Geico trying to screw me with a payoff on my stolen car?
My car was stolen on October 21st of this year and I’m having a lot of issues with Geico paying off my car. Not only has it been 42 days and I’m just now receiving a phone call about the value of my car, but at the beginning of this process I was told that after 20 days this would be taken care of. I never received a phone call so I personally took it upon myself at 30 days to contact my agent, and told her that my car was never found. She told me she’d send off my file to Total Loss Claims that day. Well, 10 days later I never heard anything so I called back..and she tells me she is JUST now sending in my claim. She said the file came back rejected because THEY forgot to scan a few of my files I had to send in as a package.In turn I have paid 2 car payments already on a car I don’t even have and they only covered 200 dollars worth of stuff stolen out of my car – which barely paid for my kids car seat!
So, today I finally get a phone call from a Total Loss Claims agent to talk about the value of my car. It was in perfect condition and was a 2006 Scion xB Special Release Series 3.0 with 48,000 miles, give or take a few hundred. I KBB on my own and it ranged inbetween 13,000-15,000 depending on the miles and the area. Well, Geico is trying to only give me 12, 661.84 which is BELOW what I still owe on it! I contacted Toyota for a pay off and it was 12,686.04 but even though it is barely any money in between they also will be taking out 500 dollars for a comprehensive deduction. I just don’t see how this is fair considering I’ve already paid 920 dollars over the past 40 days in car payments and now I’m looking at also paying another 520 on it as well! As this point I’ll be making yet another car payment, not receiving any money to help get me into another car and I’m SCREWED. I’ve been without a car already for over 40 days!
What should I do? I made the agent go back and re value our car because I told her that on KBB.com it came back with a way higher value than what they were trying to give me and she said she had no idea what a "Special release series 3.0" meant. I told her that every year they make 2 series that have special stuff in or on them (ours had a special motor, 1,500 dollar paint job, special tail lights, neon lights, sports package around the bottom of the car and carbon fiber on the cars..). I’m just really irritated at this point and don’t know what to do..
Sorry this was so long..
Opps, it is a Special Release Series 4.0 I obviously do not know what or how car value of a car is determined. Can anyone point me in that direction? And yes, I wish I had GAP insurance but they would’ve almost doubled our car payment a month and I don’t see how anyone could expect me to pay 800+ dollars a month for a car.
I wish I could reply to some of you but that isn’t an’ option…
How can they determine threat count on a car that was STOLEN and never returned? Or seats, or anything for that matter. That doesn’t make any sense to me. They did get a letter from Toyota service department where we took our car for all the oil changes, brakes, etc about the condition of the car which was excellent.
Last update:
To the last person who THINKS they know a lot about insurance, you need to do a lot of research before you post know-it-all answers.
A. Car insurance DOES cover what was stolen WITH the car, since obviously I was given 200 dollars for a car seat that was inside the car. Different types of insurance covers different amounts.
B. KBB.com DOES offer a fair value market pricing since I was contacted by Geico this afternoon and given a 14,011.84 offer for my car, which on KBB.com values for 14,590.57. Did you not read that it was a SPECIAL RELEASE SERIES 4.0? I would never sell my car for 11,000 dollars.
C. I was never upset about paying the deductible, just stated how much it took away from the first offer on my car.
D. She was a claims agent, not a personal agent. And I DO have an’ agent who I privately deal with, and have for many years with my insurance.
E. Never borrowed more than the car was worth, bought it brand new. You suck at facts.
7 Responses
Jean Luc Picard
11 Feb 2010
jlf
11 Feb 2010
What you OWE on it is irrelevant. No insurer will pay more than "actual cash value" less your deductible. If you dispute their version of "actual cash value" you’ll need to submit documentation to support that.
car253
11 Feb 2010
The agent is suppose to submit your claim on the first day you report it to them!!
You should not be talking to the agent, you should be talking to your claim rep. It does take time to settle a claim, but the claims department should reimburse you for the delay.
Put in a complaint with the Department of Insurance in your state. A link is below. Just click on your state.
mbrcatz
11 Feb 2010
1. The stuff in your car, isn’t covered on your car insurance.
2. They only owe you the KBB PRIVATE party sale value, roughly, not the retail value. DEFINATELY not the payoff value, unless you bought GAP coverage through them. In my zip code, KBB says it’s $11,745.
3. Of COURSE you pay your deductible. You ALWAYS pay your deductible.
4. You have an agent with Geico? That surprises me. But their offer is FAIR.
5. So. you went upside down, borrowing more to buy a car than it was worth, after it depreciated 20% the second you drove it off the lot, you didn’t buy GAP coverage, and now you’re about to do the whole same deal a SECOND TIME?? um . ..
Baby Boy due 12-
11 Feb 2010
GEICO is not supposed to pay off your loan, only the actual cash value of the car minus your deductible. And they don’t only go by KBB. They look at the mileage, the tread on the tires, condition of your seats, and what cars like that are selling for in your area. Like the other person said, you need to submit documentation supporting your car is worth more that what they are saying.
Alex
11 Feb 2010
pretty much i agree with everyone else except i wanted to add that i don’t believe any insurance companies use KBB as a way to value a vehicle. some use NADA but others use different companies as well. the only thing it sounds like they may have done wrong is delay offering you the amount they want to pay.
however think of it this way. you were gonna have to pay payments on a new car anyways. lets say the amount they valued happened to be the amount of your loan, you would have had your loan paid off. you then would still have to get a new car and have car payments. so your only out your deductible and the $20 because your car isn’t worth as much as your loan. you can’t avoid your deductible, it always applies, like a health insurance deductible. if you dispute your car is worth another $20 then you have to prove it. they have paper work showing how they came up with their value. you contact dealers in the area and see if you can get more than one to give you what your looking for.
sbinlb
11 Feb 2010
When you drive the car off the lot, the car is IMMEDIATELY worth less than you owe on it. As the other guy stated, there is something called GAP insurance which covers the GAP between what the car is worth and what you owe on it. If you don’t have this GAP insurance, you are going to get what the current value is for the car.
It looks like you need to review how you handle insurance in the future – another example is making sure the insurance policy covers car rental, if that’s something that you need, as well as making sure that things in the car are covered under replacement value not current value. I realize that it’s a pain in the neck lesson to learn right now, but we all have instances like this.
If your car is a special release and the VIN is titled that way you will get compensated for the correct amount. For the belongings in the car, you can probably hire an attorney and get more money. Remember that the attorney will take 30%-50%, so it’s doubtful that you would actually end up with more money in your pocket.
thats what GAP insurance is for