Car insurance - Tips & Advice - Direct Line car insurance

Sadly, accidents do happen and while nobody likes to be involved in one, it’s important that you know what needs to be done should you have to make a claim on your Direct Line Car Insurance policy. That way we can get you back on the road as soon as possible and minimise the stress and inconvenience for you.

If the accident has resulted in damage to another vehicle or injury to a person or to property, you must stop; you’re breaking the law if you don’t. However, even if you think you might have been at fault for the accident, never admit it at the time or offer to pay for any damage – if another driver admits blame, please let us know when you speak to us.

By law, drivers must exchange details of their insurance company. But you will be pleased to know that if you’re in an accident which is not your fault with an uninsured driver , as long as you have comprehensive insurance, Direct Line promises that you will not have to pay any excess and you will not lose your no claims bonus.

The first thing you need to do to claim is to ring us on our claims hotline 0845 246 8471. The line is open from 8am to 9pm during the week, 9am to 5pm on Saturday and 10am to 5pm on Sundays. You should try to give us full details of exactly what happened and preferably details of all other motorists or vehicles involved, together with names and contact details of any witnesses. If there is an extensive amount of damage to your car, if other vehicles or people were involved or if someone leaves the scene without leaving their details, the correct accident protocol is to call the police. They should give you a crime reference number, which you should notify us of when you call.

With any accident it’s helpful to have as much information as possible, so if you can, draw a diagram of the scene as soon as possible, showing vehicles, road layout and any other relevant features which could enable us to settle your claim even quicker.

After that, you can leave everything to us – as many as 95% of all claims can be agreed over the phone, so it’s rare that we’ll require you to fill in a claims form.

We’ll arrange to collect your damaged car (free of charge if you use one of our approved repairers) and we’ll take it to your nearest approved repairer to fix. They’ll clean it inside and out before returning it to you and any repairs they carry out will use only parts approved by the manufacturer and will be guaranteed for five years.

If your car is a total loss (in other words, the cost of repairs exceeds the current market value of your car), one of our engineers will place a value on it, taking into account the condition of the car before the accident, its age and the mileage it has done to assess how much you will receive in settlement.

You can find more details on how to claim online.