Is it worth getting this lens fixed or needs fixing?

[Spinning]

I have a cannon 50D. My walk around lens is a canon 18-200 3.5-5.6 I believe it will be 4 years old this winter.
I fell about 2 years ago and banged this lens. It seemed to work fine but lately it I find it is having trouble auto searching. Not always but more than it use to. I don't feel my pictures are as sharp and the lens creep is way more than ever before. If I am not using it I now must lock it.
Do lenses wear out? could it be from the bang?

If I do send it out to be fixed I will not be able to use my camera for indoor candid shots. My other 2 lens, 85 prime and 70-250. I am sure I can make due......
I have priced out this lens and it will be expensive to replace. But I also looked at Sigma and Tamron lens

 

[mom2rtk]

Most superzoom lenses suffer from lens creep at some point. I think it generally gets worse over time. It could just be that use over time has loosened it up.

It could be that replacing it would only get you another one that will slowly start to creep again.

 

[Twigs]

Hi Spinning! Hope all is well with you! I just had a similar dilemma with my Nikon 18 - 135 lens. Its the kit lens, and it stopped auto focusing at focal lengths longer than 18mm, and would make a whooshing or almost a sort of grinding noise. I didn't want to get a new lens at this time, so I looked and saw that the same lens refurbished is going for about $250 - $285.. I brought it in to Nikon on wednesday and it will cost $93 to fix it, so I went ahead with that. It will be ready in about 7 days. I also dropped the camera off to have the sensor cleaned, and got that back the next day.

 

[Spinning]

Hey there twigs! Long time no chat! The lens only has issues indoors/low light with and without the flash to focus short distances when zoomed out.. Not always though....It seems to be ok outside or further away. I went last weekend to Longwood gardens and shot a ton and all the pictures looked great....So I don't know...I did start looking at another lens...18-50 mm 2.8 I thought that might be a nice option to have. Then I could send the lens in to be looked at....maybe I am just justifying a reason to buy a new lens???