Can You Take The Moeny From The Insurrance If You Dont Repair Your Car

Afterwards an accident, you might brand a merits with your auto insurance provider, which estimates the cost of repairs and sends you a check, minus whatever deductible. When y'all get the insurance claim check, do you have to utilize the coin to fix your car, or can you lot spend information technology notwithstanding you'd similar? It could be a hefty check, and yous might not heed driving around with some scratches and dents — particularly if it'south an older motorcar.

Whether y'all tin can "cash out" an insurance claim depends on a number of factors. Here are questions that will determine your answer.

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Is the car yours?

If y'all don't ain your car outright, you'll have to fix it. This applies whether yous take an auto loan or charter your car. Your loan or lease agreement probably requires you to keep the car in proficient repair and, in the case of a lease, return it without impairment.

Who is the merits cheque made out to?

If you have a loan or lease, your insurance claim check will probably exist made out to both you lot and the lender or leasing company. Fifty-fifty if you own your machine outright, some insurance companies pay the repair shop directly.

Where do you alive?

Some states have regulations that dictate whether insurance companies can pay you directly for claims.

Massachusetts regulations require insurers to make merits checks "payable to the claimant, and the lienholder, if applicable."

Ohio, on the other hand, says: "If your insurance company requires you to utilise a specific repair shop, the company must guarantee the shop's work and assess no extra cost to y'all." So your insurer might require a specific garage and ship the bank check at that place.

How extensive is the damage?

Yous might determine you can live with a dent or scratch. But make sure damage hasn't compromised important car systems or safety features. Federal police, for example, requires cars to have bumpers. So if an accident tore off ane of your bumpers, yous have to go a new one.

Final warnings

You could too try to make repairs yourself, merely be sure that you know what yous're doing, peculiarly if impairment goes beyond the cosmetic. Today'southward cars are incredibly complicated.

And if you're not fixing damage, consider the fact that it could bear upon later claims. Future insurance payouts may not cover harm to the same area. Unrepaired impairment also diminishes the value of your car.