Check from car insurance claim- what would you do?

[calie_j]

I was under the impression it was rare to be able to cash the check yourself. Every time we've had a claim the check was made out to the body shop/repair shop and myself. Others have said it will be made our to you and the lein holder, I've never heard of that but it's the same situation.

Once the village snow plow scraped the side of our car and that check was made out only to us. We didn't do the repair and kept the money but it wasn't much of a scrape and was an older yr vehicle.

If the damage isn't too bad and you can live with it I'd pay down the loan, if possible depending who the check is made out to.

calie

 

[Barbers2005]

Hmmm...I didn't know the checks are usually written to two parties (owner/lender or owner/repair shop). Of course I wouldn't be upset to use the money to fix the car-it'd be like it never happened, but with a bonus headache. I have to admit that I'm puzzled by the posters who are concerned about what the neighbor would think if I didn't fix the car with the money. If our situations were reversed, I couldn't care less whether they fixed their car- that's their business. Besides, it didn't exactly give me warm fuzzies to have dh call me at work and say "you won't believe what I just saw out the window..." The neighbor's accident has caused me enough hassle without worrying about possible bruised feelings, KWIM?

 

[ICF]

We had a 6 week old van that got front end / side damage casued by someone else. Both the other driver and I had Progressive, and when I was paid the check was sent to me. There was no name for the repair shop I got the quote from, or the bank that had the loan.

I shopped around for other quotes and was able to get it done for about $650, when the check was for $900 or so. The only "catch" was....had the repair place that did the work found more damage, they could not have gone back to Progressive for additional $$'s. The place that gave Progressive the original estimate would have been able to cover any extra's through them. It turned out not to be an issue and I ended up with $250 for my troubles.

 

[TiggerStac]

I Others have said it will be made our to you and the lein holder, I've never heard of that but it's the same situation.

In MA, if it is 1,000 or more, it is made out to the leinholder and owner. Not sure about other states.

Have you brought it to a body shop to make sure there is no frame damage etc?? You never know if there is any underlying damage. It happens all the time, the insurance co rights for the bear minimum, hoping you'll take the $$ and run and there is a ton more damage.

When my car was rearended, all they wrote for was to replace a piece of plastic on my bumper that the guy who hit me..his license plate bracket gauged. It was about 350.00. There is more damage, and I pointed it out to the appraiser. My whole entire bumper buckled by the tire (on both sides). My damage is going to be a whole lot more $$ than what they wrote for. And my parents haven't even taken off the bumper, yet to see if there is any damage underneath!!

 

[keishashadow]

Two days ago my neighbors backed out of their driveway and into my car, scraping off a bunch of paint. Well, today I got the estimate from their insurance company- $1200. So, being the frugal person I am, I started thinking maybe I should use the money to pay down the remaining balance on the car loan, thus eliminating a bill each month. So, what do you all think, is driving an ugly car worth having one less source of debt?

Unless this is being filed under the neighbors homeowners policy (don't think so since it's a vehicle on vehicle incident); this involves auto insurance.

any check issued will come paid out to lien holder & you (read the fine print in your loan documents/insurance contract). There's a good likelihood not only are you REQUIRED to report the incident/file a claim but, you only have a certain "window" of time in which to do so.

not sure how the law/insurance works in your state...

in PA, the person w/the damaged vehicle is the one who files the claim w/their OWN insurance company...

then you go & get an estimate from a reputable garage (not the guy down the street who does paint jobs in his spare time), submit to insurance co. for approval of payment, assign check & pony up the deductible before the work is started.

If desired, your insurance company would then go "after" the neighbor.

The $1,200 amount is "peanuts", body work/paint jobs are very expensive. If the damage is as stated, I'd think it would be far more. If anything, i'd get your own estimate (and have the mechancial components checked) before settling for anything.

 

[Barbers2005]

Since the neighbors have admitted to 100% liability (our car was parked), we filed a claim with their insurance company so we aren't stuck with a deductible- our comprehensive deductible is $1000. I'll admit I haven't spoken with a legal professional about it, but when we called the insurance company, they seemed to think that was perfectly fine. I hadn't thought of having the damaged assessed myself- thanks for suggesting it. We called the insurance company and told them we wanted a repair shop to give us an estimate next week and we will call them if it's a significant difference. All the posts have been pretty helpful since I've never had to deal with an insurance claim before.

 

[graygables]

Since you have a loan on the car, you may be obligated to repair it. You would need to check the wording in the loan as well as whom the check was made out to. Often times an insurance company will issue the check to the lien holder as well as the person that is paying for the car.

When our car was damaged, the check had "Ford Motor Credit" as well as our names.

Yep. The lienholder still has an interest in the vehicle, you gotta have it repaired. Ask my Mustang and the hail that hit it all those years ago...

 

[seashoreCM]

I read this in a consumer magazine a few years ago:

Sometimes (often?) when the insurance company cuts you a check, the amount is somewhat less than what it usually takes to fix the car.

Sometimes the repair shop is able to negotiate it up, but only after showing that the repairs would indeed cost more. (Hint, you have to have a repair shop commence repairs!)

You could but with much more difficulty, show that the payment was too low and negotiate the payment up all by yourself.

If you don't use the money to fix the car, you would legally have to report it as income on your federal taxes. .

Whether or not you have the car fixed, I am quite sure you balance (wash) the insurance settlement against the appraised damage (or repair cost if you fixed the car) and then report the difference as a casualty loss or miscellaneous income.