How to fight the insurance company on your total loss car claim:

So your car’s been in an accident and they determined it’s a total loss and now you have the offer from the insurance company and it seems awfully low. Most of the time it IS significantly less than the car should be worth. The first thing most people do is go online and look at the “book” values KBB, NADA etc. Having done that, now you are wondering “how did they come up with the number they are using as my car’s value” (“totaled car value calculator” is widely searched)?

(We serve most areas – if you are reading this we probably can help YOU!)

 Here is the issue, the outfits (like CCC Value One) that provide these totaled car valuation services (they are not appraisers and don’t claim to be) have a business model as follows: undervalue every car by X amount. The insurance companies subscribe to these “valuation services” at a set fee per file to come up with the lowest possible but somewhat justifiable number. The theory is simple, if they undervalue 1,000 claims by $2,000 each that is $2 million. Out of 1,000 claims how many people are going to make a serious effort to dispute the amount? 

Total loss payout calculator:

  How DO they come up with the lowball number? Lots of ways. First they run “comps” that aren’t “comps”. I mean you may have a crew cab truck that’s a diesel and they will mix in a regular cab that’s gas. Or your car may be a “Limited” top of the line model and they use “S” or whatever the base biscuit version of that car is called. If they provide VIN’s on their comps run them thru Google. Do they exist? Are they for sale at the dealership listed? Are they for sale at dealerships that specialize  in “framers”, cars with accident histories? And they always use crazy arithmetic to “adjust for miles” but the adjustment is always a deduction from the value of your car. Lastly they will deduct an amount from each comp they have listed for a “take price” meaning the amount the dealer will “come down” on the asking price. 

In order to try and fight this system there are a few things you can do but….you have to realize going in that the whole thing is rigged. It is a scam, period. The adjuster at the insurance company will say “we looked at your total loss claim and analyzed the data blah blah”. They (the adjuster) didn’t do squat, they arranged to get pictures of the car to CCC Value One or Mitchell Valuation or whoever put this package together on your car and those crooks set the number. I should mention here that by the terms of your policy the insurance representative is REQUIRED to advise you that you have the “right of appraisal” as soon as you begin to complain about the amount of the offer. Not only will they not do that, a great many of them will tell you that you CAN’T get an appraisal, “take this amount or walk”!

  OK, you have your book values. Now get some comps. Make sure they are actual comps, you can’t use 60,000 mile units if yours had 120,000. You CAN go “out” a distance. The insurance weasels like to say “you can only look 150 miles away”. Nonsense, that was the deal in the old days when we all bought cars out of the newspaper. Today everybody shops on the internet and if the car or truck you are trying to replace has any rarity at all you may have to go hundreds of miles or more to find one. And this “take price” is B.S. too. Car dealers today all advertise thru” programs” such as V-Auto, True Car, Car Guru’s etc where page placement is dictated by asking price alone. So in order to rank high on the page they have to have the lowest price possible. This results in all kinds of “fees”, doc stamps, additional costs of all sorts being ADDED to the price. You would be a hero of negotiation to get the car bought AT the asking price, you will not be getting a discount.

Got your book values and the comps and your arguments about “take price” and shopping distance? Take another shot at them. They may “discover” a few hundred bucks they can offer after a “re-evaluation” of your claim. You can also throw in that you are going to invoke your right of appraisal. The insurance companies that play by the rules and hire outside appraisers usually pay those people fairly well and don’t want to spend the money plus they know that if you get an appraiser that’s good, (me for instance), they are going to lose. I should mention that at this point they may tell you “you can get an appraisal but the amount might go down”. It can’t, it is called the “undisputed amount”. Or they will tell you “if the appraisers don’t agree it will go to an umpire and you will have to pay for that”. If the appraiser you get, and the appraiser they get, are any good at their job there won’t be any umpire. (I have done the umpire twice in fifteen years).

Having done all this, and having undergone a bunch of stress dealing with these often very unpleasant people, where have you wound up? I have seen people get them up a few hundred and sometimes a couple thousand BUT the question remains is the figure you are at now the right number? 

Here is how to find out. Ask me. I won’t charge you to look at the file and I won’t take you on as a client unless I am sure we can get at least another $1,000 above the last “offer”.

You can CALL me at 863-852-6315.

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