telephone: 0845 080 1800
www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk
The Financial Ombudsman Service will handle most complaints you might have, but there are some instances that fall outside their authority. The Ombudsman's decision is binding upon us, but you are free to reject it without affecting your legal rights.
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Plan Assist’s Free Legal Cover provides assistance to recover uninsured losses (such as excess), medical losses or loss of earnings. We will provide up to £50,000 for legal costs to pursue a case, and up to £10,000 worth of cover to defend against any motoring prosecutions (N.B. excluding drink/drug-related offences).
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Typically before an Commercial Insurance company will provide you with a quote, they will look at all your previous claims including ones that were
not paid. If the insurer notices several claims in the last few
years they are likely to increase your premium.
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Usually the process of filing for a
claim is quick and simple but when an accident occurs it's
easy to become confused.
- DO notify your broker or your insurer directly as soon as
possible. For motor related claims call the Plan Assist Claim Line on 0844 826 9093a.s.a.p.
For all other claims please link through to our useful numbers page to find your Insurer's claim line number.
- DO tell the police immediately if you have suffered a
theft or malicious damage.
- DO take all possible action to prevent further loss or
damage and thereby minimise or reduce the loss
- DO take any immediate action possible to prevent it
happening again.
- DO tell your broker or direct insurer immediately if
you receive a solicitors letter, summons, notice of
prosecution or similar communication.
- DO NOT acknowledge a solicitors letter, summons, notice of
prosecution or similar communication.
- DO NOT admit liability or offer to pay compensation to
anyone. Pass all correspondence to your broker or direct
insurer, unanswered immediately.
Call thePlan Assist Claim Line a.s.a.p. on
0870 112 6980
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Be prepared to provide any information that is requested by the insurance
company or adjuster. The best way to prepare is to be
proactive and document vital information before a problem
comes to pass. For example, you may want to keep
duplicate records of key purchases offsite.
Call Plan Assist or your insurance company as soon as an incident occurs.
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