Insurance write-off help

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rodisi
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Insurance write-off help

Post by rodisi »

Has anyone been in a write-off situation with an insurance company? I'm in that process and any advice would be welcome.
CANDO
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Post by CANDO »

In my experience the insurance valuation is usually less than you would value the vehicle (and sometimes a lot less than you were hoping for). But if the vehicle is worth less than £1000 or so to you I have found it better to accept the valuation in anticipation of a quick settlement.
Ben83
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Post by Ben83 »

A work collegue was offered something on the low side for his Fiat Brava a few months back (after he hit a tree trying to avoid a squirrel).
He found a car that more or less matched his one's age, mileage and spec on the Exchange and Mart website, before phoning the bloke at the insurance company and getting him to look at the same advert. They settled on more or less the asking price in the ad, gaining him 10-15% over the initial offer.
Cheers,
Ben.
ianb
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Post by ianb »

I've been in this situation twice now (not my doing either time).
The assessor advised to get several like for like adverts from the LOCAL autotrader, papers etc, once I'd done this the insurance company made offers around the top end of what I'd pay to get a similar car, one tip - stay polite and reasonable even if the first offer's low - it seemed to help me get a better deal both times -.
alan s
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Post by alan s »

Having been a "tyre kicker" for a few years, I can possibly offer a bit of advice albeit from another side of the globe.
As has been advised; keep it civil & never abusive, after all, they're the ones signing the cheque.
Do a quick lap of the car yards looking for comparable cars at comparable prices. Get a list as advertised on the same grounds and check up your dealers guide to car prices (I think you have Parkers over there from memory.) The dealers guide is the one they base their first price on usually, providing it's lower than cars for sale at the time. Dealers guides show a variety of prices ranging from "wholesale price for a car in poor condition" to "retail price for a car in good condition" and as you can imagine, it's the former not the latter price they offer.
There used to be an old saying "seek a quid but take a penny" and this is what they work on, so if they say offer 300 and you know the car is worth 450 and you say you want 450, they'll settle at 375 - 400. The tactic is to find a couple at 6 - 700 and tell them you want 650 and chances are you'll end up with your 450. Sometimes you get lucky & they come good with the 650, but then again, someone wins the Pools every week too don't they? But I'ts never me.[}:)][B)][B)]
If the dealers guide is higher than the price of the cars in the yards, then base your argument on the dealers guide price. Don't go too overboard with your value & think you're going to win; after all they do this for a living so soon spot where you're coming from.[8]
Alan S
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Post by mgoodlad »

Had this happen when my wife crashed our 1994 106 1.5D with 90k miles. Like the suggestion I looked for a few similar cars for sale in the press. It was 2 years ago but I guessed it was worth about £1500 with the higher miles and I found an identical one but 50k miles for £2300 - hearing stories from other people about their offers I was expecting about £1300. They called me up and it was £1900 to fix it or £1900 to write it off so I could choose. I nearly fell off my chair. But moaned a bit and told them about these other cars I had found and was the write off offer negotiable. The guy agreed on the phone £2100 there and then and that was it...! A happy customer. Remember the prices seem high as it was 2 years ago. I had decided before I didn't want it fixed as there was a few other things wrong before it crashed...eg 2nd gear crunching.
So advice given by the other posters is good - do some research and don't accept the first offer.
Michael
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benj
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Post by benj »

Two experinces
1 someone drove into the back of my volvo 440, this was a few years ago, I bought the car for 950, and after about 10k miles in a long line of emergency breaking the car behind be failed to leave enuf space to brake in time.
Insurance gave me £1000 pounds for the car but let my keep the car for £25! I repaired the rear (it was only light damage) and sold the car with the new buyer know ing what had happened for £400!!
a friend of mine had her mini cooper wrote off by a tractor, insurance didnt want to repair it because they say it would cost more than its worth to fix, she promptly foto copied adds from mini magazines and also found one advert in the local autotrader, the company agreed to fix it.
It seems either way the insurance companies were incompetent, if youve been treater very well keep shum and if its harsh shout loud!
rodisi
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Post by rodisi »

I appreciate the input from everyone. Haven't heard anything from them yet. Fingers crossed.
AlanBP
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Post by AlanBP »

My BX was crunched along a low wall grooving both lower door skins.
Its a G-Reg with 108K miles. Assessor came out, repairs priced with new doors etc so as expected a writeoff. Got a scary call about the lorry coming round to remove the car in a couple of days so take all my personal possesions out!
First offer was for £500 less my £100 excess, but wrote back asking for more & was offered £700 so £600 in hand, bought car for £100 so really car +£500. Got £30 worth of filler + cellulose paint £100!!! for 1 litre including laquer.
Need to re-MOT it though as they confiscated the last one, only 3 weeks old!
AlanP
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