insurance settlements

[sharan]

how do you agree a settlement figure on a written off car? someone told me that you should never accept the first offer - how far should I go?

[Jay70]

Hi Sharon,  I would look through your local paper or auto trader and try and find adverts for the same make / model/ Yr of registration / condition and spec as your writen of vehicle to use as a guide price guide.  I have often found that insurance companies dont offer you a settlement fee equall to the cost of buying a replacement car.  Sometimes a guide book price doesn't always reflect current market trends.  You can actually send them the ads to use as a barganing tool.  Hope this helps.

[Impret-Sir]

You should absolutely not accept the first offer made to you by an insurance company. They make that first offer deliberately low, in the full knowledge that you will usually knock it back, they dont expect it to be accepted, but if it is, they rub their hands in glee!

[Cockney_si]

Also don't whatever you do send off anything to do with your ownership of the car until you are satisfied.

Some swine of an insurance company a** claimed that because they sent the settlement cheque out I should send the log book off to them straight away. But I was still in the process of agreeing to the settlement amount!

The car is still legally yours until they effectively buy it off you.

Once you have all the funds cleared in your account they can keep the car.

[alan47]

Hello sharan, my car was involved in a crash from the rear. No problem, the guy admitted it.

Although every rear end crash isnt the fault of the rear driver, anyway I digress.

My car was written off as beyond economic repair and a pittance was offered by the insurance company. What I did was similar to Jay70. I browsed all the local papers for similar adds which fitted my cars description and posted them to the insurance company with my rejection to their initial offer.

Without too much delay they agreed a realistic price and I was happy to accept. It pays to do your home work, Insurance companies are run by humans after all.