ottotheboar

One of our cars had a small ding on the front, the other driver's insurance was great paid up without any issue and gave us a rental. The bodyshop told me that 46% of people do not repair their cars after an accident just do the bare minumum to make it roadworthy and pocket the rest. Due to this some not all companies were giving very low repair estimates / payouts.

tamms_1965

Not where I live, unless you're a college student.

another bloody yank

Yes.

Anian

Agree completely.

Bill_S

I got to this thread too late. I was going to suggest that Otto contact you for a detailed tutorial on the matter

another bloody yank

Oddly enough, I found that driving with only one headlight for the better part of a year was not as much of an impediment as I thought it would be.

Michael

Most of the insurance companies make the check directly payable to the auto body shop. A reputable body shop will not give you any of the money and insurance companies eventually will not accept estimates from unreputable body shops.

I suspect he is giving you a figure of 45% (suspect it is much lower) so that he can get your business and when the insurance companies realize what he is doing that, he'll close down and open under a different name.

Bob

I think some of this might depend on the state.

Here in MA, insurance companies have to provide you with a list of pre-approved body shops they will deal with, and if you use one, you don't worry about estimates as they deal direct and pay them direct.

You are also able to go to anyone you like, but if you use someone not on the list, the insurance company will only send you a cheque for the estimate of the job that the independent appraiser you first took the car too lists. He's the chap that'll say if it's a right off or not and you can see which ever inspector you like.

So in that case, if you get the minimum work done, you could be quids in.

S Folinsky

Most insurance policies are for guaranteed repair or replacement. The policy holder is given the option of either taking the cash or say "repair it." There are times where the owner simply doesn't want to keep the car any more and will take the cash and sell the car.

ottotheboar

They have been around a long time and used by the major companies, in this case it was State Farm. In our case the repair was $2800 but I could have just stuck two lights in and driven with a dented wing. As mentioned by Bob I had no obligation to go there and Sate Farm would have sent me a cheque. He was not soliciting business the subject came up when we were talking about vehicles with salvage or repaired titles.

Bill_S

I did exactly this one time. Took the money and ran, bought a new car.

Nutmegger

A number of years ago my OH backed out of the garage bang into the side door of my cleaning lady's car. Week after week went by and it wasn't repaired, we kept asking her about it as we were concerned that the insurance company hadn't taken care of her. Finally she admitted that she had used the money to pay for her immigration attorney, and my OH and I agreed that even though she had a dented (though perfectly roadworthy) car, this was one cloud that had a silver lining for her!

dakota44

The bottom line should be that you suffered a loss, are entitled to be compensated for that and you should decide if you want the repair or not. If you do not have the repair done you depreciate the value of your vehicle. Insurance companies should just pay you for your loss and you decide.

neil

I did well out of the first car I bought when I came here. End of 2002 I bought a '99 Mazda Protege with 49000 miles on it for $5000 cash (it was a manual and I think the dealer was glad to get rid of it - the book price at the time said something like $8500).

About a year later someone quite heavily dinged the rear panel in a car park and their insurance paid me $1300 for it and I never bothered fixing it.

I sold the car at the beginning of 2007 with about 110000 miles on it for $2300.

CelticRover

I have never had any substantive problems when asking for a 'cash out' insurance settlement after having an estimate performed at the dealership.