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Rear ended- how to handle insurance


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Got rear ended while at a red light. Guy got out.  Gave me his insurance information.  He and insurance admit fault.  But here’s the problem:  they’re offering me 30.00 a day for car rental.  Least expensive I’ve seen is roughly twice that.  Do I get my insurance involved now, continually to press his insurance or get the guy to get me a rental?

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Yes.  Get your insurance involved.

I had similar situation except they were being all evasive about paying anything, so I filed the claim under my insurance.  I had a witness, had pics of area, pics of both vehicles.  The shop I used had decent loaners/ rental cars, so it was all in one bill.  About 6-8 months later, I get a call from my insurance to send me a check for my deductible, telling me their insurance finally followed through, and that I had zero claims against my record.

It's dumb/ pain in the ass and not how it SHOULD be, but it gave me confidence that things will get worked out.

Edited by Iceman
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4 hours ago, closetohumping said:

Got rear ended while at a red light. Guy got out.  Gave me his insurance information.  He and insurance admit fault.  But here’s the problem:  they’re offering me 30.00 a day for car rental.  Least expensive I’ve seen is roughly twice that.  Do I get my insurance involved now, continually to press his insurance or get the guy to get me a rental?

I ran autoslash for Irvine.  Econobox for $131 for 7 days. That's less than $20 a day.  You can probably get a decent midsize for 30 a day.

Edited by Gil Bang
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We have a local carwash that's a drive-thru deal and you use the vacuums and  towels yourself. 

Woman forgot to put her car in neutral and ran into the back of me.  Her insurance was AAA.  Because I was driving a Mercedes, they offered a "luxury" rental, and gave me a Cadillac SUV while mine was in the body shop.

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Click back the hammer on the Colt Navy revolver your Daddy used in the Big War, and lay the cold steel barrel up against this slug's head. Let him know "I won't be rentin shit. Your car is my car until my car gets fixed. Now get the fuck outta my new car."

Oughta resolve all issues quickly and cleanly.

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What does the law actually say Tboo?

All I've found is "Reasonable". My wife drives a honda crv, we rented the smallest and cheapest Nissan Versa for $50 a day, drove an extra 10 miles past other rental places that were more expensive, and they gave us $1100 of the $1600 we spent. It was literally the cheapest car within 50 miles of my house.

Took them 6 weeks to admit fault so it wasn't like we could just wait till then to get them to rent it for us. 

What recourse is there? Sue in small claims court? Complain to State Insurance regulators?

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Yep, that was my situation.  At fault carrier wasn't owning shit in the process and it took from February to October to get financial resolution between them and my carrier.  It was a slam dunk, your driver fucked up case and they were recalcitrant as fuck.  It was a Top 5 carrier too, not one of the bullshit places.  I don't remember who it was.  Mine at the time was USAA.

Edited by Iceman
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I always get some insurance guys mad at me when I mention this, but last time somebody rammed into us, their insurance was low-balling and slow-crawling on us for months until I called in a lawyer to yell at them. Within about a week and a half we got way more money than they originally offered even after his fee.

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On 1/10/2025 at 1:12 PM, T’Boo Ted Marshall said:

Have the at fault carrier set up the rental.  Their rates are lower than off the street. 

If it is in Texas they only owe you transportation so if you had a Malibu with no kids, that is about what they will give you.  

I tried that. They want me to set it up. Absurd

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15 hours ago, RDCanecutter said:

I always get some insurance guys mad at me when I mention this, but last time somebody rammed into us, their insurance was low-balling and slow-crawling on us for months until I called in a lawyer to yell at them. Within about a week and a half we got way more money than they originally offered even after his fee.

How much was that lawyer?  I think insurance companies have questionable ethics.   
 

for now I will call my insurance 

Edited by closetohumping
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I tried that. They want me to set it up. Absurd

Move up the chain and talk to a mgr.

I can’t recall the exact verbiage Imma buy it is transportation, not comparable transportation.
You can always file a TDI compliant but with crappy carriers like the one you mentioned, they don’t care much.

Lawyers usually take 1/3 but rarely rep for Property damage only. No $ there.
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3 minutes ago, T’Boo Ted Marshall said:


Move up the chain and talk to a mgr.

I can’t recall the exact verbiage Imma buy it is transportation, not comparable transportation.
You can always file a TDI compliant but with crappy carriers like the one you mentioned, they don’t care much.

Lawyers usually take 1/3 but rarely rep for Property damage only. No $ there.

Another suggestion was to go after the guy that hit me in small claims.  

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15 minutes ago, closetohumping said:

How much was that lawyer?  I think insurance companies have questionable ethics.   
 

for now I will call my insurance 

Not much for what he accomplished. Maybe less than 1,500? He got his cut from the settlement so it's not like I had to pay it upfront. It wasn't just the extra money, it was a cease-and-desist on their condescension and drag-assin. They originally just wanted to fix our vehicle, because that's how you settle the hash of those dumb Alabama rednecks, but we got better than that plus some medical treatment down the line included.

A friend of mine got rear-ended about a year later, I passed on the lawyer's name, he did the same for him.

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11 minutes ago, T’Boo Ted Marshall said:


His carrier would still most likely respond to the suit.

Who is your carrier?

Tesla.  Calling today though I suspect they’ll be worthless as well 

 

13 minutes ago, RDCanecutter said:

Not much for what he accomplished. Maybe less than 1,500? He got his cut from the settlement so it's not like I had to pay it upfront. It wasn't just the extra money, it was a cease-and-desist on their condescension and drag-assin. They originally just wanted to fix our vehicle, because that's how you settle the hash of those dumb Alabama rednecks, but we got better than that plus some medical treatment down the line included.

A friend of mine got rear-ended about a year later, I passed on the lawyer's name, he did the same for him.

Could be a fast path to my desired result

 

im sure the insurance company is banking on me just saying “fuck it I give up”.  That’s how they win.  Attrition

Edited by closetohumping
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2 minutes ago, closetohumping said:

Could be a fast path to my desired result

God forbid we get rammed again, calling this guy will be one of the first things I do.

Also, he wasn't on a billboard or a phone book. Got his name from another lawyer I used to hang out with at the local pizza joint bar which was like a New Jersey train station hangout lovingly rehomed down the street. Very discrete place, you show respect, you meet some respectable business men, everybody takes care of everybody.

Edited by RDCanecutter
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20 minutes ago, closetohumping said:

Yep and I’ve had no experience with them so this is a coin flip

Fortunately Elon is widely known for being a highly respected man of ethics and integrity.

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On 1/12/2025 at 8:06 AM, royiv said:

Fortunately Elon is widely known for being a highly respected man of ethics and integrity.

Yeah, called them, pretty useless.  They also said just filing a claim may make my rate go up, with or without a monetary push. 

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On 1/10/2025 at 3:12 PM, T’Boo Ted Marshall said:

Have the at fault carrier set up the rental.  Their rates are lower than off the street. 

If it is in Texas they only owe you transportation so if you had a Malibu with no kids, that is about what they will give you.  

I don't believe that is accurate. If the driver was found liable at trial, they'd be on the hook for any damages, including the cost of transportation. That doesn't many "any transportation". It means what would put you in the same position had the accident not occurred at all. That is ultimately the goal of the compensation in the tort system. I'm not aware of any statute that would specifically limit liability as to transportation costs, but I suppose it isn't an issue I've had to to litigate. 

Edited by Dahobbs
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On 1/11/2025 at 1:20 AM, blacklab said:

What does the law actually say Tboo?

All I've found is "Reasonable". My wife drives a honda crv, we rented the smallest and cheapest Nissan Versa for $50 a day, drove an extra 10 miles past other rental places that were more expensive, and they gave us $1100 of the $1600 we spent. It was literally the cheapest car within 50 miles of my house.

Took them 6 weeks to admit fault so it wasn't like we could just wait till then to get them to rent it for us. 

What recourse is there? Sue in small claims court? Complain to State Insurance regulators?

For minor property damage situations like this, generally I'd advise people to run it through their insurance, and let it handle getting everything back from the at fault carrier. Lawyers don't take property only cases usually. And even if they did, the typical contingent fee for a lawyer would leave you worse off than had you just taken whatever was offered (because there usually isn't much room to pump up the number in negotiations on a property damage only case, the disputed amount is usually pretty small). Another option for higher value property cases is hiring a public adjuster (their fees are typically much lower than an attorneys). 

A TDI complaint isn't going to go anywhere when you're talking about a 3rd party insurer. They technically don't have any obligation to the other driver, only their insured. 

A lawsuit (smalls claims or otherwise) is really the only other recourse. But, again, really not worth the time you'd spend doing it for a case like this. If your own insurance is an option in these situations, that is your best bet. 

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Thanks.

What makes it complicated is both the guy who hit my wife and we both have USAA.

I've been told completely different things from different people there, and keep ending up in loops of person A telling me to call person B and person B telling me to call person A. 

Never had an issue in 20 years with USAA, the last few months makes me want to look around for a different company. 

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27 minutes ago, blacklab said:

Thanks.

What makes it complicated is both the guy who hit my wife and we both have USAA.

I've been told completely different things from different people there, and keep ending up in loops of person A telling me to call person B and person B telling me to call person A. 

Never had an issue in 20 years with USAA, the last few months makes me want to look around for a different company. 

Their customer Service both front and back end has gone down considerably 

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1 hour ago, blacklab said:

Thanks.

What makes it complicated is both the guy who hit my wife and we both have USAA.

I've been told completely different things from different people there, and keep ending up in loops of person A telling me to call person B and person B telling me to call person A. 

Never had an issue in 20 years with USAA, the last few months makes me want to look around for a different company. 

This has been super stressful for me. The other guy still wants me to pony up for the car first and then they'll reimburse.  They've accepted liablity.  These guys probably make very little money so they're not exactly happy about their jobs and don't care if they hose you.  

 

Tesla insurance basically told me any type of claim could make my insurance go up and I would have to pay the deductible.

 

I am not opposed to going the small claims route.  Now, I wish I had gone the "oh my neck hurts" route as that's the only way an attorney will assist.  The other guy is super cool btw. It's his insurance

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17 minutes ago, closetohumping said:

This has been super stressful for me. The other guy still wants me to pony up for the car first and then they'll reimburse.  They've accepted liablity.  These guys probably make very little money so they're not exactly happy about their jobs and don't care if they hose you.  

 

Tesla insurance basically told me any type of claim could make my insurance go up and I would have to pay the deductible.

 

I am not opposed to going the small claims route.  Now, I wish I had gone the "oh my neck hurts" route as that's the only way an attorney will assist.  The other guy is super cool btw. It's his insurance

What is your total damage? PM me 

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5 hours ago, closetohumping said:

I am not opposed to going the small claims route.  Now, I wish I had gone the "oh my neck hurts" route as that's the only way an attorney will assist.  The other guy is super cool btw. It's his insurance

You can never tell when your neck is going to start hurting. Joking, not joking. Just because you didn't feel anything the day of the collision doesn't mean you won't.

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56 minutes ago, RDCanecutter said:

You can never tell when your neck is going to start hurting. Joking, not joking. Just because you didn't feel anything the day of the collision doesn't mean you won't.

Yeah, my parents got tboned by an even more elderly couple a day or two before they left on a cruise.

On the advice of my insurance-defense law school roommate, they went to see the doc, and he diagnosed some soft-tissue injuries and recommended some physical therapy, which they actually did and it made them feel better and also going through the range of motion exercises, learned that they were more injured than they thought.

At the time, Dallas County juries awarded a higher multiple of out-of-pocket medicals and between that and their cruise miss, they got enough money to cover the difference between their four-year-old car and a new one.  They also joined the cruise late and made the best part (St. Lawrence river way).

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On 1/15/2025 at 9:01 AM, Dahobbs said:

I don't believe that is accurate. If the driver was found liable at trial, they'd be on the hook for any damages, including the cost of transportation. That doesn't many "any transportation". It means what would put you in the same position had the accident not occurred at all. That is ultimately the goal of the compensation in the tort system. I'm not aware of any statute that would specifically limit liability as to transportation costs, but I suppose it isn't an issue I've had to to litigate. 

Which part do you believe is inaccurate?  

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52 minutes ago, T’Boo Ted Marshall said:

Which part do you believe is inaccurate?  

I may not have quoted the most important post that I was responding to. I specifically meant this part: "I can’t recall the exact verbiage Imma buy it is transportation, not comparable transportation."

 That's incorrect. Now, what an insurer writes in their policies for their insureds is different, but also irrelevant when dealing with a 3rd party driver. 

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I may not have quoted the most important post that I was responding to. I specifically meant this part: "I can’t recall the exact verbiage Imma buy it is transportation, not comparable transportation."
 That's incorrect. Now, what an insurer writes in their policies for their insureds is different, but also irrelevant when dealing with a 3rd party driver. 

I’ve been out of the game for a while but I am a recovering auto claims mgr. I don’t recall a TX statute specifically saying “comparable” during my time handling 3rd party claims. That may have changed.

I rarely even heard of claimants going to small claims to get additional damages. I spent 11 years and never heard of it anywhere.
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