Auto Insurance Editing and Proofreading Services

The car is written off and the offer is £6,340. The owner has seen three like it advertised at £8,000 and concludes they are being cheated. They are almost certainly not, and the reason involves the difference between an asking price and a transacted one, an adjustment for mileage, and a deduction they have not noticed — none of which is in the letter.

We edit what motor insurers and their suppliers produce — total loss settlement letters and valuation explanations, policy wordings and schedules, claim notification and progress communications, repair authorisation and courtesy car information, renewal and mid-term adjustment notices, complaint responses, and the material explaining excesses and no-claims protection. Our editors work on letters sent to people having a bad month.

The total loss valuation explanation is where a motor insurer's reputation is decided, and its failure is a figure presented without the working. A settlement offer that cannot be followed is read as an opening bid. We work through these so the valuation names its sources and what they represent, since a customer comparing against advertised prices is comparing against a different thing and nobody has told them so; so the specific comparable vehicles used are listed with their mileage, age, specification and location, because three real examples are persuasive and a reference to "trade guides" is not; so every adjustment is shown as a line with its reason — mileage above or below average, condition, service history, previous damage — given that an unexplained round number reads as arbitrary; so anything deducted is itemised, including the outstanding premium and any salvage arrangement, as these are the deductions customers discover last and resent most; so the customer is told plainly what to do if they disagree, with what evidence would actually change the figure rather than an invitation to complain; so the retention option and its effect on the settlement is explained where salvage may be kept; so the timescale for payment is given as a date; and so the letter says what happens to the policy afterwards. Letters written this way settle claims without a complaint.

Everything you send is treated in confidence, including claims data, valuation methodology and customer correspondence. We are editors rather than adjusters, valuers or regulators, and we offer no view on valuations, coverage or any claim. What we can do is show the customer the working.