Car accident, no insurance, still owe money on the car. now what?
Jacquelyn asked:
I’m asking this on behalf of my boyfriend. He was in a car accident on November 17th, it was a 14 car pile-up that happened due to bad weather conditions. Tickets weren’t given out and I believe nobody was cited. He had no insurance at the time of the accident, and he had a loan taken out for this car (he still owes $6,000 or so on it). The car is now totaled and there is nothing that can be done about this. Obviously making a payment on a car you no longer have is ridiculous, but I assume that’s what he is going to have to do. In the meantime, he also needs to save enough money to purchase another car. Has anyone been in this situation before? What would you recommend? Obviously he should’ve been driving with insurance, that’s a given. But all that aside, he is now in some debt. He wants to file bankruptcy but from what I hear it’s expensive and you have to have a substantial amount of debt in order to file. Should he look into meeting with someone that can help him consolidate his debt? He’s having a really hard time with this right now and I want to be there and support him the best I can. Any answers would be VERY much appreciated. Happy Holidays!
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I’m asking this on behalf of my boyfriend. He was in a car accident on November 17th, it was a 14 car pile-up that happened due to bad weather conditions. Tickets weren’t given out and I believe nobody was cited. He had no insurance at the time of the accident, and he had a loan taken out for this car (he still owes $6,000 or so on it). The car is now totaled and there is nothing that can be done about this. Obviously making a payment on a car you no longer have is ridiculous, but I assume that’s what he is going to have to do. In the meantime, he also needs to save enough money to purchase another car. Has anyone been in this situation before? What would you recommend? Obviously he should’ve been driving with insurance, that’s a given. But all that aside, he is now in some debt. He wants to file bankruptcy but from what I hear it’s expensive and you have to have a substantial amount of debt in order to file. Should he look into meeting with someone that can help him consolidate his debt? He’s having a really hard time with this right now and I want to be there and support him the best I can. Any answers would be VERY much appreciated. Happy Holidays!
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Tags: Car Insurance, Insurance, Insurance Car
February 14th, 2009 at 9:15 am
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i just went through the same thing but it was my best friend that recked my car the only thing to do is pay off the other car and he needs to get himself a small little car that dont cast that much for now untill he can save some money up. good luck
February 15th, 2009 at 2:33 pm
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Regardless of the fact that he no longer has the car he will still have to pay for it. Sucks I know, but that is the way it works, unless he can get the place he bought it from to forgive the debt because the car is totaled. He could file a bankruptcy but if his debt is just the car it would have to be a Chapter 7 in which he sets up payments to pay them back what he owes, so he will have to pay for the car regardless and a bankruptcy on your credit report looks bad. He should go and talk to the place he bought the car from and see if they will work a deal for him. When he gets a new car he should get insurance on it right away.
February 18th, 2009 at 9:22 am
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Well you can either sell the car on eBay, or you could repair it. If you repair it then you would have to make sure that the repairs are probably less than what he owes. i would probably tell you to sell it on eBay to atleast recoupe some of your money. Good Luck and Hope This Helps.
February 20th, 2009 at 12:27 pm
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If he did not cause the accident, and you do not live in a state with the “No Play, No Pay” statute, he may be able to recover from the at fault party. The insurance companies will need to complete the investigation and assess liability against each of the drivers. This is going to take some time.
In the mean time, contact his lien holder. It is possible that his insurance company notified them when his policy was canceled. The lien holder may have coverage on the vehicle since they still own the vehicle and they have an insurable interest.
Hopefully, he has no liability, because the insurance companies will come after him to recover what they paid out. This could be costly.
February 22nd, 2009 at 8:47 pm
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Unfortunately, there is no easy way out of this situation. Of course, that’s why insurance is a good thing.
The bank doesn’t care about the car. All they want is the money that was borrowed from them. As soon as they learn about the fact that the car doesn’t exist any longer, they will want their money right then — no more monthly payments.
Maybe bankruptcy is the answer but that will make it impossible to get another car loan in the next few years, unless he goes to a buy-here-pay-here dealer who doesn’t care about his credit, but charges high prices for their old cars and high interest rates. I wish I had a better answer.
February 24th, 2009 at 10:21 am
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This happened to my son. His car was totaled by a hit-run driver who was never found. My son had no insurance on his 2004 Neon. The wreck occurred in September, 2005 and he will make the final payment on the car next month. He hasn’t even seen the car since a couple of days after the wreck.
February 26th, 2009 at 10:57 am
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He can call his lender and ask what the “payout” is on his loan. Making monthly payments has added interest. If he is able to save or borrow money and pay it off in one lump sum, the amount owed would be less.
Otherwise, he needs to keep paying on it.
take it as a lesson learned, never drive without insurance
March 1st, 2009 at 6:08 am
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The loan agreement your boyfriend signed does not say he only owes the payment if the car is drivable.
So…continuing to make the payment on the car is not ridiculous…..it’s responsible. It’s what the loan papers he signed say he has to do.
If he stops making the payments - the finance company will repo the wrecked car. They will sell it for what ever they can get (which won’t be much b/c it’s wrecked). Then they will sue your boyfriend for the difference. He will still end up paying for the car only now….he has a repo on his record which will make getting a reasonable loan to finance another car next to impossible.
So…by continuing to make the payment - he ends up paying the same amount anyway and does not tank his credit rating.
Now….if he financed with a standard finance company (not a tote the note place) - he needs to notify them of the wreck. If his insurance policy lapsed and his insurance company knows about the loan then most lien holders will put “forced coverage” on the car. This is a form of insurance that protects their interest in the car. He may want to see if forced coverage was taken out on this car.
March 3rd, 2009 at 5:52 am
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Using google to find some related info or you could try using answer engines such as yahoo answer or yedda.com to obtain some useful ideas.however,If you want some direct infomation,here is a nice one from my experience.
March 5th, 2009 at 2:14 am
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Jacquelyn, There are tons of websites where you can get an online quote. It only takes 5 minutes to do.