After a non-fault accident you are entitled to stay mobile — and to a vehicle comparable to the one you lost, not the smallest thing on a forecourt.
The terms get used interchangeably, but they are not the same thing and the difference matters.
Usually provided by a repairer while your vehicle is with them. Often a small hatchback, whatever you normally drive, and only for the days the car is actually in the workshop.
Provided on credit hire and recovered from the at-fault insurer. It should be genuinely like-for-like — same class, same size, same practicality — and it covers the whole period you are without your own vehicle, including any wait for parts or for the insurer to authorise the work.
On a proven non-fault claim we deliver a like-for-like vehicle to your home or work within two hours of instruction, free of charge, for as long as the repair takes.
Not on a proven non-fault claim. The cost is recovered from the at-fault driver's insurer.
We will tell you honestly where you stand before anything is arranged. If liability is genuinely uncertain, we explain the risk rather than quietly running up a hire bill.
Until your own vehicle is repaired and returned, or until a total-loss settlement is agreed.
You keep the replacement for a reasonable period after the settlement is agreed, so you have time to buy something.
One call starts the recovery, the courtesy car and the claim at the same time.