BigDavyG

There are a few posts I was going to reply to on here about individual insurance companies, but in the end it probably all comes down to personal experience.
In my experience of dealing with State Farm you need to be very careful if you are a State Farm policy holder involved in a collision with another State Farmer - they have a horrible little habit of settling these accidents knock for knock so that they can then load 2 premiums. Allstate have a similar 'policy' (quotes as in its not written down, but it is applied by claims adjustors if they get the chance).
Personally I have found Progressive's service to be superb. The incident above re the hire car surprises me as there claims handling is usually extremely efficient, especially for a company that is usually extremely price competitive and doesn't tend to cherry pick customers as much as some of the more established firms.

I can also tell you that Allstate have one of the most 'efficient' claims systems in the business. 'Efficient' in their terms means less money paid out per claim on average.

BigDavyG

Oh, and by the way, I think rental car coverage cost me $20 extra with my last policy - prob well worth it.

RoadWarriorFromLP

I'm no expert on this, but I'll share what I know:

Firstly, because you were not at fault, your payments will be coming from the other party's insurance, so in that sense, the limits of your own coverage aren't relevant as to whether you will get a rental car or not. Ultimately, that and everything else will come down to negotiation.

Understand that in a technical sense, the other party's insurance company owes you nothing -- it can't act in bad faith with you, because you have no business relationship with it. What it has is an obligation to take care of its policyholder's needs, which happens to include whatever costs he may have inflicted on your family because he signed a policy that had them agree to protect him against the expense of others who have claims against him. What that bit of babble means to you is that his carrier will likely not wish to give you a top-dollar payout, and may very well try to low-ball you as much as possible.

You should determine what you need here to make you whole. If you have related medical costs (even if they have been covered by your own health insurance), lost days at work, etc. that can be quantified, that will increase the amount in your demand.

You may have heard stories about people getting incredible payouts from minor auto accidents, but that is largely a matter of hype and outdated information. These days, insurers tend to fight for every penny against a third-party claimant, and if you do have a claim, you had better be prepared to show quantifiable actual damages, rather than depending a large "pain and suffering" award.

As for the car, you can expect that the insurance company will make some effort to give you less than they should. A typical approach is for the adjuster to take newspaper car ads, and use them selectively to give you something at the lower end of retail. Don't fall for that -- use the used car Kelley Blue Book to determine your value, which should typically be above the price you'd find in newspaper ads. Be sure that you make adjustments for mileage and options packages in your car, which can increase the value further still. Fight for that value, don't compromise on it, and continually insist that KBB is an official source used by dealers to determine used car prices.

You probably have the right in your state to file a "right of subrogation" with your insurance company, that essentially hands your claim over to your own insurer to fight on your behalf. I would personally recommend avoiding this, because (a) I'm not particularly keen to even notify my insurer of accidents that don't involve them and (b) they are not likely to care about getting you a maximum payout.

If the ultimate value of the car is below that of the loan amount, then without gap insurance, you do have a problem. In that case, I would make an effort to negotiate for a payout equal to the loan payoff, but I wouldn't expect it to work.

One last bit: Be wary of cashing checks for any partial amounts from the other party's insurance, as signing them might include your waiving any further pursuit of your claim. Don't agree to anything without first knowing the implications of what you are agreeing to.

Best of luck, and I hope that your family is OK.

Rete

The most important thing.... thank goodness they are okay.

You can expect replacement value. In other words you will be given the amount of what it would cost you to buy the same exact car with options and mileage. The check will either be made out to both you and the creditor or just given to the creditor who will then give you the difference.

The car if totalled will belong to the insurance company. You cannot sell it for scrap. It does not belong to you.

The other insurance does not have to rent you a car. Your insurance policy would be the one to provide a rental car if you took that option. You can try to get the other insurance company to reimburse you after the fact for the rental fees.

I've been there and back, twice over the last 34 years of driving and speak from my experiences.

Rete

Oh Laudy, Allstate, the magic hands people. THe only place you will find their hands is in your pocket, taking not giving.

You can have your insurance company deal with them directly if you chose. They will pay you the value of the vehicle less your deductible and then go after the other insurance company. Sometimes this works better if the other insurance company is a deadweight.

Manc

just like to add a little bit.......

Sue the guy direct.
whether or not he has insurance is irrelevant.
if you get a judgement against the guy for $100,000 and his policy limits at $100,000/$300,000 then the insurance have to pay it because the court says so.

if you get a judgement for $100,000 and he only has $20,000/$40,000 limits then the insurance company will only pay upto the limits of the policy.
but the insured himself will have to cough up the other $80,000.

personally, it's not your job to haggle with his insurance company. sue him directly, with evidence of your complete losses both financially, pain and suffering, loss of use, medical yadda yadda yadda.
if you can prove that you need indemnifying upto $x you'll be awarded $x.

just my 2penneth.

CarlM

Am sorry to hear of your familys misfortunre. If there is a positive outcome, you're going to get rich off the accident settlement, rear ended at the lights is pretty much clear who caused it!

BigDavyG

The rental coverage on your own policy is irrelevant if you are not at fault unless you go down the subrogation route.

BigDavyG

good advice.
If you haven't already get an attorney involved - you should not be negotiating with the insurers yourself.

HunterGreen

Hi,

I've only read page 1 of this thread as I have to get going, but wanted to make a quick reply. I was rear-ended two weeks ago, stationary waiting to turn left and the guy who hit me was under the dashboard trying to find his cigarette lighter. He assumed 100% liability (also called the police etc. basically was very courteous after his one dumb-ass move), and he's also insured with Allstate.

I was taken to the hospital to get checked because my neck and shoulder hurt quite bad, and had follow-up check-ups with my family doctor. My minivan came out of it quite well.

Now Allstate is paying for everything as he assumed 100% liability - the ambulance to the hospital, hospital costs, doctor's costs, repair of minivan, and rental vehicle (excluding gas and possible/optional additional insurance). You just need to keep your case number handy at all times, well, every time you're doing something related to the accident (like at the drs. office I needed it so they could charge it to Allstate instead of me).

Hopefully this info helped you some. Good luck with everything, and I'm glad everyone in your family was unhurt.

Elaine

HunterGreen

I wanted to add that my insurance (State Farm) has taken care of all the contacting Allstate etc. and all I need to do is the easy stuff (set up date for van to get fixed etc.).

RoadWarriorFromLP

To clarify my earlier post, there aren't going to be too many instances during which you'd sue the other party's insurance company -- technically, it owes you nothing, its obligation is to their insured, and it is paying you because it is obligated to defend its policy holder.

So if you do file suit, it is always against both the driver of the vehicle and the vehicle owner. (Of course, these are often the same person.) That being said, if you have no personal injury claim, you won't likely want or need a lawyer. You should be able to get retail blue book and a couple of weeks of rental car out of the other party's carrier on your own.

And in any case, unless there is some potential for a large personal injury award, you are highly unlikely to get a lawyer to take your case. Such lawyers work on contingency, and there has to be some promise of a payout to make it worth their while.

Again, I would not advise involving your insurer if you can avoid it. No reason that you should pay your deductible, only to have them drop the ball and not get as much as you might otherwise get.

Manc

Couple of further points.

If the damage is a small fendor bender etc..... and a police report determines categorically that the other party was at fault, there is no harm whatsoever in using your own collision coverage to get your vehicle repaired.

All insurance companies have subrogation departments and will collect what is theirs and will in almost all cases return your deductible to you if they collect it.

It depends on whetehr or not you want the hassle of fixing your problem and not shelling out a deductible yourself from the offset, or letting someone else do the legwork and you being reimbursed for it later on..

scrubbedexpat099

I do not want to be too picky, but:

I do not think KBB is the Car Dealer Book for valuing vehicles, or at least that was what I was told by a colleague who used to be a Car Dealer.

When settling a write off with their own Insured, some Companies specify the source they will use, which may well be KBB.

The bit about subrogation may confuse people.

1. If there is the possibility of a claim against you, especially if it could involve injury, you should tell your Insurers. Just because you think it is open and shut, does not always mean it is.

2. Subrogation is where an Insurer, having paid its Insured, takes over the Insured's rights against another party to recover its outlay.

An example would be using the situation mentioned above, your Mecial insurers pay bills arising out of a auto accident, they will try and get the money they have paid out back from a negligent third party. You would be stuck with your own co-pays/deductibles and would seek recovery of these costs seperately.

I would add that I have not heard of a Medical Insurance company also recovering your uninsured losses, but some may.

BigDavyG

You insurance company may seek the return of any deductibles on your behalf as part of the subrogation process.