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Smart Shopper Questions About Auto Insurance & Accidents
3921 messages, Last post on May 17, 2008 at 4:12 AM
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Replying to: Mr_Shiftright (May 08, 2008 10:46 am) FYI, to get any check out of an insurance company one has to sign a statement confirming no future litigation. Such does not apply if suing the lady who hit me. Thanks again. I appreciate your insights. |
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Hello Everybody! My car was rear ended by a truck (happened in Texas), I called the police they asked me to exchange the insurance details (Thats the only police record). I immediately contacted my insurance company, they advised me to go thru the other guys insurance as it is not my fault and i dont have rental on my plan. The other guy's Insurance company estimated the damage and totaled the car, They are offering me 9920 dollars, my Insurance company is going by KBB value and offering me 10830$-100$ deductible= 10730 (800$ difference). Questions: A If I go through my insurance and they subrogate from the other company 1) will it increase my premium? 2) Is there a chance for the other party to say that they are not at 100% fault in a later stage? as there is no police report 3) Is it fine...if I inform the other company what I'm getting thru my insurance and ask them for that amount? Am not sure if they will discuss each other and ask my insurance to pay me less (my insurance didnt take a look at my car,they are going by KBB value, but the other company has taken a look at my car and estimated the value). If they dont agree for that amount...any suggestions to handle this situation? B 1) I recently spent some money on timing belt, tires, Battery etc for 1300$...they are offering me 100$ for the tires, but they rejected other expenses saying they are maintenance services. Is that so? 2) My new spare tire and wheel also got damaged...but they are saying those are included in the car price. Is that so? 3) Can they offer me any money for car rental to buy a new car? Please advise me Thx
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Replying to: rpbala (May 08, 2008 11:19 am) A 1) No fault accidents SHOULD NOT increase your premium but you might check with your agent to be sure 2) If the other party's insurance is offering a settlement then obviously it has been determined they were at fault. 3) The two insurance companies cannot compare settlement offers. Not sure, but I think that's called collusion. So negotiate away. Work all angles. B 1) Same problem I had. Seems the only way to fight that would be an independent appraisal. And there you'll spend at least $250 to get such and there's no guarantee the appraiser will agree. Or you can try arbitration. You'll have to balance the costs of proving your point verses what you're being offered. 2) Probably, but see B1 above. 3) That depends on Texas law. In California they must offer you $25 per day for "loss of use". You can take it in cash or you can use it towards a rental. Hopefully someone else can answer that question. Nevertheless, best of luck and don't let the bast$$ds get you down. Fight 'em. |
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Replying to: satire (May 08, 2008 10:00 am) I did have one experience with an auto insurer, State Farm, when my wife was rear ended by a drunk driver, and they were great. We had just bought the vehicle a year prior and were upside down on the vehicle, but they paid everything off. I like the option offered by Mr. Shiftright, get an independent arbitrator to do an appriasal and go to arbitration. Most likely the ins co won't agree unless it is binding. It may cost you a few hundred at most, but could be well worth it to you. Good luck, and let us know how you make out. Hey, where's marsha7 when you need him most? |
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After watching the ping pong game of insults going back and forth between satire and everybody else, the smart lawyer knows when to sit out an argument he can't win...so, rather than having to defend my attitude (and you know how rude I can get if I think I am beating my head against a wall), it was more fun to sit back back and watch... To quote a famous song: "You have to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em, know when to walk away, know when to run"...I ran... As far as totalling the car (breaking my own rule and jumping in where I am probably not wanted), I always thought it was up to the insurance company to set their own limit, usually between 75-85% of the value of the car... Sentimentality has zero value, and fair market value will be set by a number of factors, KBB and NADA just being a few of them... Not that I would take the side of the insurance company, but when you come right down to it, it is a wonder that our cars maintain any value at all, so we are lucky that we get as much as we do... For comparison, buy a diamond for $1000 and see if you can get over $250 for it when you sell it...buy $1000 worth of furniture and see if you can get $100 for it a year later...buy a $500 pair of cowboy boots and see if anyone offers you $50 for it a year later... Yet we all (me, too) expect that our cars should magically depreciate only 5-10% per year because we think that they are worth at 3 years almost what it was worth new... It simply does not pay to repair something if the cost of repair is close to the value of the vehicle, it is easier to just total it and junk it...insurance companies process thousands of claims daily, and to expect them to see your car as a crown jewel is ridiculous...if it is listed in a database somewhere, they will determne its value from that...after all, IT'S ONLY A CAR, IT ISN'T YOUR FIRST BORN CHILD, but many take it personally because some adjuster tells them that their car was hardly worth what a boat anchor is worth, but so many of us have our egos wrapped up in them with custom wheels, chrome, when all they are is a piece of depreciating metal... Years ago, ins companies used to try and find you a "similar" car...so if you had a 72 Impala with a 350, 4 door, power seats and A/C with AM/FM radio, they used to scour the countryside for a similar car... But when they found one, it only had a 2 barrel carb, you had a 4 barrel...theirs had no power seats, but everything else matched, so it was unacceptable...theirs had 35000 miles but yours only had 20000 miles...theirs needed a brake job, but your brakes were in good shape...they finally realized that they could spend months searching for a similar car, and nobody was ever happy... So, they defaulted to the most logical solution, esp as the auto population grew and more and more wrecks occurred daily...the simple answer was to total the car, pay you what it was worth, and close the file...the fact that your grandfather gave you that car for your 16th birthday really adds nothing to its value, but I have had clients that actually tell me they expect more because the car meant so much to them, as it came from Grandpa...I don't know whether to laugh or cry, as these people need a reality check...to actually think that someone will pay you an extra $500 or $1000 as tho Grandpa added any value to the car is absurd... Sadly, they let those people vote, when they should be institutionalized...
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Replying to: marsha7 (May 08, 2008 7:49 pm) Some of this is the way cars are pitched by ads and especially salespeople as being "investments." This is especially try for the chic models where they can play to the ego as well. As we all know, investments don't go down, or at least don't go down much; therefore the loss in value per year should be minimal in the owner's mind. This plays into the "wunderkar" approach in thinking as to value.
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Replying to: imidazol97 (May 09, 2008 5:32 am) -mike |
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I try to make is that the value of a used car is so variable, despite all of these "authorities" that list various values for retail, trade-in, etc... The most "scientific" system was for real estate, with appraisers determining value by using "comparables", and they are the "science" by which a lender will loan money, because an outside authority said it was worth what they said it was worth... Well, throw that out the window...condos that were built for $50K just a few years ago, were flipped and flipped again, suddenly "worth" $350K...Katrina hits, and they can't sell those condos for $100K, but numerous banks loaned $300K because some appraiser said they were worth it... Builders here cannot sell their $400K new homes, so, they are NOT worth $400K as the market is the true determiner of value... So, if real estate is that variable and tenous, how can anyone expect a used car to be valuable, when they depreciate like rocks, except for a famous few, but almost all cars probably do not have the value we want to think they do...so, when it is totalled, it is easy to see why insurance companies and policyholders are severely at odds, because even KBB, NADA, and Edmunds are based on wishin,' hopin, and prayin"... |
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Replying to: satire (May 07, 2008 10:45 pm) I think it would have helped making your case on that web page were you to give a little background as to what led you to the point where things start. Because it starts with you already angry you don't come off well on it. Just editorial advice. I certainly sympathize and, believe me, siding with an insurance company doesn't come easy for me. Bob/marsha explains it well. I hate agreeing with him but sometime it is inevitable. Take the settlement and go buy that car that Shifty is pointing you to. Maybe we could get cars insured by Farmers some sort of identifying device so we know not to run green lights around them.
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"I hate agreeing with him but sometime it is inevitable." I am flattered...no, HUMBLED...    Sometimes even the blind pig can stumble on an acorn, so maybe that is my function in life... 
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