My car was rear-ended...insurance questions?

You are a prime target. Go get yourself a lawyer to protect your interests. The accident wasn't your fault, and you need someone with experience to take care of your interests. The person that hit you won't lose any money. That is what insurance is for.

sydkan

Why oh Why do people answer questions when they don't know what the heck they're talking about.

You have options. The first option is you can have your insurance take care of your damges. they will pay the MARKET VALUE (explain more later) on your vehicle. This is payable under Collision coverage so whatever your deductible they would dedcut this from your settlement. The benefit of doing this is 1. you are dealing with a company you know and should trust. 2. they can get things moving for you much more quickly that the other insurance company who won't even do anything till they complete their investigation.

You say you didn't get any info on the other company or the other driver. this happens often once the police show up especially if you were taken away by ambulance. this being the case the other insurance company will probably have to request the police report in order to obtain your infomation. this can take days or weeks. being that your vehicle is probably a total loss I would handle under your own policy.

Now as far as the settlement. An insurance company (or insured driver) only owes the fair market value of your vehicle. This is NOT a KBB or NADA value. The insurance company will do an evaluation based on they year, make, model, mileage, condition, attributes, tires and so on to get an idea of what your vehicle is worth. They will then contact the lienholder for what is called a 10 day pay off. Any money goes to the finance company first. What is left over comes to you. Being that your vehicle is a newer vehicle, this is where you will find out if you really got a good deal on your vehicle or not. What was the interest rate.

If the insurance company is unable to pay off the vehicle as you had a high interest rate of the vehicle depreciated quicker than the the loan payments that were made, does not make the driver who hit you responsible for this. I know that probably doesn't sound right but they do not owe for whatever financial situation you may have. For instance you rear end a vehicle and total it and because they have bad credit they got into a vehicole from Joe's I'll GIve You A Good Deal auto yard and then charged 26% interest, why would you owe for that? Same situation.

An insurance company only owed for a rental till a settlement offer is made whether you accept it or not, it is NOT till you find a replacement vehicle. In some states it is not owed at all but they will normally pay till the offer is made and then it would end. This is another reason why dealing with your own carrier is better.

You mentioned you were not inured, yet you were carried away by the ambulance. Technically that is an injury and you may be able to file a Med Pay or PIP claim on top of a bodily injury claim you have with the other insurance company.

I love that everyone recommends that you get an attorney. I'm not here to tell you what to do but 90% of the time the attorney causes more harm than good. and remember they're not doing it for free. They will take minimum 30% of what y ou could proably do on your own. If you do hire one, get a good one, not one of those you see on tv as they are almost always out for THEIR bottom line, not yours.

also your deductible applies regardless of fault. Some states may offer a deductible waiver but that is dependent on the state and insurance company you have. Also as you were rear ended, this will not always have a negative impact on your rates. Most insurance companies only charge now for at fault accidents unless you're having several of these types of claims a year.

I hope this helps you and I wish you lots of luck

CwboyBill

They advised you that you have two options -- because you DO have the option of attempting to recover the money from the other person or filing a claim with GEICO and letting them handle the whole thing for you. Using your own insurer you will have your deductible amount 'deducted' from the settlement amount -- hopefully to be returned to you if the other guy has insurance or can pay out of pocket. You should have no problem getting the full market value for your car if it's indeed a total loss but remember, if you owe more than it's worth YOU will have to pay the difference to the bank. Do yourself a huge favor and let GEICO handle this.
P.S. -- a lot of IDIOTS out there are screaming that you need to hire a lawyer. Why? Can't you handle a claim with your own company? A lawyer (those scum) will only drag out your settlement for six months and then take 1/3 of your settlement.
Damn.

Kizzy

First off, it's great that your not injured.

As far as insurance goes, you need to take a look at your own coverage. If you have collision coverage, make a claim on your own policy. If there's identification on the other party they should be able to waive your deductible. Having them handle the claim makes things go a bit faster. They should order the police report, they take care of the repairs or the total loss value for your vehicle. Then they approach the other carrier. In other words, their doing the leg work that you would have to do if you did it on your own. You pay a premium each month just for situations like this.

Your considered 1st party with your own carrier so they do try to handle the claim fairly. With the other carrier, your considered 3rd party..they have no contractual agreement with you, so if you don't like their offer, you'll fight hard to try to reach an agreement.

In regards to retaining an attorney, if your not pursuing an injury claim an attorney won't get involved as they get nothing from it.

Good luck to you!

car253

Kizzy had the perfect answer.

Let your insurance company handle EVERYTHING!!

They will figure the current value of your vehicle and pay off your car loan. You need to give them all your medical bills. Your insurance company will order the police report and do everything for you. Let your auto insurance company handle the claim. They will do all the work for you. That is what you pay them for.

Honda Girl

its hard to answer this question because I dont know if you have liability or full coverage..however in the state of NY if your rear ended its automaticallly the other persons fault.( the person that actually hit you). You really should have taken down his/her insurance information.as for pain. sometimes you dont feel pain right away. Sometimes the injury doesnt come up until weeks/days or months later so you should have reported to the hospital just in case ...that way its documented. and lastly as for your insurance I personally think you have one of two choices you can pay for it on your own... or let your insurance take care of it ... however be aware with some insurances once you let them take care of it.....whatever you were paying monthly may increase drastically .. depending if you have no fault or not ..I personally understand your situation because I was once in this situation myself .I wish you the best of luck but maybe you should get your insurance company back on the phone and have them go into further depth of the steps you need to take to get back on the road.

likurim

You said it... you are clueless and you don't know the law and your rights.

If you are rear ended the guy that hit you is ALWAYS at fault, UNLESS he was hit himself from behind.

And what do you mean you don't know whether he has insurance or not??? Was the police not there? Didn't you ask the cop? Didn't the cop tell you when and where to get a police report?

Not only are you supposed to NOT pay a deductible as you are not at fault, you are supposed to be able to get a rental car AT THE OTHER GUY'S EXPENSE until your car is either replaced or repaired.

However you WILL have to go after him; why, because his insurance has the right to pay for the MARKET VALUE of the car at the time of the accident.

In other words cars lose value as soon as they are out of the dealer's lot (they depreciate) so let's say you paid $12,000 for the car and it's now a year and a half old, the car will be worth LESS than $12,000, maybe around $10,000. And that is what the insurance will pay you, so you WILL NOT be able to go to a dealer and buy another brand new Fit.

If you are still paying for the car, (financing it) you DO NOT own the car, the loan company does... So if you financed a $12,000 car for say $16,000 payable in 5 years, now that the car is totaled guess what? You STILL owe the finance company $16,000 minus what you paid them in about a year's worth of ownership.

The finance company DOES NOT care that you had an accident and that it was not your fault, they STILL want that you promised by contract to pay.

Get one of those accident specialist lawyers in the yellow pages or one of those that advertise in TV late at night, because otherwise you are going to end up without a car and still owing money you shouldn't have to pay. So a lawyer will have to take this guy to court and get a court order for the guy to pay you the difference.

Ailene K

Your car insurance can take care of your damages.

Your all morons

Ok, did you go to the hospital by ambulance ?
Did you take pics of your injuries ?
Did you go to a lawyer ?
If not then why not ???
Unless you have Full coverage, no new car son. You'll get the current book value hopefully.

Go to a local lawyer now, and use the best there is, brakes failure, means negligence, find a negligence lawyer.

zz8n5c

You certainly are clueless.
First of all u never leave the scene of an accident with out everyone's insurance info. Did u call the police? Who's at fault.
Usually if ur insurance company fixes ur car ur rates will go up, so try to get the person at fault to pay.

SomeRandomGuy48

Did the other car buy your car dinner first?

Jessica

If they handle it, you will pay your deductible and they will pay off the loand of your car. Depending on your coverage and the negotiations with the other drivers insurance company, they will give you a rental car and may give you enough for a down payment on another car. However, your premiums will increase.
If you handle it, you will have to pay off your loan and handle all other expenses but it will not affect your monthly premiums. I suggest that you allow your insurance company to handle it. That is the entire reason that you pay insurance.

Hannah B

it depends on wether it was you fault or not if it was i'd hire a lawyer ASAP!

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