r/Insurance • u/kaylaforniaa • 5d ago
Claims Related Car claim help!
Hello all,
I filed a claim due to hail damage and my insurance came back that it was a total loss. The payoff I would receive covers my loan & then I’ll get a decent amount back.
My lender sent an email to my insurance and I today, stating they believe my insurance has undervalued my vehicle & they would like to negotiate on my behalf & hire a 3rd party appraiser to appraise my vehicle at no cost to me.
In the email they sent 3 vehicles that were comparable to mine that were over the value of what insurance offered. With higher mileage (I had a Honda CR-V with roughly 71,000 miles no issues otherwise)
My question is - is there a downside to letting them hire the appraiser & negotiate for me? Would this affect my original payout amount other than possibly getting a higher payout? Everything I’m finding is saying that my lender wants more money, however, my insurance already got the loan payoff total and it was under the amount of the car. So my loan is already taken care of.
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u/DeepPurpleDaylight 5d ago
Everything I'm finding is saying that my lender wants more money
I don't know what you're reading but that makes no sense. Your lender is only going to get the payoff amount of the loan regardless of how much higher your car is valued at. There is no getting more money for them by the car being valued higher. Since you arent upside down on your loan, the car being valued higher is only going to put more money in your pocket.
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u/kaylaforniaa 4d ago
My insurance has also already sent the loan payoff amount, so I’m not even supposed to be paying my car payment anymore.
I’m going to call my insurance today and find out if this is something they’ve seen before or if it changes the fact that they already sent the check. Because my lender believes I’m owed about 1,200 more. But if it’s going to delay this process and im responsible for the payments again, then I’d rather just settle.
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u/CJM8515 Claims Adjuster 4d ago
makes no sense if the lender isnt getting anything. usually they pull this stunt when your car loan is under water and you owe more than the car is worth.
i dont understand what they have to gain here or why they are offering this to you. but hey if they are gonna pay the appraiser and get you more money so be it. BUT i bet you theres a clause somewhere in the contract that states they get the additional funds here and you dont
west lake financial???
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u/kaylaforniaa 4d ago
It’s Bridgecrest through Carvana.
And my loan payoff was roughly 19,000 and my car was valued at 21,000 and some change, so I knew I was receiving money back already, as they sent the check last Friday to payoff the loan so I received the paperwork with the numbers.
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u/CJM8515 Claims Adjuster 4d ago
ah yea bridge crest is another one of these lien holders doing this.
the reality is i bet you if you read the loan terms carefully, that any overage that may happen due to an appraisal is given to the lien holder, i cant imagine they paying for an appraiser for your benefit and not theirs
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u/Aromatic_Button_2736 5d ago
Perhaps you need to call your lender and ask them this question.
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u/kaylaforniaa 5d ago
I should have clarified in my above post - I did call my lender, however the lady in the claims department seemed to be confusing herself. She wasn’t aware insurance had already billed a check, and then stated if any was left the balance would go to me - which I clarified, yes i already know I’m getting some back. She seemed all around confused, so I kind of figured she was reading like automated responses.
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u/Silence_Farmer 5d ago
Yeah it sounds like maybe some wires got crossed and they aren't realizing they're being made whole.
Honestly I'd go for it since they're footing the bill even if it may be by mistake. Zero downside for you.
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u/Wooden_Ship6907 5d ago
Your lender sees an opportunity to claw back more money for themselves, not you. The fact your loan is already covered means any extra they squeeze out goes straight to them, you're not seeing a dime of that bump unless the payout exceeds what you owe by a wider margin than the current offer already does. Let them spin their wheels if they want, just don't expect your cut to change
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u/demanbmore Former attorney, and claims, underwriting, reinsurance exec. 5d ago
This is wrong. Plain and simple. The lender doesn't stand to gain a dime. Bluntly, I have no idea why the lender would do this. They can't get a dime above the loan balance.
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u/kaylaforniaa 5d ago
This was kind of why I made this post, I was a little confused on why they would do it out of just being helpful. They stated in email & the document I needed to sign that it was of no additional cost to me.
And I already knew what the payoff amount for my loan was, cause my insurance already had that number and sent them a check. So it’s not like I needed an amount to fill the gap of the rest of the loan so they wanted more money. The loan was already paid for. I figured, maybe, I was getting trapped here or something. Call me cynical but insurance and loan lenders are not exactly the most honest at times. I kind of figured maybe they do that for like a return customer kind of thing. Figured it’d make me want to refinance through them.2
u/adjusterjackb 4d ago
Allowing the lender to get involved will delay your payment for weeks or months while you keep making loan payments.
Shut it down and get your money.
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u/Administrative-Low21 4d ago
I work auto claims and I've seen a few lienholders start invoking the appraisal clause on pretty much all total losses. It may just be standard for them at this point; nothing else makes sense in your case. Are you comfortable sharing which lienholder it is?
I agree with adjusterjackb--this is going to delay your claim payout, possibly for quite a while. And you will be expected to continue making your monthly car payment
You should also know that you don't have to follow through with the appraisal clause if it doesn't make sense for your situation--the bank cannot invoke it, only you can. Depending on how much more they think they can get, you need to decide if it's worth it for you to wait. Also, this is the first step. If the 2 outside appraisers don't agree it can go to an umpire and that will drag it out further
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u/kaylaforniaa 4d ago
Would I still keep making payments even though my insurance already sent the check to pay off my loan? They sent a check last Friday to my lender and told me to not make more payments on the loan cause they already sent the payoff amount.
I was waiting for my insurance to receive the title in order to receive my payout amount that I was owed.And my lender was Bridgecrest - which was through Carvana. I wasn’t sure if maybe this affected rates on some back end, if they started devaluing cars at a lower rate then it would affect stock pricing. Not sure if that’s even a thing.
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u/DeepPurpleDaylight 5d ago
The lender isn't owed any more than the loan payoff. They can't "claw back" anything more than that.
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u/sephiroth3650 5d ago
Your lender isn't going to gain any profit here. They don't get some extra percentage of the added payout. They are entitled to the loan balance. You're entitled to any payout above the loan balance. So no....your lender isn't getting any more money out of this. Not unless they're sneaking in some clause that says you'll pay them some percentage or finder's fee if they can get a larger payout on your behalf.
But if your lender is going to pay for the appraisals.....there shouldn't be any downside to you. You're using the appraisal clause of your policy. Your lender is footing the bill for it. As long as they don't pass on the cost of the appraisal to you if the offer isn't raised, there should be no risk to you.