I was minding my own business at a gas station when some guys came in and said someone just backed into my car and veered off. Amazingly they caught license plate.
I filed a police report and they gave me the owner name, insurance company and policy #. After filing with their insurance, an agent called me and said that that vehicle may have had a lapse this month but that they were going to try and get ahold of them to see what's up. (I was.. uneasy at this part.. lol)
2 hours later.. I get a private message from someone saying to call them about the hit and run. This woman calls me, upset, pretty teary. Gives me a bit of a story on how it was probably her daughter. (Also gave a bit of info that they were going through a tough time apparently..) She said to daughter earlier in the day "you ran into someone over at X?" Allegedly, the daughter didn't realize and they were ending up crying. Allegedly.
Either way.. My new Honda has a couple moderate dents in one of my doors. The mom asked if I would be willing to stop by since they leave nearby. As of now, I've agreed to stop by — doesn't seem like I'm necessarily gonna run into any trouble.
How should I go about this? The dent itself may be able to be suctioned out, but I have no idea. I just put a guess of $500 on the repair cost in the police report.
Maybe they'll offer cash? Maybe they will want me to just 'let it go?' Maybe they'll give me their new insurance?
Any thoughts?
My car was hit and run. The mother of the driver called me…
byu/Mountain-Cup1861 inpersonalfinance
Posted by Mountain-Cup1861
16 Comments
You need to take your car to a body shop and get an estimate for the repair before doing anything.
Good body work isn’t cheap. $500 won’t even get your car into the garage. Know what you’re dealing with before you listen to them for any offers.
The financial move is to let the police and your insurance company handle it and do what they do.
While choosing to do something else isn’t necessarily “wrong”, understand that doing something else has a high chance of costing you money.
$500 is the cost to drive into a body shop for anything more than a simple door ding. They’re going to give you a sob story but they hit you and you deserve to be compensated.
The daughter absolutely realized btw. She is probably not licensed or something like that. I wouldn’t even go over there. Tell her you will communicate through your insurance company. These people already sound like scumbags who don’t want consequences for their actions.
It has to be a hard lesson learned unfortunately. If you forgive it then shes just going do it again.
Probably not the first and last time she’s done something like this.
I was stunned when a body shop quoted about $2000 for a very tiny blemish on my car. Most of it involved having to repaint much of the car so it would match. I’ve learned to live with the tiny dent. I might name it.
I have to be honest I would not be willing to stop by, there is absolutely no reason for that.
Absolutely do not engage with this lady. This is what you pay $$$$ for insurance. Pass along her information to your agent and don’t have anything else to do with her.
There is zero reason to meet these people. Continue with your insurance claim. The end. In the future, use your own insurance. People always avoid this but your insurance covers you and saves you from drama like people with lapses policies and sob stories. You file the claim, pay your deductible and your insurance goes after the other insurance to recoup the money.
You know what would be easier is filing with your own insurance.
It’s a scam, don’t take the cash offer. I had a woman give me a nearly identical sob story when she hit and run my car, I decided not to take her money and thank god I did because she used my info to file a claim with her insurance saying I backed into her car instead.
Let insurance handle it. If they don’t have insurance, sue. Body shops intentionally inflate private quotes when they are going to possibly miss out on sweet insurance money because they way WAY over quote to insurance and do the repair extremely cheap and pocket the rest. The shop will get their exorbitant fee, be it from you or insurance. Don’t get fucked – do this by the book.
What coverage do you have?
I used to do body work man. You’d be surprised how quickly a quarter sized dent can become $1000. It depends where it is.
Tears are not a valid form of currency. She hit your car and ran off, she pays money like someone who hit your car and ran off.
hire a auto accident attorney immediately and let them know
There is absolutely zero chance I would drive to the house of someone claiming to have hit my car. That just asking for trouble, imo.