Thanks for that mate I'm probably going to keep my policy going as they were pretty competitive, this was my first insurance claim, so hopefully won't effect anything. One thing I didn't understand though was when I first got my Golf GTi I phoned them from the dealership gave them the reg number and got my insurance transfered straight onto it after getting the certificate I noticed it was insured as a GTI 1.8 Turbo when the car was not the Turbo version told them this and it only saved my £15 a year when the Turbo version is group 14 and the standard version group 10 I would have expected the difference to be bigger than that. At the same time I told them about the aftermarket alloys which added £150 to my premium, so a turbo makes the car less of a risk than a set of cheapish alloy wheels strange lol.

Some of you will have seen my recent thread about my car being written off by a third party whilst parked. Anyway the claim has now been settled third party has accepted liability, payment has been made by Direct Line to me and my the cheque for my excess is on its way this week. Had to give my courtesy car back on Monday so I'm now car less. I was paying my insurance monthly started in March on a mk3 Golf paid my deposit then paying £45 a month or so, got my mk4 Golf GTI in May and transfered my insurance to that premium went up to £65 I think then added alloy wheels and told them and payment went upto £75 a month . Anyway question is since I no longer have a car will I be able cancel my policy and not have to make any more payments, or when I get a new car as I'm currently looking for one if the premium is cheaper than my previous one will my payments go back down? I'm looking at a couple of cars at the moment so haven't decided what to do yet, but at the moment I really can't be bothered talking to DL until I have to as some of there staff have been horrible to deal with, not all mind you some were nice. Also am I right in thinking that since the third party accepted liability this shouldn't affect my premiums at all. Thanks for any info Sean

Well I recieved an £800 cheque yesterday surely this isn't right I am not going to bank it, should I return it to them along with the receipt for the car and adverts etc. showing how much replacing it is likely to cost me? Not sure which department I need to send it to though, should I send it recorded delivery so I have proof I sent it. This is a bloody nightmare all I want is to be back in the position I was in before the accident. The hire car is due to go back on Monday which is going to leave me with out transport unless they agree to give me another one, which IMO they should as I can't afford to replace the car until the third party pays out and they should have to cover the costs of it. Sean

Well I have contacted Direct Line to dispute their valuation, they have said another engineer would revalue the car told them I want at least £2000. Seen a friend today who managed to get me a CAP valuation she said retail on a the same model and milage as mine should be about £2975 I would say minus a few hundred for being a previous cat D which seems to be about average from what I've seen on other cat D's for sale on autotrader etc. Apparantly third party's insurer still hasn't accepted liabilty which is unbelievable. Hire car is due to go back on the 13th after that I will be car less £800 isn't going to replace my car but unitl they payout I can't afford to get another. Sean

Any more advice please guys hoping to make a move on this ASAP before they send out the cheque. Sean

Thats what I was expecting I thought that they would sort this out before offering payment, so far it looks like they have made no effort at all, I contacted Direct Line liabiity department last week and she put me on hold and that they can't get in touch with the 3rd party insurers today. I mean come on that is rediculous this was early in the morning I managed to get 5 mins at work to ring them. So do I have to chase up the 3rd party ? I always assumed that the insurance company done this as they have to claim their costs back from them anyway. I knew I would be paying slightly more buying off the forecourt but I liked the car it was in a pretty rare colour nice condition etc. and I had somewhere to take it back to if I had any problems which I did find a few faults which were repaired at the dealers cost. But I don't think I paid that much over the odds for it maybe a few hundred quid or so but not £900. When transfrered the insurance over from my old car they didn't ask what I had paid for it just if it was valued at less than £40,000 This is the cheapest similair car local to me on the Autotrader website at the minute but this is a year older and has higher milage.

Thats what I would have thought to mate no idea what they are playing at, just had a look on their website and had to laugh (or cry not to sure which yet) when I read this "If you're hit by an uninsured driver we'll cover your excess and your no claims discount won't be affected" but your screwed if your hit by somebody who is insured? Hi mate yea I would like to dispute their valuation it's deffinitly going to cost me at least £2000 to get a car of similar spec and condition , I also had a set of Alloy wheels on the car got them 2nd hand so no reciept but I did declare them to Direct Line valued at £250 which added a further £150 to my premium. But like I said before the letter they sent didn't seem like an offer, basically they have said my car would be disposed of ASAP that I should send of my v5 to the DVLA and that I would recieve an £800 cheque within 5 days. I'm not sure what to do. Guess I will try and ring them tomorrow if I can get the time I only got the letter when I got home from work tonight so haven't had a chance to get in touch with them yet but the way I'm feeling at the minute I don't really want to speak to them as I'm likely to lose my temper and maybe make matters worse. I have motor legal protection on my policy no idea what I need to do though like I said this is all new to me, finding it hard to find the time to chase them up as I work 8am to 5.45pm 5 days a week and don't really get the time to contact them as their offices are shut by the time I get home, and being short staffed at work am struggling to find time to do it from there too. Basically they aren't helping me in any way shape or form I have had no contact from them except when I phoned to find the status of my car and was palmed off to the engineer who was assesing it and then this bloody letter.

Hi guys I need help here I feel like I'm being royally screwed over probably going to be a long post so please bare with me. Less than 2 months or so I bought my first decent car in abut 12 years (well to me it was decent). It was a mk4 VW Golf GTI 1.8 20valve I bought it from a local used car dealer 112,000 miles on the clock very clean, service history up to 99,000 miles a nice tidy car it had been cat D in 2003 which I was told about but assumed that since it was so long ago and had obvioulsy been MOT etc. a lot of time since then that it didn't really matter, to be honest the car looked nice, ran nice and was in very good condition for its age so much so most of my friends couldn't beieve it was a 10 year old car but it had been very well looked after. I paid £2400 for the car still have the receipt to prove it, it was my pride and joy spent hours most sundays cleaning and polishing it. Anyway thats the story of the car now my nightmare begins. 2 weeks ago I was staying at a friends house on a Friday night about 1.30am he woke me up to to tell me someone had just hit my car. A woman had crashed into when it was parked outside she tried to drive away but her car was wrecked to so only got just round the corner when my mate caught up with her anyway to cut things a little shorter the police came she was arrested for drink driving, anyway got her insurance details etc. Phoned Direct Line the next morning passed the details on and the police incident number, they sorted me out a hire car on the Monday since the hire car company was closed on sunday and I had to work saturday so couldn't arrange to pick it up. They also arranged for my car to be collected on the Monday to assess the damage. Chased them up a couple of times to find out the state of my claim eventually got an answer on Friday when I phoned ended up speaking to the engineer that was examining the car told me it was a write off and he valued it at £1500 which was a bit of a shock to say the least. Anyway today I get a letter say that it was all sorted and I would recieve a cheque for £800 in the next 5 days (1500 minus £700 excess) basically I class this as a blatant insult I don't want to claim from them I want the claim coming from the 3rd parties insurers they have not mentioned anything about the third party at all. I do not want to accept this the £1500 valuation was bad enough but now I feel like they are rubbing salt into the wound. I took out a £1500 bank loan to put towards the cost of the car which I have just started paying off. I shouldn't have to lose £1700 because of some idiot, seems like Direct Line aren't even trying to sort this out properly, maybe it works out cheaper for them just to give me the £800 rather than hassle the guilty drivers insurers I don't know I'm still paying for the premium as I was paying it monthly still 9 months to go as it was transferred from my previous car. I just want to be able to get my £2400 back so I can get another car of the same type I really don't know what to do now as I've never made a claim before I was told by most people that they should make an offer and I can accept or refuse it, doesn't seem to me like I have been made an offer at all basically its like theyv'e just said there you go thats what your getting now p*** off. Please give me some advice people I can't have this betwen the insurance and the loan I'm paying about £140 a month for something I haven't got and won't be able to replace. To be honest I feel sick to the stomach thinking about it but I don't know what to do. Sean

Thanks WheelerGeezer bh thats what I was my main worry that they had lost my records going by some of the stuff that I have read on here. Luckely they hadn't got my license through on Thursday tahnks for the replys. Sean

Thanks for the reply Crem there was no mention of resitting my test or revoking my license at the court hearing, I went in person nothing was mentioned. Well the expected 3 week's that they aim to send your license back is nearly up I know it may take a bit longer as they are using my digital passport number to verify identity hopefully not to long though. Sean

Hi there, I have recently applied for my driving license back after a 12 month ban, thing is the ban 11 or 12 years ago I think (I'm guessing here but I know it was before the theory test came in and before the new driver resit test rule) when I was young and foolish, I lost my job and went through a bit of a rough patch which caused me to move away from my home area and I don't think I finished paying the fine I got. I never bothered reapplying for my license due to still being young and not having been driving for long it seemed a bit pointless as I would not have been able to afford to run a car. Anyway I have sent of the application form with necessary payment but I am starting to wonder if I will actually get my license back after reading some of the post's on here about the DVLA's incompetence and also due to it being so long ago. Am I likely to get it back or does anyboy know of somebody who has been in a similair situation. Thanks Sean