My car was wreck. The damage is beyond the value but not beyond the amount owed. What now?

Question

I owe 13k but the car is worth 6k (I got screwed on the original deal but that is a different can of worms). Anyway. The damages exceed 6k but not 13k. What happens now? I am waiting on the insurance company to get back to me but that may be another couple of days. Hope you all can give me some insite in the interim.

Make that... "My car was wrecked" LOL!

Answer 1

You'll end up paying the difference between what the insurance paid out vs. what you owed. You can negotiate for a discount and try to get the insurance to pay out a little more, but doubt it'll work, so you're stuck paying the money. If you don't have it, you can probably work out a payment plan, but expect to go without wheels for a while.

Next time, buy a USED car, so you don't end up with an upside-down loan.

Answer 2

The insurance company will total your vehicle if the cost of repairs is MORE then the actual cash value of your vehicle. So unfortunately you will only get what your car is worth and NOT what you owe (because.. not to be insenstiive.. but the insurance company is not responsible for the bad deal you received.)

So what you can expect is get get the 6k.. pay it towards your loan.. and still have to pay an additional 7k off w/o having the vehicle. HOPEFULLY you have gap insurance to cover the additional 7k b/c if not.. you just learned a very expensive lesson.