We work with insurers, brokers, credit hire organisations, and fleet operators every day. This page is written for that audience: practical, protocol-aware, and built around the questions partners actually ask.
What is intervention in credit hire?
Intervention is a direct offer from the at-fault insurer to put the non-fault driver into a replacement vehicle themselves. The aim is to control the duration and rate of hire before a credit hire claim accrues.
Done well, intervention is in everyone's interest. The claimant stays mobile, the at-fault insurer manages its exposure, and disputes are reduced. The problems arise when an intervention offer is late, unclear, or not genuinely like-for-like, which is where good handling on both sides matters.
How does PurpleSquare Hire handle intervention offers?
We treat valid intervention offers seriously and respond promptly, while protecting the claimant's entitlement to a comparable vehicle without a gap in mobility. We do not leave a non-fault driver stranded, and we do not let charges run where a fair offer is on the table.
When an intervention offer arrives, we check it is genuinely like-for-like, that it reaches the claimant quickly, and that the terms are clear. If it is fair, we engage with it. If it falls short, we document why. Either way the decision is recorded, which keeps the position clean for later recovery or settlement. You can see the basis of our partner work on our direct hire for insurers and fleets page.
What is the GTA, and how does it govern recovery?
The General Terms of Agreement, or GTA, is the voluntary protocol between credit hire organisations and subscribing insurers. It sets agreed rates, notification steps, and timescales for handling and paying credit hire claims.
PurpleSquare Hire is a GTA subscriber, a member of The CHO, and a member of the BVRLA. Working within the GTA means our notifications, rates, and hire periods follow a recognised framework, which speeds up settlement and reduces friction. Where a claim falls outside the GTA, recovery proceeds on common law principles instead, and we handle both routes.
How does the recovery process work, step by step?
Recovery is the process of reclaiming hire and associated charges from the at-fault insurer once the claimant's losses are established. It runs in parallel with the hire, not after it.
In practice the sequence is straightforward:
- We notify the at-fault insurer promptly and open the claim under the GTA where applicable.
- We log need, rate, and the basis for the hire from day one.
- We monitor repair or total loss progress and record mitigation throughout.
- We off-hire as soon as the claimant's own vehicle is available or settlement is reached.
- We submit a documented claim and negotiate settlement, escalating to litigation only where it is genuinely warranted.
How do you keep hire periods and charges reasonable?
By managing the hire actively, not passively. We track repair timelines, chase engineer and total loss decisions, and off-hire the moment the need ends. A well-managed period is a defensible period.
The duty to mitigate sits at the centre of this. We keep clear records of need and reasonableness, which protects the claimant and gives the paying insurer confidence that the charges are fair. Defined terms such as need, mitigation, and basic hire rate are set out in our credit hire glossary.
What do insurer and fleet partners need to give us to settle quickly?
Three things speed everything up: early confirmation of liability, a named point of contact, and prompt engineering or total loss decisions. Those three are worth more to a clean settlement than anything else.
When liability is confirmed early and decisions are not left to drift, hire periods shrink, charges stay proportionate, and recovery is quick and uncontested. For fleet partners managing their own incidents, our fleet hire service keeps vehicles moving while the claim is handled in the background.