Went through claims process and took car to insurer's choice repairer on the day of my allocated appointment. 1 month later, still driving a hire car, I'm now being offered a cash settlement instead of a car repair.
A mechanic told me the repair should take 2 days with the right part - absolutely no way the car is a write-off.
Any reason why anyone would want to take a cash offer? Seems weird.
It's just a very common Toyota car, damage is minor and only limited to a certain location like rear bumper, but I definitely want it repaired.
Just wondering whether anyone has received an offer for a cash settlement, after the car has already taken away for repairs
No offence intended
Just wanting to see whether it's an insurance tactic to rip people off
make your common Toyota unique
Similar thing happened to me (except it was minor hail damage), they eventually offered me a cash settlement which I was more than happy to accept as it was like a grand over what I paid for the car
Wow, that definitely sounds like a no brainer. Did you get the car repaired elsewhere? And how long did they take your car away for 'repairs'?
Just find it weird a cash settlement wasn't offered right away in my case if they didn't want to repair it
Sorry I wasn't clear - they didn't take the car away, as it was in a driveable state. Though they said do not drive it (yeah right!), but they took over a month to get someone out to inspect the damage.
No don't apologise! This is helpful. Actually if they gave you more than the market value of the car, wouldn't it have been a complete write-off i.e. you have trouble buying insurance for that car ever again?
@fanbubbles: Yeah they took the car - it worked out for me, as I was thinking about getting rid of the car anyway! One of the very few success stories RE: Insurance companies ha ha
insurance companies can be strange sometimes with their decision making.
question for you is is the cash settlement more than the market value of the car? if so, take it. If not, fight for it to be repaired obviously. You wont be able to have both.
So are they having trouble sourcing the part and want to pay you the value of repairs ‘so you can do it later’ or are they writing off the whole car and giving you cash to replace the car?
Repairs
Take the money, sort it out yourself (or never repair it)
Why do you say this? Isn't there a risk that the money isn't enough to cover the repair?
@fanbubbles: Yes, there is a risk that underlying damage hasn’t been quoted, but if it looks like superficial minor damage it should be able to be repaired fairly cheaply. Plus, getting a repairer to give you a cash price/budget repair is likely to be cheaper. Ie they can use used parts to save $.
As an example, I recently had my front bumper hit, not at fault. The other party got a quote of $600ish to repair the bumper while I got a quote from an insurance mob to replace for $1400.
I guess the cost of the hire car has probably gone over what your car or repair is worth so they're just cutting their losses.
Could be this. No longer economical to provide hire car until replacement part arrives. Its cheaper for the insurance company to pay out.
Probably goes a little deeper, the repaired has probably told the insurance company "sorry, can't get the part for another month" - so the insurance company has decided cost of repair + cost of hire > pay-out threshold ;)
If the damage is minor, why not try one of the mobile services who fix and paint the car at your home? Just send them a photo and they quote within a few hours.
I got a bumper repair done by The Touch Up Guys in Melbourne last week, it cost me $275 versus the $850 excess I would've had to pay if I went through insurance.
Whether you can do this depends on the nature of the "part" you're waiting for, I guess.
What exactly is the car?
What exactly is the damage?
What have they not been able to complete the repair?
How much cash settlement are they offering?
Take the money and patch it up. Then drive it until it's 20 something years old.
How can we make a judgement call without photos of the car, age, description and value of the car etc?
Maybe bent chassis, who knows