Rental Car as it pertains to Total Loss
Getting a rental car when you are in a total loss can be very difficult. When you are in a car accident and you get in a wreck, that you caused, or you did not cause, actually it does not matter if you caused it or not, the is not fault dispute. You have a total loss, your car is worth less than the expense that it would be to fix it.
This definition is a little bid incorrect. A total loss happens when the value to fix your car reaches 70, 80 or 90% of the actual value of the car, this is a sliding scales. 70, 80 or 90% threshold must be reached before there is a total loss depending your state.
When you have a total loss. Now what, you need a rental car. I need some wheels to get to work. I have to take my kids to school or to soccer. I need a car. This is where I think insurance companies drop the ball. Big time. They advertise on TV commercials.
They act as if they are so wonderful, but when it comes to the claims then you only have a rental per the statue of your state. Every state differs here.
Most states will give you a rental for 3 days. Some states like Texas will give you 1 day for the rental car. But one day from when? From the day the insurance adjuster decides that your car is a total loss.
The next day your are out of a rental. It does not matter that you are out of coverage. Does not matter that you have full coverage with rental included. This is very frustrating for many people.
Even if you live in a state like Washington, which gives you 3 days. This is still really bad. How can you drop everything to go find a car that period of time that is comparable to what you had. Even if you do find something, you will be under so much pressure that you might end with a bad interest rate, or some kind of bad financing deal.
You have three days and this is from the day they determine this, not the day that you receive payment, or the day the mail the check or even before they determine value. One of the state’s that advocates for consumers is the state of Montana.
I think they have a good system over there. They give you three days for a rental (which is still bad) after the day you receive the payment. So you might have to wait three days to get paid and then three other days to get a new car. Here, you can squeeze three more days. Again this is assuming that you do have rental coverage. We have to be careful here.
We have a link here to review insurance companies and see which ones are doing this and which are not. The best carries link tells us who has done what and what consumers are saying. Who is treating me right? Not the 99% consumer satisfaction that they advertise.
This is the only way we can really change things. We can write to our state legislature to change this. This is my ramblings about this the rental car as it pertains to total loss.
I hope you are aware of this before you are in a car accident, because when you do, then you know that this type of claim will make you quickly. For now we can start writing to congress, we need five or ten days at least to be able to get a replacement car.
Visit Auto Insurance Claim Advice for more about car accidents
