How to Maximize Your Car Insurance Claim

June 30, 2014 by

Your car insurance company’s primary job is to cover the cost of vehicle repairs… when it becomes damaged from a covered incident. More and more frequently, this entails your insurance company paying the repairer…directly.  What many covered drivers don’t fully realize is that they have the right to choose any auto body shop (with rare exception) and often…whether you choose to have any repairs done at all.  In many states, including California, it’s actually illegal for your insurance company to tell you that you must use a particular repairer that they have a relationship with.  It’s called “steering”…the act of directing you to or away from a specific repair shop…or requiring that repairs be made by a specific repair shop.


By design, car insurance must pay for all repair work that your car needs resulting from a covered accident…including and especially the repair of vital parts affecting the vehicle’s ability to be driven…as well as any body damage.  Despite the fact that an insurance company may want to minimize their financial losses, what they can’t take into consideration when paying a claim are that you may wish:

  • to do your own repairs
  • to use parts that aren’t as nice as the damaged ones (used replacement part are permissible, but usually must be in at least as good of condition as prior to the accident).
  • to not fix your car at all

Here are some limiting factors to bear in mind when considering doing any repairs yourself:

  • If you have a car loan not yet paid off…the bank owns your car…and they can (usually will) decide to fix it. …restoring it to its previous condition…because a damaged car has less collateral value.  In fact, you’re legally required to report damages to the vehicle to both your insurance and the bank if you don’t have it paid off.
  • If the car is deemed a total loss, but you want to do your own repairs…you must buy it back from the insurance company.  This doesn’t even sound good at first…and it usually isn’t worth considering in most situations.
  • You Must Make a Claim & Pay Your Deductible. It may not be entirely true that one single accident can raise your rates, every claim still goes on record.  Weighing the value of gaining an insurance claim check…against the ultimate cost of making an insurance claim is worth taking a few minutes to ponder.

Be sure to talk to your trusted body shop repairer to consider the pros and cons. But remember: your insurance company’s obligation is to pay you for all the damage done to your vehicle.  HOW you spend that money…is up to you.

Read More – LifeHacker

 

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9 Secrets Your Car Insurer Hides

May 25, 2012 by

 

  1. Just How Do We Set Premiums? …You’ll Never Find Out – Everything from the state you live in, your age and driving record,  credit history, homeownership and limits on past policies. Every insurer weighs and interprets those variables differently.
  2. If Your Car Gets Totaled, Good Luck Collecting It’s Full Value – You might be surprised to learn that Insurance Companies don’t derive values from standard sources like Kelley Blue Book or Edmunds. But the good news is, if your car gets totaled, you don’t need to accept your insurer’s first offer.
  3. And We’re Increasingly Likely to Declare Your Car a Total Loss – The percentage of damaged cars declared a total loss by insurers increased between 20% and 22% in 2009, up from 16% in 2003 and 7% in 1995.   Insurers’ rule of thumb is to declare a car totaled when repairs would exceed 70% of the vehicle s value, says J.D. Howard, executive director of iCan, the Insurance Consumer Advocate Network.
  4. Your Auto Repair Facility Might Actually Work for Us – The process is commonly known as “steering”.  It refers to direct-repair programs where insurers maintain lists of recommended repair facilities…Some insurers taking the relationship a step further by nudging policyholders toward program participants in order to “keep costs down and speed up the claims process”.   Some say that translates into insurers having too much control over the repair process, and with ever present pressure to keep costs low, possible shortcuts in repairs.
  5. When We Say This is a Good Policy, We Mean It’s Good for Us – Independent agents and brokers often receive a supplemental commission, aka a contingent commission, in addition to their normal commission…awarding them for selling a specific insurer s policy.   A 2005 Consumer Federation of America study found that 14 out of the top 20 auto and home insurers used contingent commissions. [Read More]
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