Car Hail Insurance Claim - Skipping the Repairs?

Non-investing personal finance issues including insurance, credit, real estate, taxes, employment and legal issues such as trusts and wills.
Post Reply
Topic Author
teelainen
Posts: 501
Joined: Fri Feb 01, 2019 12:17 am

Car Hail Insurance Claim - Skipping the Repairs?

Post by teelainen »

We had hail damage to our car last month and we have comprehensive insurance coverage. The insurance company just gave us quite a bit of money for the hail damage.

The car is rather old, and we are thinking about skipping the hail dent repairs.

Besides being a little ugly and hurting the future resale value of the vehicle, are there any other downsides to skipping the repairs? Would it void all other future insurance claims on the vehicle?

Any tips or advice?
Outer Marker
Posts: 4382
Joined: Sun Mar 08, 2009 8:01 am

Re: Car Hail Insurance Claim - Skipping the Repairs?

Post by Outer Marker »

If its an older vechicle and the settlement amounts to a substaintial sum of the car's value, I'd just pocket the money and drive it into the ground. Change your insurance to liablity-only which will generate futher savings. It's a financially smart move as long as you don't mind driving a beater.
User avatar
Stinky
Posts: 14158
Joined: Mon Jun 12, 2017 11:38 am
Location: Sweet Home Alabama

Re: Car Hail Insurance Claim - Skipping the Repairs?

Post by Stinky »

Outer Marker wrote: Wed Jun 07, 2023 9:58 am If its an older vechicle and the settlement amounts to a substaintial sum of the car's value, I'd just pocket the money and drive it into the ground. Change your insurance to liablity-only which will generate futher savings. It's a financially smart move as long as you don't mind driving a beater.
+1

I definitely wouldn’t fix hail damage on an older car. You’ll never get your money out of the repairs, whether you sell it or drive it into its grave.
Retired life insurance company financial executive who sincerely believes that ”It’s a GREAT day to be alive!”
AlaskaTeach
Posts: 195
Joined: Fri May 27, 2022 8:51 pm

Re: Car Hail Insurance Claim - Skipping the Repairs?

Post by AlaskaTeach »

teelainen wrote: Tue Jun 06, 2023 9:46 pm We had hail damage to our car last month and we have comprehensive insurance coverage. The insurance company just gave us quite a bit of money for the hail damage.

The car is rather old, and we are thinking about skipping the hail dent repairs.

Besides being a little ugly and hurting the future resale value of the vehicle, are there any other downsides to skipping the repairs? Would it void all other future insurance claims on the vehicle?

Any tips or advice?
It was 2018, and I was getting ready to come to Alaska. My cute little 2016 Hyundai car and the roof suffered hail damage.

I got busy trying to figure out who was going to fix the car damage, because I owed money on the car. Finally it hit me it wouldn't cost anything to ask, so I did. "Can I just send this check to the credit union and pay off the car?" "yes you can."

Boom, a 2 year old car paid off. Made things easier to all of a sudden have no car payment! My son drives the car today.

I had bought the car used from a rental car agency, so it wasn't perfect to begin with. That car is probably worth more now that it was in 2018, and almost certainly worth more now than I owed in 2018. Talk about crazy!
toddthebod
Posts: 5741
Joined: Wed May 18, 2022 12:42 pm

Re: Car Hail Insurance Claim - Skipping the Repairs?

Post by toddthebod »

I've had a couple insurance payouts from someone else dinging my car. I've never gotten the actual repairs done.
User avatar
Candor
Posts: 1287
Joined: Sat May 28, 2011 4:25 pm

Re: Car Hail Insurance Claim - Skipping the Repairs?

Post by Candor »

teelainen wrote: Tue Jun 06, 2023 9:46 pm Would it void all other future insurance claims on the vehicle?
No, but if you have another claim for damage to the same panel on the vehicle they would take into account what had been previously paid and deduct that from the settlement. If they paid you $500 to pdr your roof for the hail damage and a year later a tree falls on the roof and it requires replacement with a cost of $2500, the insurance company would pay you $2500, less the $500 of prior unrepaired damage for a total of $2000, less any applicable deductible of course.

Also, if your vehicle is totaled in a future claim they will also deduct for the hail damage. It may or may not be a dollar for dollar deduction for the hail damage previously paid but they would at least take a deduction for the overall condition of the vehicle when assessing the market value of a hail damaged vehicle.
Last edited by Candor on Wed Jun 07, 2023 12:21 pm, edited 2 times in total.
The fool, with all his other faults, has this also - he is always getting ready to live. - Seneca Epistles < c. 65AD
tibbitts
Posts: 23729
Joined: Tue Feb 27, 2007 5:50 pm

Re: Car Hail Insurance Claim - Skipping the Repairs?

Post by tibbitts »

Once when I received payment for damage to my vehicle I chose to only repair it to a very limited extent myself, so while the results didn't look all that good, I saved 90% of the payment. I would probably do something similar in this case.
chemocean
Posts: 1575
Joined: Mon Dec 19, 2016 8:45 pm

Re: Car Hail Insurance Claim - Skipping the Repairs?

Post by chemocean »

Whoever has the most dents wins in playing chicken with a vehicle who is not being nice in a merge.
Post Reply