Car Insurance Help.

Looking for some advice on dealing with a claim on my wife’s car. Her car was hit a few weeks back and American Family’s claims adjuster totaled the car. They offered us $4400 for the car but we can not find anything similar for that price. Most cars we have looked at are running $500 to $1000 more than that and this doesnt even include tax, and ect. So I have been trying to get this claims adjuster to budge on his offer but for some reason he is not moving at all.

So what do I need to do to get this guy to adjust his offer? Been thinking about making a call to the guy that hit my wife’s car and start harassing him. This actually work for me on a claim years ago but would rater avoid the ugliness of this. Any other ideas?

We are also currently running a rental car on American Families tab to. Have had this for 3 weeks I think it is now. I would think they would want to settle and get us out of that rental car?

If you can get a couple of car dealers to give you a written price of what they would ask for your wrecked car prior to it being wrecked what price would they have been asking for it on their lot. Some won’t do it many will then use that number as what you will take for the settlement from teh adjuster he gets paid off of what he saves so don’t be afraid to hold firm especially if other driver was cited or was listed as teh striking vehicle that usually indicates fault, I ahve had to do this a couple times for wrecked kids cars luckily each time the other driver was at fault and the adjuster knew it and still tried to low ball me, trust me they do not want to tie up some lawyer at 150-200 bucks an hour and if your state is like mine if the value is under 10k tehn you do not need a lawyer take them to small claims court.

File for restitution in county court, assuming the other guy was at fault. This does not involve a lawyer. This worked for me when a not head totaled my boat and was 100% at fault and his insurance company settled with real fast.

The wife was sitting still at a stop sign waiting to turn when 2 cars hit each other in the intersection and the one was pushed into her. Not our fault.

I’ve heard if you turn them down something like 3 times, you can ask for arbitrator, Haven’t ventured down that road myself, I just remember some stories from work.

They know you’re waiting for $ to replace your vehicle so they start low. It’s just their operating procedure from what I understand.

They are giving you the salvage price. Making up the differance on what its worth and what the salvage yards are pricing that vehicle at.

Call the MN Insurance Commissioner’s office. They’ll advise you. When you call the adjuster be sure to mention your call to the insurance commissioner… It worked wonders for me in a similar situation.

Good luck

Mike,

Feel free to give me a call on this, as I may be able to offer some insight.

Thanks guys. Ill give you a call later today Justin.

Look for what similar cars are selling for in your area and show this evidence to the car insurance guy. Get the KBB value of your car and see if it’s any different from what you’re being offered.

Thanks for your help with this guys. We did end up getting settled up with the other persons insurance company. I do have to say they would not budge from their original offer on our car even after a month of bickering back and forth with them. Good game on their part and I guess thats what you get when trying to deal with the other persons insurance company.

We still got almost $6000 for a beat to snot 2001 Windstar with a bad engine. Cant complain about that at all. The only frustrating part might be that I could get their insurance adjuster to budge any more on this. He did go $200 in my favor at one time but I decided to hold out and even lost that little ground.

After 30+ days of negotiating we had to return their rental car to Enterprise Rentals. Pull into their lot and see about a half dozen Dodge caravans with for sale signs in the windows. Ended up leaving with a 2010 Dodge Caravan for $17299 plus tax and extras. Think we may have balanced the MN budget with the state tax we paid on that car. Put our money down from the old car and walked away with car payments under $250 a month and a very happy wife.

So in the end this all worked out very well. Been a fun month of negotiating with the other insurance company and we where very happy dealing with Enterprise on the wifes new vehicle. If any one is looking for a new vehicle Enterprise has many more of these minivans on sale until the end of February. They where more than easy to deal with and I think we will be looking there again for our next vehicle.

$17K sounds like a great price How many miles ???

33000 miles. A Little high for one year but I figure with Enterprise at least they keep up on oil changes and such. Looking around that seemed to be a grand or 2 less than what else I could find on line.

What enterprise was this at Mike? We’re semi looking.

There is one on HWY 65 in Fridley just south of the high school. There special runs until the end of the month and you can find more info on their website. Matt had a white one left in the lot. If you didnt like that color Im sure they could get on in from a different location.

Glad it worked out for you Mike!