Direct Line Fee Before Claim!

[bainbrig]

Direct Line want us to pay them £250 BEFORE they’ll even look at our burglary claim!

This is the excess. Is this legal? Is it normal? What choice do we have?

BB

[ummmm]

I've never paid excess up front on either house or car insurance.

[Old_Geezer]

Not made a burglary claim, just car ones. But my expectation is that if I am paying the bills then the insurance company deducts the excess before sending me the cheque. If they are settling the bills then they may want the excess early on. Anything else seems bizarre to me.

[jno]

my understanding was the same as Ellipsis': you claimed, maybe it was investigated, and the excess was deducted from whatever you were entitled to, before payout. The idea of having to hand over cash before they even check out the claim is new to me.

[teacake44]

Insurance companies have to keep looking for ways of deterring fraud, so maybe the next time you claim ummmm, ( hopfully you don't) you may have to, they all however have different rules.

[ummmm]

And to me. I can understand it on things like subsidence as they have to send in an expert but not for a burglary or car crash/theft.

[Deskdiary]

Never heard of this - it needs to be challenged.

Firstly, there's no such thing as "small print". Consumer insurance contracts are written in plain English and are a doddle to follow - see the link below to a Direct Line policy.

https://www.directline.com/lib/pdf/dl-home-157-0818.pdf

Secondly, following a cursory look at the policy, please see the excerpt below headed "Your excess". A pertinent part of which states "We will only take off one excess for each claim". Taking one excess off means they will deduct the excess from the settlement.

"Your excess
You will have to pay any excesses shown in your schedule. This includes the specific escape of water excess.
There is no excess for claims under the additional covers contents outside and garden plants.
We will only take off one excess for each claim, unless there is an endorsement shown in your policy schedule to say otherwise.
If we have asked one of our suppliers to deal with all or part of your claim, we may ask them to collect the excess from you."

[ummmm]

My claims have been too straight forward for them to quibble about it.

[jno]

Deskdiary, that last sentence may be the one: "Collect the excess from you."

[teacake44]

Burglary/ car claims, and theft, as gone through the roof, big business for the conman.

[Deskdiary]

"Deskdiary, that last sentence may be the one: "Collect the excess from you.""

But that would only be once Direct Line's suppliers have replaced the stolen goods.

[Mamyalynne]

It may have been mentioned, if so I apologise - there are two types of Excess, Compulsory and Voluntary.

One is deducted from the final payout the other is payable upfront.

It may be worth checking which yours is.

Explained on the RAC page.

https://www.rac.co.uk/insurance/home-insurance/guides/excesses

[bainbrig]

Shed, not garage. All makes some sense, but as I asked earlier, what would happen if we were really poor, and couldn’t lay our hands on £250? No claim, no payout?

[Old_Geezer]

Probably have to ask the bank for a loan.

[chelle7272]

Checkmamya's link:
What does voluntary excess mean on home insurance?
Voluntary excess is paid on top of compulsory excess when you make a home insurance claim. This pre-decided amount will alter the amount of money you’ll receive for a claim.

For example, your voluntary excess is £100 and your compulsory excess is £50. You make a claim for roof damage that’ll cost £1,000 to fix. You’ll need to pay your insurer the voluntary excess, in this case £100, upfront. The insurer will then automatically deduct the compulsory excess off the original £1,000 you’ve claimed for. This means that you’ll receive £850 in total to fix your roof.

It looks like you must have opted for voluntary this excess with your policy so I'd check there first as has been said

[Ellipsis]

I think what's happening is, because the insurer is paying the bills directly to the repairers on your behalf, you have to pay the excess to the insurer.

[Mamyalynne]

Yes, definitely worth a call to clarify things and whether it is Compulsory or Voluntary Excess.

[Ellipsis]

Mamya's link uses inconsistent language. For example, at one point it says:

> Voluntary excess works in the same way as compulsory excess but the amount you pay is chosen by you. You’ll get to decide how much you wish to pay which can be as little as zero. You may find that the more voluntary excess you pay the cheaper the overall cost of your premium. However, you’ll need to pay both voluntary and compulsory excess when you make a claim.

Again, my impression is that they work exactly the same. Compulsory is the minimum, voluntary is however much you're prepared to pay above the minimum in order to lower the cost of the policy.

[Mamyalynne]

Compulsory is deducted by the insurers before final payout.

Voluntary is paid up front by the insured.

So if you have both, then yes overall you pay both, one way or another.

[craft1948]

I have house insurance with Direct Line and claimed last year when some idiot decided to fire an air rifle at my patio doors. My insurers sent the glazing company round and when the work was done the glaziers sent me an invoice for the excess.

[woofgang]

I claimed off my insurance last year and there was both a voluntary and a compulsory excess to be paid. I didn’t have to pay either until the claim has been assessed and the settlement agreed.