You’ve just been in a car crash. Thankfully, no one is seriously injured, and you and the other driver are trying to work things out. Seems like everything is pretty cleared up, right?
Not quite. You may be handling the crash well, but your car is looking pretty banged up. It may cost quite a bit of time and money for a car accident repair.
So how do you handle this? Should you just give the problem to the insurance company and have them handle everything?
What you should do is try to find a way of your own to get your car fixed quickly and effectively. The good news: it isn’t nearly as hard as you might think.
Car Accident Repair Tips That You Need to Try
These tips will be a great help in repairing your car. Keep reading and find out what you can do to get back on the road.
Get in Touch with Your Lawyer ASAP
Any time you get involved in an accident, one of the first things you should be doing is getting in touch with your lawyer.
If you do happen to be in an accident, you deserve compensation for your injuries. If you’re the victim of the wreck and the other driver won’t budge, that’s all the more reason to take them to court and get your rightful aunt of cash.
Your lawyer should be well rounded with all things law, and that includes having considerable knowledge of how to handle auto accidents. With this in mind, you need to talk with them as soon as possible to begin working out the details.
If everything works out in your favor, you’ll be receiving cash for the wreck and for your injuries – and there’s obviously no problem with that.
Don’t Be Afraid to Consider Using the Other Guy’s Insurance
We all want to be the nice guy in most cases. So whenever we’re in a wreck, we may be all too happy to use our own insurance policy to fix up our car.
Here’s the thing: if the other driver is at fault, you have the option to choose between using your insurance to fix your car or the other driver’s insurance. And although there’s nothing wrong with either choice, we consider you think about using theirs.
If you go through your own insurance policy, you will get the money you need faster, but you’re also stuck with paying the deductible as well. This means you have to pay for a portion of the wreck yourself.
With the average person having a $500 deductible, you wouldn’t want to cough up that kind of money to pay for an accident you didn’t even cause.
However, if you go through the insurance of the driver that’s at fault, you won’t have to worry about any of that.
In many cases, it’s pretty obvious who’s at fault. If the driver admits to this, and their insurance company also confirms fault, then they have to pay you for the damages caused.
Of course, that may mean a longer waiting time for the money to come through, depending on if a police report needs to be filed and how long it takes to process things. On average, it usually takes a week or two for everything to go through.
However, the money you’d receive would be all yours, with nothing going towards a deductible. Think about the pros and cons of each option and see which one works for you.
Get the Highest Value Possible for Your Vehicle
The insurance companies have the same mindset as every other business: buy low, and sell high. They want to make all of the money that they possibly can and pay out as little as they have to.
Your job is to show them that your car is more than worth their time and money. Make sure you prove this and get the highest value for your vehicle that you possibly can.
The first thing you need to do is look up the price of your car. Insurance companies will try to go as low as they possibly can, so it’s up to you to find out how much more care is actually worth.
There are many ways, such as the famous Kelley Blue Book, that can help you find out the price of your car. You can also learn about the price of each part you’ll need to be replaced in an automotive repair manual.
Another way to get the max amount of cash would be to go to your own shop. Insurance providers have their own list of shops that they recommend to clients, but by no means does that mean you have to accept them.
If you know of a place that you can trust to do a good job for less than what the insurance company’s people charge, you can (and should) use them instead.
Know Your Options If Your Car Is Totaled
When your car is considered “totaled” it means that it’s in a condition where it costs more to repair it than it was worth before the accident. In other words, the car is a “total loss” and isn’t worth the time or money repairing.
If this is the case, the insurance company will present you with two options: one is to accept total loss value without the salvage value, and the other is to accept total loss value with salvage value.
The salvage value is how much it will cost the insurance company to relieve you of your totaled vehicle, including picking it up and taking it to the junk shop.
If you choose the option without the salvage value, you don’t have to pay the cost and you keep the totaled car. However, if you pick the option with salvage value, the amount will be deducted from your pay and your car will be retrieved.
No matter what you choose, both options are sure to work in your favor.
Love Motors? So Do We
You’ve got all the info you need for your car accident repair, so getting your metal baby repaired and back on the road should be a breeze. If you ever want to know anything else about your vehicle, we definitely have you covered.
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