Negotiating With Car Insurance Companies:The Rest of the Story
Finding a check in the mail from our insurance company, I was grateful for Husband's perseverance. When I last shared about our car saga, we still had not had any resolution with either of the insurance companies involved. Our 1997 Bonneville that had been hit on the side by a driver for no apparent reason while in operation on a three lane highway, proved to be a challenging case to resolve. Although the driver of the vehicle which had hit our car had no license, proof of insurance had been provided. Husband had had his doubts that this insurance would prove to be legitimate but certainly hoped all would work out well.
The weeks went on as multiple calls made to the other insurance company proved fruitless. The claims adjuster assigned to our case was never available and did not return Husband's calls. Finally Husband was able to find someone else in the company who would try to help. As we carried uninsured motorist coverage our plan was to go to our own insurance carrier if there was no insurance on the vehicle we were hit by. Our company, however, did not want to move in this fashion unless they had confirmation that the vehicle that hit us was not insured. Certainly understandable but not easy to accomplish.
After much perseverance, Husband found out that as he had suspected, the insurance on the other car was fraudulent. When our car insurance company received verification of our need for uninsured motorist coverage and checked the police report of the accident, a claims adjuster was sent to our car to do an estimate of the damage. Now we have the check from our uninsured motorist coverage and have made a decision to sell this car "as is" and put the money towards our savings to purchase a more gas efficient second car.
Our other car situation too has a happy ending, but through a bit of different means. Our "newer" Toyota Camry that had been hit while I was backing out of a store parking space was the first car insurance dilemma to be settled. I have learned my lesson, and if there should ever be a next time, will insist upon getting a police report even for such a minor incident. Although the other driver who hit the side of my car admitted to me that the incident was entirely her fault, her insurance company decided to play a bit of "hard ball" and would not give us the entire amount of their estimated damage. Tempted to go to Small Claims Court, Husband decided to take another strategy. Husband decided to accept the offer of the insurance company and then due to the skill and help of a dear friend we were able to repair our Camry with the settled amount from the insurance company. We were truly blessed and were so grateful not to have had to come up with additional funds!
My negotiating with car insurance company advice is as follows:
Be sure to get a police report detailing the accident
Get the name and address and insurance company name and policy number of the other driver
Keep detailed notes of all transactions with the insurance companies
Be firm but kind in your conversation
Persevere and keep calling!
Oh, and thanks to all the advice so willingly shared on the comments of this post! We did decide to add collision coverage to our 2005 Toyota Camry as replacement of this vehicle would not come easy.
One Response to “Negotiating With Car Insurance Companies:The Rest of the Story”
November 15th, 2012 at 3:13 am
“Be firm but kind in your conversation”. I really like this idea, sometimes when things don’t happen the way we want it, we become short-tempered. I think I have to keep this thing in mind.
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