Auto Hail Damage Claims: 5 Tips You Need to Know
Your Insurance Company’s Hail Claim Check is Not Enough To Cover the Cost To Properly Repair Your Vehicle
We have found that 95% of the claims for hail damage we see on cars in Minnesota will need a supplement from the insurance company. The supplement is necessary to fully cover the cost to repair your car. This is done by showing the additional damage with photos and proper documentation that we find upon our thorough inspection.
Often The Initial Insurance Estimate Is Short By 50%
When a hail storm hits a local Minnesota City, the insurance company can have thousands of claims to handle. They will even bring in insurance adjusters from out of town that specializes in auto hail damage claims.
While the hail claims adjuster may specialize in your auto hail damage claim, they are not looking at your car in the ideal conditions to determine the total extent of the damage. They will even tell you this at the time of your insurance estimate. They know that we, as professionals in repairing the car, will know all that needs to be done to properly make the repairs and have the right conditions to see all the dents in your car.
You are going to want to have hail damage to your car repaired properly by a paintless dent repair professional, but you don’t want to have to pay the extra expense for the service. And you don’t have to.
We will work directly with your insurance company on your behalf to get the extra cost needed to get your car back to its new condition. You will not have any extra out-of-pocket expenses and will only have to pay your comprehensive insurance deductible.
Making a Claim For Hail Damage Will Not Raise Your Insurance Rates
It’s important to understand that the damage to your vehicle was caused by a natural disaster, and had nothing to do with your own actions. This is a comprehensive claim, and your rates for your insurance policy will not increase because of this single claim.
If an insurance company receives thousands of auto hail damage claims and even more separate claims with damage to houses in a city, they may raise the rates for that specific area or based on a zip code.
If you don’t file a claim and let your insurance cover the cost of repairs to your car, you may still see your insurance premiums go up, and you’ll still have a car with dents and damage from hail.
We’ve found that sometimes your comprehensive coverage deductible could also be lower than your collision deductible. The average out-of-pocket cost or your “copay” that is due is often about $500. But I have seen other deductibles be anywhere from just $100 or $250 and even some with no comprehensive deductible. This means you could have your car completely restored to new without any cost to you.
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The Auto Body Repair Shop Does Not Do Paintless Dent Repair
Often when your car is damaged and needs repair, the first thought is to bring it into the body shop. But when it comes to hail damage the best option is to choose a paintless dent repair shop first.
So, you may be asking, “doesn’t the body shop also do paintless dent repair?” Well, the short answer is that they don’t. But let me give you an example.
If you were experiencing severe pain in your mouth, you wouldn’t just go to the doctor first. While they could give you some painkillers and refer you to a specialist, you would go to the dentist who specializes in working with your mouth and teeth. The dentist could then properly repair the tooth and alleviate your pain.
You see, paintless dent repair is the same. You could go to the body shop and they would do major surgery on your car or they bring your vehicle to the specialist that performs PDR.
You want to choose a shop that does paintless dent repair and can save you the time and hassle of using an auto body repair shop.
You might be thinking that you already took your car to the body shop or had a friend that had their car repaired with paintless dent repair at a body shop. Now while they had the repairs done there, the shop actually had to bring in the specialist to do the paintless dent removal because the auto body shop does not have the staff that specializes in this dent repair process.
You will often find that the body shop’s initial estimate is not even correct and they will have to wait until the paintless dent repair technician does their inspection to properly evaluate the full cost of hail repair.
This can add extra time to the repair process and delay getting your car back sooner than needed.
Don’t Wait To Have Your Car Repaired, This Mistake Could Cost You More Money and Time
The process of filing a hail damage claim can be confusing, especially if this is the first time that you’ve encountered a situation like this. If you experience a loss, it’s important to file an auto damage claim as soon as possible. Most insurance companies have a time limit and will only give you 12 months to report a loss. After that, you’ll have to pay for the repairs out of pocket.
Now, you probably already made the claim with your insurance but just haven’t found the time to get the repairs made, maybe you heard the body shops are backed up with cars and are not taking appointments for over 6 months, or you are just waiting for other reasons.
So, why would waiting to have the hail fixed cost you more money?
As I mentioned earlier, your insurance check is most likely not enough to fully cover the cost to properly repair your vehicle. By waiting to get the repairs done, you could have to pay more money once you decide to bring the car in.
Now the insurance company is not going to re-evaluate the damage to your car and just pay out more money. They want you to bring the car in for repair before they will pay the full cost. Once the insurance company has given you their estimate and has given you a check for the repairs, they have essentially closed the claim.
Now we handle the whole insurance process for you. We are able to provide all the documentation required by the insurance company so that we can receive the right amount for the repair. We are able to reopen the hail damage claim on your car by providing a supplement to the insurance for all the additional repairs needed.
They will then pay us for those repairs and the extra cost is not passed onto you.
If you have hail damage on your car and you get into another storm or accident before getting it fixed, you won’t be able to collect on a new insurance claim or be paid enough to fully repair the damage. Plus, you will now have to pay for two deductibles.
See, the insurance company already paid out what they decided was the right amount to fully repair the car. But, as I said before, that is not enough. So, now if you end up in another accident that damages the same panels on the car with the hail damage, you’ll be stuck paying for it.
The amount paid for previous repairs will be deducted from any new claims stemming from the accident. This could leave you with two claims that don’t cover the full cost of restoring your vehicle to its pre-loss condition.
If You Have a Loan or a Lease, You Won’t Be Able To Keep The Insurance Money
After an insurance estimate for hail damage to your car, the insurance company may issue a check for repair costs. However, the check will be made out to you and your bank or lease company. This is because the bank has a financial interest in your car. With the damage, the value of the car may be decreased, and the bank wants to make sure they are covering the actual cash value of the car.
The bank will not sign the claim check or allow it to be deposited until the repairs on your car are completed.
One of the problems with this is it will require you to pay for the repairs to your car and then wait up to 2-4 weeks for the bank to process the check and send it back to you or deposit it into your account.
Now at Excel Dent Removal, we can take care of this for you. We will work with your insurance company to have them reissue a new claim check payable to us for the complete auto hail repair services on your car. This will save you the hassle and expense of dealing with your bank.
Why You Want To Choose Excel Dent Removal For Your Hail Damage Repairs
We will work directly with your insurance provider to get the full amount needed to properly repair your vehicle.
You won’t have to worry about your insurance rates increasing because you made an auto hail claim.
At Excel Dent Removal of Minnesota, our team of professionals will know exactly what needs to be done to repair your car and make it look good as new! We have the right tools and conditions to spot all the dents in your car so that we can fix them quickly and efficiently.
We have your best interests in mind and we take care of the whole insurance claim process for you. And make sure that all the needed cost of repairs is covered by the insurance company.
So, if you have any other questions about the hail damage claim process or how we are able to repair your car with paintless dent removal, then contact me so I can help provide the answers.
My phone number is 763-780-4000 or contact me by email at [email protected]
Let’s start the hail damage claim process and get your car repaired as quickly as possible. Give me a call and we’ll set up an inspection of your hail-damaged car. This will help us determine what work needs to be done and we can schedule your repair appointment.
Are you interested to see how we remove those hail dents from your car? Check out this video where I show a couple of hail dents being removed with paintless dent removal.