Righto, I deal with insurance companies every day now. We have to cover courtesy cars on the customers own insurance, as those same insurance companies make it difficult for us to do it. This is for mechanical repairs though, rather than crash repairs.
We now keep a record of how each experience is. Here are the worst we deal with, taking into account speed of service and any charges made.
- AA - fast, but charge £25 admin to cover any car for one day.
- Abbey - Refuse to cover them at all, hopeless customer service.
- Admiral - Ok, but charge a minimum of £15 admin.
- AXA - refuse to cover courtesy cars, terrible support line.
- Budget - absolutely appalling service, I waited three hours for them to reply back with a not covered response. The customer gave up waiting after the first hour.
- Elephant - bad, very slow, and often get an 'offshore' call centre. Charge at least £15 for one day cover.
- Fortis - Ok service, but charge £20.
- Kwik-Fit - Crap service, charge between £25 and £45 for one day cover (making an excuse that it's not their charges, but the insurers).
- Privilege - OK service, can charge up to £45.
- Swintons - local broker dealings only, so service varies. They always charge from £25 to £40 though.
The best ones are:
- Direct Line - good fast service, only charge £7 if we lend a car of higher group.
- Endlseigh - fast service, no charge.
- Frizzell - Excellent, no need to phone, courtesy cars covered on the policy.
- Norwich Union Direct - same again, automatically covered.
- Liverpool Victoria/Zurich - and with these too.
If getting a replacement vehicle is important while you get yours in a garage, then it may pay to check the policy cover, and how much your saving on your cheaper quote.
The helplines are also worth bearing in mind too. Although Norwich Union have good cover on the policy, they have been known to be s**te when you need to sort a claim.
With nearly all the ones that charge, they also have a bad customer service line too, long hold times, and poorly trained staff - especially the ones that use offshore call centres. eSure are one to note here, although they do not really fall into the 'worst' list above, they can be fiddly at times. I've also found their vehicle database is badly incorrect too.
Hope this helps someone.