As good as their word (Direct Line)

Member Name: jopassmore

Product:	Direct Line
Date:	17/12/01 (388 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: efficient, reliable, cheap policy

Disadvantages: no courtesy car

Some of you will know already that we had a prang in our new car recently. We had only had it 3 months when my husband drove into the back of another driver at a roundabout. Easily done, I know, but we really beat ourselves up about it afterwards, thinking what we could have done to avoid it. But what is done can't be undone, so we set about sorting out the mess.

Having read a few ops about our insurance company, Direct Line prior to this, I must admit, I was a little worried about dealing with them. They seemed to have a reputation for not living up to their 'easy to deal with, sorted out with no hassle' advertising claims. So, I picked up the phone with fear and trepidation expecting to be less than impressed with the response. Thankfully, I was pleasantly surprised.

The gentleman on the end of the phone, in spite of sounding young enough to be my son, was very professional in his approach. True to their claims, he took all the details of the accident and the cars involved over the phone, with no need to send out a laborious claims form. With the call almost complete, he gave me contact details of the person dealing with my claim and assured me that she would be in touch shortly to arrange an inspection of my vehicle.

True to his word, a couple of days later there was a message on my answer phone from the lady in question, asking me to call back to arrange an inspection. We had chosen to use our local garage for the repairs rather than having the car collected by Direct Line and taken to a garage of their choice.

In the meantime, we had taken the car to the garage so that our mechanic could inspect it and give us a quote for the repairs. We were still in two minds as to whether to make a claim on our insurance. To look at, our car appeared as good as new, as did the other party's car, so you can imagine my surprise when a quote for £700 worth of bodywork popped through my letter box, for our car alone.
After a bit of negotiation with the garage, they agreed that if we were paying for it ourselves the cost could be considerably reduced (cheeky!) and so I rang the other party to find out the cost of their repairs. Unfortunately their car was a company car and the company concerned wanted to 'go the whole hog' with the repairs as well as charging us for a courtesy car during the repair, so we had no choice but to make a claim on our insurance.

Whilst this negotiation was taking place, Direct Line put our call on hold. Once we had decided to make a claim, I rang them up to change the status of our claim and arrange an inspection after all. We arranged a convenient day for the inspection and I was told that once this was complete the garage could go ahead and repair the car.

The allotted day arrived and I took my car to the garage, said my final goodbyes and climbed into my courtesy car (arranged by the garage, not Direct Line). A couple of days later the garage called to say that our car had been repaired and could be picked up. Having expected the whole process to take at least a week, I happily drove to the garage to trade the Fiesta in for my very own Mondeo. I paid the garage the £150 excess (the normal excess is £100 but I chose £150 to make the policy cheaper) and was off.

I would like to say that that was the end of the palaver, but unfortunately the garage hadn't repaired the car correctly and it had to go back in a few days later to be completed. This however was not the fault of Direct Line.


All, in all, I have been extremely pleased with the service provided by Direct Line. They dealt with our claim extremely efficiently and the whole process went smoothly from start to finish. When you have to deal with the aftermath of a car accident, the last thing you want is hassle from your insurance company. We got none of this and for the cost of the policy, I would say that Direct Line policies ar
e certainly value for money. The cost of my policy was around £300 for fully comprehensive, protected no claims and two drivers. A similar policy with Tesco insurance costs around £330 whereas Norwich Union quoted me £415. The protected no-claims bonus allows us to make two claims in three years, so this claim will not affect our premiums next year. One thing to note though is that they do not provide a courtesy car in the event of an accident. This did not worry me as I knew we could get a car from our garage, but this would be crucial for some people.

We now have most of our insurance policies with Direct Line and to date, I haven't found an insurance company that compares either on price or service. We have made one other claim on our 'home contents' insurance and this too was very straightforward. As the claim was under £250 they did not even want to inspect the damage, simply sending us a cheque based on my word.

I could ramble on about their website, which is very comprehensive but extremely slow, but I written enough already. Other than to say, if you are looking for reliable, affordable insurance, hotfoot it down to http://www.directline.com.

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