I was involved in a car accident in August 2016 – a van hit me from behind as I waited at a roundabout. I collected the contact details of the van driver and contacted my insurance company, Swiftcover. It arranged for the repairs to my car to be carried out, which were to my satisfaction. But to do this I had to pay the excess on my policy of £250. Swiftcover quickly agreed that the accident was not my fault. However, despite several emails and long phone calls it has not reimbursed me the £250. It initially claimed that it had not been able to contact the other driver, even though it told me he is insured with Axa Commercial. Axa owns Swiftcover.
It later emerged that it hadn’t tried to contact him at all – the case had gone to the wrong team internally. I am getting nowhere – can you help? GS, Bristol
Being hit by a driver who is insured by the same company appears to throw up this problem too often to be coincidental. We have featured similar cases in the past, and you can see why: there is no incentive for the insurer to chase the other side for the excess, as it is in effect trying to get the money out of another bit of the same company.
Happily, a call to Swiftcover swiftly resolved the matter. The company has apologised for the delay. “We can see that there were issues when it came to receiving liability, but this is not enough to warrant GS having to wait this long. His excess has now been paid in full and we have offered £75 as a gesture of goodwill,” says a spokeswoman.
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