It’s been over three weeks since my daughter’s car accident, and I feel like I’m in insurance company wasteland.
Initial Claim Handling
At first, things moved very quickly.
The insurance company adjuster looked at the car within days, and declared it a total loss. One week after the accident I had a settlement statement emailed to me, and had signed the title over to the insurance company. My insurance company indicated that’s all I needed to do, and payment would be sent to my lender promptly.
I had contacted my gap insurance provider and started a claim. They told me what documents they needed, which I quickly gathered and emailed back to them. They had indicated that’s all I needed to do, and payment would be sent to my lender promptly.
Then all went silent.
Insurance Company Runaround
I continuously checked the balance of my automobile loan expecting payments from both insurance claims to post. After two weeks, I started making phone calls.
First, I called my automobile insurance company to inquire what was holding up the payment. They said the lender had not yet sent them a letter of guarantee. This letter is a guarantee the lender will release the lien from the title after payment. They contacted the lender at my request, who indicated the claim was still under review, but wouldn’t tell them why.
I then called the lender to find out why a review that normally takes less than two days had now stretched out over two weeks. The lender told me they had sent a letter of guarantee 10 days earlier.
Calling my insurance company again, they were unable to locate the letter and promised to call the lender to request the document again. During a return phone call, the agent told me the lender was very ambiguous as to what state the claim was actually in, but accepted a request for a new letter of guarantee. The letter should arrive within 24 to 48 hours.
After 24 hours I called my insurance company again, who indicated no letter had been received. I called my lender again, asking why the letter had not yet been sent. The statement given was that the previous day had been extremely busy, but it should be sent out shortly. I expressed my extreme displeasure, and stated I would be calling back the next day and at least once a day after that until the letter was sent.
The next day the letter of guarantee had been received by my insurance company. They indicated payment would be sent the next day via UPS expedited.
I am now waiting for payment to be processed by my lender.
Gap Insurance Incompetence
I also called my gap insurance provider asking the status of my claim. They stated one of the documents I sent, the payment history of the loan, did not have the lender’s name or logo on it. I promptly pointed out the document was 2 pages long, and the name, address and logo were on the first page. The agent made of note of this and marked it for reprocessing.
A few days later, I called again to inquire about the state of my claim. The agent stated my documents had been accepted, and it was in the queue to have payment sent to the lender.
I am now waiting for payment to be processed by my lender
The sum total of these two claims is just under $17,000 so you can see why I’m interested in getting it taken care of. Until these payments get to the lender, I’m responsible for continuing payments on a car I no longer have, AND I have an additional car loan now for the replacement car we purchased.
Insurance companies deal with this sort of thing all the time, so it escapes me why getting the settlement payments is so hard. Hopefully the next time I check everything will be taken care of.
How about you, EOD Nation, have you ever had difficulties getting insurance to pay a claim?
