To keep a long story short. My car was parked on the street unoccupied a few weeks ago and was hit by a drunk driver.
Drunkies insurance accepted responsibility and offered a settlement. I tried to negotiate but at the end of the day my payout amount is $21,000.
I was expecting 23k min… hoping for 25k based on KBB and the comps I found.
I don't have much money right now between my other bills and my wedding this summer.
What do I do? What's the best option? Do I just take the best used car I can find and spend no more than 21k? Do I try and take out a 5-10k loan and buy a new Honda on a 5 year note and just hope I can pay it back sooner? I can technically afford a 10k loan at (just high balling at approx 6% int) at ~$195 a month.
Just confused here. I'm uprooted because of this drunk girl totaling my 2022 car with 45k miles on. I don't know what to do that won't put me at risk of something else. I'm hoping that this summer my electric bill will go down and I should be able to use my wife's insurance which will save me another $250 a month but that won't be for another 5 months at least.
Any advice would be appreciated
Edit: Spelling. Double characters
Help deciding what to do for a vehicle after an accident
byu/AdministrativePut801 inpersonalfinance
Posted by AdministrativePut801
6 Comments
Start with asking for what comps they used and try to poke holes in them. They may not budge and inform you the only way to negotiate the valuation is to bring in a 3rd party appraiser. Look into that, lookup total loss appraisal and call around and get a feel for what they think.
Keep in mind KBB does not sell cars.
The other option is to file with your insurance and hope they come up with a better valuation. They’ll subtract your deductible but since the other insurance company already accepted liability it should be a quick process to get that recovered.
Why not use this opportunity to get a $10,000 car?
You can ask your insurance company and agent for ideas or assistance.
You should be going through your own insurance company. They will be in a much better position to negotiate the total compensation amount with the other company. This is (part of) what you’re paying them for.
Ask them to send you links to comp prices they used to pay you out so you can take advantage of one of those deals in order to buy your car back. Additionally look for the exact car you have and miles and tell their insurance that you can’t afford to buy your car back since they are selling for this much
Before committing to anything, confirm whether you’ve actually signed the settlement paperwork yet — if not, you can still push back on that number. You already found comps supporting $23-25K, so send that data to the adjuster in writing and ask for a revised offer based on local market values. A $2,000-$4,000 difference is worth one more email before you close the claim