Someone went into the back of my car and now it’s a write off and I’m out of pocket :(

[Bagelsandbrie]

I’m having a really shit time of this and need some advice.

Last weekend I was waiting at a roundabout-completely stationary - and a car went into the back of us. Thankfully everyone was fine, that’s the main thing. Car however was badly damaged. Driver of other car got out and we swapped details and when I got home I claimed on my insurance. Driver admitted full fault.

Insurance were great, arranged for courtesy car for us and picked our damaged car up. Call from bodywork place today to say that car is damaged beyond repair (really didn’t expect that! We drove it home and it seemed fine!) so offering us £3.8k. Car was purchased for £7 a couple of years ago.

I rang the insurance company and they said to ask the valuation people to re value the car and so I have done this. I am not hopeful though.

So now I have no car and not enough money to get a decent ish one and it’s not my fault! I’m so upset. I genuinely don’t know what to do re buying another one. Is it better to do some sort of finance deal with an actual dealer or is a personal loan better?! I don’t know what I’m doing. The last car we got from savings and we now have what we have left earmarked for something else.

Or should I just use the £4k to buy something?

What would you do?

I know this is very much first world problem stuff but I’m going through a horrible time health wise and struggling and this is the icing on the cake.

I have never heard of gap insurance! Thank you so much for letting me know about this.

@Jacky209990

I had very similar scenario. Dominoes driver drive into me, accepted fault but now is not accepting fault. Will likely be 50/50, so I've lost no claims. You can Google car valuation, I made sure I had 3 ready to argue my case. I paid 7,000 four years ago and average value as right off was between 2500-2900. So was quite happy they offered 4,000. I found personal loan was the cheapest way to finance a new car. The interest rest on hcp and pcp was far higher than the bank loan I got.

Why would you lose your no claims?

Look online to find out how much it would cost to replace you car like for like if you were to buy the same model with similar mileage. Also check price guides like Parkers and Glasses. Send this information to your insurer. They will want to pay as little as possible, so it's up to you to haggle.

My car was stolen then found burnt out. The insurer initially offered 4k less than I eventually got, because to quote them 'it was in poor condition at the time of valuation.' No shit Sherlock, it was a burnt out shell!

Good luck op. I'd never heard of gap insurance either but I'm off to google it now!

Definitely haggle with the valuation. Although, when my car was written off, they offered me £50 less than what I paid for it the year before. So I was happy with that.

Just wanted to come back and say thank you to you all. I managed to squeeze an extra £1k out of the payment company and that’s meant I have a few more options with new cars. I’ve found one I like and am off to view it and test drive it this afternoon. We will have to use some of our savings towards it - and I’m planning to do gap insurance too! So bit gutted to have to use the savings but we are lucky to have some at all and I know that. I appreciate your advice.

Yay happy car shopping OP!

After successfully negotiating with your insurance company, don’t forget to haggle it’s the car dealers!

I don’t know where the ‘it’s’ came from. I meant with, obviously.

They should leave you in a state of being able to purchase the same age and make of car without loss

So if you can buy your car again for the price they are giving you then that is ok.

If you can’t then you find out how much it would cost to buy one of the same make, specification and age and tell them to increase it

My write off they initially offered thousands less than what I needed to replace it but it didn’t take any argument to get them to match what I needed to buy a replacement for

I'm glad you got sorted OP - enjoy your shopping!

Sorry op I didn’t read your latest update

@finished31

Something similar was offered to me when my car was stolen years ago. DH argued that the quote was far too low and we eventually got a better pay out.

Go on Parker's for a valuation. Look at what it would be if bought by garage and ask for that amount.

Insurance companies ALWAYS offer low, you always have to go back with examples why it should be higher.

Insurance companies ALWAYS offer low, you always have to go back with examples why it should be higher.

Sadly not everyone knows this.

Glad you asked for more OP.