My insured car registered in Ca state. $1K deductible. What if I need to repair 2 of 4 damaged parts in collision? Other 2 are slightly scratched so I can live with it. The idea is to save money. Can I come to body shop ask them to fix 2 parts only, while get full cost of repair minus deductible from my insurance company? Thanks
Collision on Insured Car: how to Deal with Partially Repair?
- Thread starter YMichurin
- Start date
- 11,997
As a guy I used to work with would say, "that's the F word, Fraud". You have to pay your deductible and then they pick up the rest. That said, sometimes (usually) a company will cut you a check for the cost of the repairs minus the deductible and call it good. Whether you get it repaired or not is irrelevant to them, but if you have damage to the same part of the car you'll have to prove it was originally repaired before they pay on it again.
G
Guest
Guest
I'm not sure I understand your post.
If you I assume the collision was your fault. If that is the case then you are going to be required to pay your deductible and the insurance company will pay anything beyond the deductible to repair the car. There is no reason not to get everything fixed unless those repairs are below your deductible and you do not want to involve your insurance company. If you have to involve them, then you need to get everything repaired and cough up your deductible.
If what you're asking is if the body shop can 'hide' your deductible then the answer is NO. The body shop might be willing to do it, but if they do, then you and the body shop are committing fraud, which is a felony. Is it worth risking a felony to save a few bucks? I hope your answer is 'no'.
If I didn't answer your questions then please repost and be more specific and I'll be glad to provide more specific answers.
- Thread starter
- #4
Thank you for your response. There is reason for me to save my money if I'm Ok to drive a car with few minor scratches. I do not see reason for insurance company to require to fix the whole car if customer wants do partial fix. Josh said they are not going to pay me for the next incident for the same not repaired part and I'm totally fine with it.
No, I do not want to hide anything or do something illegal. I'm asking for legal scenarios to deal with the problem, I thought that there are some regular well know practice used by insurance companies to deal with the problem, but from your reaction I see it is not.
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- 1,473
Well its simple you can file a claim and go to drive in claim with your insurance company. They will inspect the car and write you a check for the damage minus your dedutible.
Then you can fix your car at the shop you want. Or leave it not fixed but they will take pictures of your car and if you have another accident and see the car was not fix they will deduct the cost from your new claim.
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Then you can fix your car at the shop you want. Or leave it not fixed but they will take pictures of your car and if you have another accident and see the car was not fix they will deduct the cost from your new claim.
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If you do not owe money on the car, you can just get a check for the repairs. No work is needed and no, its not fraud to take the check and spend it on whatever. The check would be for the repairs at actual cash value (depreciated value) minus deductible.
To get the full amount of the repair usually requires having the repairs done. Its in your policy, but this might not be that big of a difference. It is still less the deductible.
If you owe money on the car, its in your contract that you will get the repairs done, so you have to do it. In this case, the check will be a 2 party check until the repairs are completed, then they will swap it out for one to the body shop (or they pay the shop direct).
The savings of not repairing 2 of 4 parts is probably negligible. Since you are in CA, the bulk of the cost is getting the paint done. For the most part, it doesn't matter if they paint a small area or a larger area, the cost of the paint booth is enormous. My point being you won't save as much as you think.
Now, what you can usually do is find a place that will do the repairs for much less than what the insurance company is paying for. If you don't know of a place, ask a couple of taxi drivers in the area. Turns out, they usually are paying someone to do body work on the taxi.
My only other advice is that if you can't pay a $1000 deductible, then lower the deductible and pay a little more in premium.
Dan
To get the full amount of the repair usually requires having the repairs done. Its in your policy, but this might not be that big of a difference. It is still less the deductible.
If you owe money on the car, its in your contract that you will get the repairs done, so you have to do it. In this case, the check will be a 2 party check until the repairs are completed, then they will swap it out for one to the body shop (or they pay the shop direct).
The savings of not repairing 2 of 4 parts is probably negligible. Since you are in CA, the bulk of the cost is getting the paint done. For the most part, it doesn't matter if they paint a small area or a larger area, the cost of the paint booth is enormous. My point being you won't save as much as you think.
Now, what you can usually do is find a place that will do the repairs for much less than what the insurance company is paying for. If you don't know of a place, ask a couple of taxi drivers in the area. Turns out, they usually are paying someone to do body work on the taxi.
My only other advice is that if you can't pay a $1000 deductible, then lower the deductible and pay a little more in premium.
Dan
- Thread starter
- #7
thank you for the response, Dan. In my case it is vice versa, - insurance company (Farmers) assigned me to their 'trusted' shop which estimated cost of $1750, while several nearby shops I visited on my own gave me estimation from $2370 to $4500, I was unable to find lower price. Claims representative from Farmers told me that I can do repair in any shop as it is Ca law and they will pay for it minus deductible, but if want to get a cash I can only count on this $1800 initial estimation, they not going to do independent estimation as I asked them, they will only do if I do repair. I even emailed them this independent estimations, but they said they did not care.
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- 11,997
The basic concept of insurance is to make you whole again. Not better or worse off than when you started. They're willing to pay for all of the repairs subject to the deductible at any shop you want which means they're covering everything they should. What it seems like you're looking for here is a way to change the agreement you made with them before the claim. You told farmers that if something were to happen to your vehicle that you would assume $1,000 of the cost of the damages before they paid a nickel so you received a reduced rate.
I get it, I do. When I was younger I had a $1,000 deductible because it saved me a fortune in premiums. A year down the road I meet a deer and unfortunately I had to eat more than I wanted to on it because that was the deal I had with progressive. I told them I wanted a $1,000 deductible and then when the time came for the claim I had to live with the consequences.
The independent estimations aren't going to come into play at all. Those are window dressing at best. Even if farmers paid them to do the work those numbers would likely get adjusted. Their obligation to you is to repair the vehicle at the shop of your choice and that's what it sounds like they're more than willing to do.
G
Guest
Guest
This is why I always advise my clients to carry $1K deductible for collision and $500 for comprehensive.
Comp coverage is less expensive so you won't see much of a rate difference in $1K vs $500 for comp coverage. You're also something like 3x more likely to have a comp claim than collision.
Plus all of the carriers I work with won't raise rates for a comp claim, but may for a collision claim.
