Anybody out there got any experience with Minster Law ?????
I think they are part of Drive assist, can anyone confirm that ???

Yes, exactly the same happened to me. Left me with a car hire bill in excess of £8k.

It took 4 months for me to get my cheque for my written-off car.

The 3rd party insurers refused to pay which left me fully responsible for the cost. I had to get a solicitor involved and Drive Assist have just accepted £5k in full and final settlement. But we are still waiting for the 3rd party insurers to send the cheque for £5k on which they have all agreed.

Be very, very, careful as you signature will be scanned into lots of documents that you won't even have seen.

I've just seen this thread and am concerned. I am insured with Swinton insurance and had an accident 10 days ago, the other driver has admitted full liability.

On my insurance documents is a number to call in the event of an accident which I did. I have since been dealing with Drive Assist. I didnt realise at the time that they werent my insurance company and were a claims management company. Although to be fair to them they did fully explain that I would have to pay for the hire car if the other person didnt accept liability. They actually called the other persons insurer before sending the car to me to check that they had accepted liability. They also gave me free insurance cover to cover the costs of the hire car if things did go wrong. I got the top level of legal assistance with my insurance so I think this is why they gave me that.

The delivery driver did check the car with me and I signed the electronic device and was told that it would be used for the car hire documents, no others, I havent seen it on any other documents but will be keeping my eye out for that.

My car was taken the next day by ADR, arranged by Drive Assist, to have the damage assesed and has been written off. I have been offered a very reasonable amount for my car by a company called Incident Management Solutions

I have also been called by Physio Direct and will be starting physio with them, I have been told that the other party will be paying for this, bit worried now though...

I have also had an appointment made with a doctor to assess my injurys.

My personal injury claim is being managed by Minster Law, an initial offer was made by the third party which has ben refused.

During all this I have been contacted on a regular basis and spoken to friendly helpful staff... I'm now concerned that this is all going to go horribly wrong.

Has anyone else had this situation with Drive Assist and how did it end for you???

forget them ! in fact ,i think only a few people needs the services ,but i don't know how they can attract a lot of people ! but if it is time to stop ,i don't think it is bad news ! but it seem that not now !

This company 'Drive Assist' is still sponsored and supported by Marks and Spencer, despite it's appalling record.
Marks and Spencer hide behind the name Drive Assist.
I bet some of you people first came across Drive assist having been insured vis M&S.
As recently as August 2011 it was M&S car insurance who diverted my call to Drive Assist ( No numbers to dial, it was an internal transfer) They spent 40 minutes trying to convince me to have a hire car 'pick a nice one whilst yours is off the road'. These tactics
we are lead to believe are 'back street cowboys' BUT IN FACT THEY ARE SUPPORTED BY MASSIVE COMPANIES SUCH AS MARKS AND SPENCER. It transpires that my insurance ( arranged through M&S again ) WOULD NOT HAVE PAID FOR THE HIRE CAR.
So who is the common denominator in all this scandal Yes............Your POOR M&S.

i do not work for drive assist but how can it be illegal if they are still trading?,

you all go on like you were not aware of what was going on, that you did not know it was on a credit basis, you know the risks involved.

Im sure you signed for a credit hire agreement just as i have, i have read their T&C's and knew that i could foot the bill if the third party insurer did not pay out.

Tell me though what are they doing that is illegal?

Do you work for Drive Assist? You sound very supporting of Drive Assist and their illegal methods...

Feeling that action needs to be taken re DA methods, I have written to Jack Straw MP (who is reporting on the state of car insurance), my local MP, and my local Trading Standards office. I suggest that you all fire off letters/emails until something is done. The postings on this site leave me in no doubt that there is something very wrong going on.

Pecker

Have taken your advise and told them I will cooperate but have rectified the fabricated 'statement of truth' so that it reflects what happened really. I have written letters to both SW and drive Assist detailing the complaint and made a complaint re SW to the Insurance Ombudsman.

I have received another letter today from MTA.

Thank you for your help - I will keep you posted

if you are handing the vehicle back you will fill in the vehicle collection report so if you return the vehicle with damage then you should expect to pay what you agreed with DA if you return with no damage then nothing to pay and if you do not sign thinking that you are not responsible for hire charges then think again you signed for the hire agreement when you took the car, you get the T&C's at the start you have a chance to go through everything before you sign!!!

What happens if you refuse to sign the hand held device of the driver collecting your vehicle........might he say, well I can't take it then? And what benefit is there to not signing?
I'm about to hand mine back, thanks.

SMurff, suggest you did what we did (and you don't need your own solicitor to do this) - make sure that you mark this statement up and return it (so you can demonstrate cooperation) to MTA. Make sure that in your "mark-up" you reflect exactly what happened in your liaison with DA, in our case we made the point that at no time was it made clear that we would be liable for any costs and we also made the point that DA tried to persuade my wife to take a BMW instead of a smaller car which she refused. We also got MTA to confirm that we had fully cooperated with them in case this went to court (and this is the main reason we marked it up - if we had gone along with MTA's so called assertions and it had gone to court we would have been lying as to what had actually happened even it helped DA's case!).

We raised formal complaints with SW and DA (making the point that as far as we were aware everything had been sorted as it was nearly a year since the crash). I cannot believe that the motor insurers think this is the way to behave and retain business (SW who claim to look after the fairer sex completely washed their hands of us once DA had been appointed - hence, why we raised a formal complaint). The sooner this practise is stopped the better. If this happens again we will either hire a courtesy car ourselves or walk!

well not fighting, but dealing with.......against the at-fault party

Yes, it is a stitch up, I think every insurance company in the UK, except maybe M & S and John Lewis, now wash their hands of us and give us to Drive Assist. There must be 20 million drivers in the UK so you would think it would be a big thing, on all the news and morning tv shows; a massive scandal, but no...only users on here and on moneysavingexpert.com, seem to know about it. I googled Drive Assist on Watchdog's site and there is nothing. Nobody is doing anything! Even the trusted Which Magazine do not mention Drive Assist when reviewing car insurers.

And why do Drive Assist sound so friendly on the phone? I always get a woman who sounds like Gwen Taylor. So either they are schizophrenic, or it's just their people at the top who are the nasty scammers.

I don't understand...how can Swinton say DA are fighting your case...against whom? Really, I read all the messages posted and I'm totally amazed that this company is still in operation. I think it's a stitch up - Sheila's Wheels, Swinton and my own (well not any more!) Premier are all in it together with DA doing the collecting. Bullying, intimidation is their method and then its back/handers to the insurance companies who pass our details to DA. I look at advertisements for car insurance...all so happy/jokey and I fee sick.

huckster:

Would that not be a Police matter or would they consider it a civil issue. I would have thought that if DA had added your signature to other documents, that this is attempted fraud. BUT the Police will ask you what proof you have, that you did not sign the other documents. Would the Police if they got involved, ask DA for the original documents you completed ?

No harm in making enquiries of the Police.

Hi, I found a document Drive Assist sent me. It has 'Credit Hire Replacement Vehicle Service' on the top and on the bottom, a Declaration stating 'I confirm I have read and understood my responsibilities and the basis upon which I am accepting this vehicle, as detailed above, I understand that my one signature will be captured electronically and I authorise Drive Assist to transfer it to the Credit Hire Agreement, and the Vehicle Condition Report.'

Interestingly I did not sign this declaration, the signature space at the bottom is empty.

Swinton, my trusted insurer, who secretly handed me over to Drive Assist, keep telling me not to worry and to trust in Drive Assist who are fighting my case.