I Got Hit. Claim Opened. Now He Wants to Pay Me Directly?

[fixingstill]

I got hit. Claim opened. Now he wants to pay me directly?
He admits it was his fault and said if he pays me for the damages directly, I don't have to report to CA DMV for the accident (yes, over $750), there will be no carfax record on both cars (which de-value both cars), and his insurance rate will not go up next year, and his DMV record will not be ruined. And his leasing company will not penalize him when he returns the car to them.

If I agree and take his check, I will cancel the claim. Will the insurance company STILL report to DMV and will there be NO record when I run a carfax report later?

Is it legal and or ethical to do so? Will the insurance company be happy to see that?

It is a 2 week old car with 1K mile on it. Damn. It sure hurts.

 

[djs]

In general, its impossible to answer your questions, but I'll give you some feedback.

Most of what you are looking for depends on the extent of the damages. If it is cosmetic in nature only, then its probably not a big deal either way. I will say, especially in CA, the cost of repairs is always higher then most people think it will be. Keep that in mind. If you are getting estimates, then no big deal, but don't accept something because you 'think' it should be $xxx.

Cancel claim: Insurance company keeps it on file. They have to. They just close it.

DMV record ruined: Hmm, seems like a bit of an overstatement. I'm sure his record will still be there.

Reported to DMV: If you report it like you are supposed to, then yes. If not, then the insurance company won't report it (most likely) if they don't do a payout. Of course, it will be on your 'CLUE' report for all insurance companies to see. With no payout, not a big deal if you have 1 of these.

Carfax: Reports to carfax are done by some body shops and rarely insurance companies. If you get your car fixed, this might still be reported. Check with the body shop and ask if they report to carfax. Most minor fender benders don't end up on carfax.

The insurance company won't care if he pays direct. It saves them from billing his insurance company for reimbursement.

The amount of damage done determines if this is a practical thing or not.

Dan

 

[fixingstill]

Minor scratch on one door. They said they could either pull the scratch out or replace the door skin. About $2400 to $2700 - yes, crazy in CA. Totally cosmetic. I got a few quotes already.

DMV record: Please google "California Point System - Driver's License Points & Traffic Ticket Penalties"
I don't know how many points it is for his fault. Maybe he already has some points and adding more will suspend his license?

I have read a few carfax reports (when I was shopping for cars.) All those "accident" marks are because of the body shops reporting after they have the repair job done, not just when they quote, right? These marks are not from the insurance companies directly or insurance companies reporting to DMV and carfax gets the info from DMV?

Thanks for the reply. Any comments are welcome.

 

[djs]

I'm not completely up on how carfax gets their data, but I know insurance companies don't usually provide it. To much liability against them if they do.

I assume it is only done on repair completion by the body shop. DMV does not report, though they likely get title updates (i.e., salvage) from the DMV.

If the cost to repair is this high, him paying out of pocket seems fishy. People do, but there is no savings to him. I know a lot of people don't want the report of an accident, no big deal. I would get certified funds though.

Dan

 

[fixingstill]

I for myself mainly don't want to see an accident mark on a 3 week old car. Who knows when I will sell it. If I do sell it 3 years from now, that mark could knock off couple thousands off the selling price. No one is reimbursing me now for that future loss.

This whole insurance system is so flawful. To the guy who hit me, paying for insurance premium monthly for protection like this and now he might be better off pulling $ from his pocket to cover me. Why he pays for insurance to begin with?

 

[mattupthehill]

I for myself mainly don't want to see an accident mark on a 3 week old car. Who knows when I will sell it. If I do sell it 3 years from now, that mark could knock off couple thousands off the selling price. No one is reimbursing me now for that future loss.

This whole insurance system is so flawful. To the guy who hit me, paying for insurance premium monthly for protection like this and now he might be better off pulling $ from his pocket to cover me. Why he pays for insurance to begin with?

His insurance policy is not tied to KBB or Carfax, so it's not the insurance companies fault that the vehicle is now listed as having an accident. Don't look at small risks like a small accident but bigger picture, what if he hit you and you broke your back and sued him for $100k +. Without insurance he would be paying with his assets, garnished wages, etc.

If you don't think insurance is worth it you can self-insure in CA for a bond of $35,000. See if that's worth it.

 

[fixingstill]

Anyone knows how those accident records (not total, not salvage) end up on the carfax report? All done by body shops?

I didn't know about the self-insure option. $35k bond to DMV? I myself never believe in investing anything that the reward is not greater than the risk (hence I don't go to casino). Buying any insurance is never a great investment because a great portion of your premium goes to all those administrative work and feeding the mouths of all the people working in the industry.

 

[fixingstill]

Anyone knows how those accident records end up on the carfax report if it is not insurance companies doing that?

Self-insurance - I didn't know. Let me check it out. I myself do not believe in investing anything that the reward is not greater than the risk. I never believe in insurance. I would rather save the money for the rainy days. Why pay to feed the insurance people. A great portion of the premiums goes to administrative cost and wages of people in the industry.

 

[INSUREGEEK]

I work in a body shop, and as a former professional insurance geek, also do some consulting with a company that accesses (with permission) various GPS and Carfax data, repackages it, and sells it to insurers. Anyway:

Our shop estimating system vendor has access to all of our estimates and job management information. While I don't directly trigger any "Send to Carfax" button, I suspect the vendor is selling this info to Carfax. Why do I think that? Because I write estimates on and repair a lot of 'customer pay' jobs that later show up on Carfax. Some were my own cars that I fixed myself out of my own pocket. Just FYI.

Other things to consider from a repair perspective:

Do you have access to another car while yours is in the shop? Or is the payor providing a rental too?

What if the repair bill goes higher? That door will be taken apart. Things break in that disassembly/reassembly process all the time. Stuff happens. You see metal, but there's a lot of plastic holding it all together.

In my shop, the other guy owes YOU, not me. So make sure he's cool on giving you a cashier's check AND being on the hook for any hidden or supplemental damages. You don't get your car back until I get paid - and I'm not trusting that other guy with a personal check or a credit card. Sometimes not even cash given the fake bills that we come across.

I see more and more of this every day - people wanting to pay out of pocket. It's pretty rare that it ultimately succeeds when one is paying for another's repair.

Good Luck!

 

[fixingstill]

I took the car to a few body shops. They got the VIN number and quoted me estimates. Now the estimate system has my vin and personal info, they will sell to carfax even I do not give the body shop the job? OMG! Then it will show up on my carfax report as an accident record? No kidding!