Book Value And How Auto Insurance Uses It
The book value of a car after an accident uses criteria that most people probably have not considered. One thing that customers can count on is that auto insurance quotes are readily available with online quotes.
Kelly Blue Book values are sometimes used by insurers to help set auto insurance quotes. A car's value is what companies are insuring, and it follows that the expensive cars will produce higher insurance premiums. Prospective insurance customers should avoid buying only liability coverage, the risk of winding up with a total loss is too great.
Insurance claim adjusters employ several methods to derive at a damaged car's true value. These include dealer surveys, book value guidelines, online pricing and person-to-person sales. These items can vary from company to company, as well as from state to state.
Insurers may look at the Blue Book or other similar guides to get an idea of a car's value. However, those guides are used primarily to give automobile creditors the proper numbers for them to use when making car loans. Of late, many insurers have begun using CCC Information Services, which has a program that calculates the value of totaled cars. Some 80 percent of claims adjusters use CCC's valuation program to arrive at a total-loss figure. The goal of CCC's program is to identify cars in an area that are similar to others declared as total losses.
Insurance claimants should be aware that they don't have to accept an adjuster's decided actual cash value of a damaged automobile. Conduct your own survey of car values in order to discover if the actual cash value is higher than cited by the adjuster. That could produce a higher settlement from the insurance company. The prices you discover will be asking prices, and likely be negotiated down during the claims process. But companies are legally bound to offer fair prices, and they may shy away from a court battle if your numbers appear solid.
It will be impossible to restore a wrecked car to its pre-accident state. Just being in an accident virtually guarantees the car's value is reduced. It could be advisable to ask your insurance company for compensation to pay for the car's diminished value.
A not so favorable aspect of car wrecks is that a driver's insurance premiums can go up. An at-fault accident can increase insurance costs by upwards of 40 percent. Some companies do have a first accident forgiveness policy; so, it would be smart when getting auto insurance quotes to inquire about how a firm treats a first accident. A lot of critical information regarding insurance quotes can be found by investigating online programs.
