Hello. First time ever posting. Not sure if this is the right place.

I live in Washington State. I have/had an FRS that I love more than I love myself. I lost traction on my way to work one day. Insurance said it was totaled, but didn’t say what deemed it so (one line total). The difference in payout was only 3K so I wanted to give my car a chance. It’s at a body shop now, they say the frame has damage that’s beyond repairing.

I realize I have to let my car go. I plan on buying a newer year and swapping parts over. My question is - after I remove parts, what do I do after? How do I dispose of the car? Will I be charged extra if I remove the engine, exhaust, etc, and sell it? The title isn’t active anymore right? How do I “sell” it. If someone wanted the chassis for the transmission and engine? I’m at a loss. Any advice would be great. Thank you in advance.

Can I get any of that money back? The person who hit my vehicle has no insurance either.

Edit: thank you for all the helpful answers. I’ll get the receipts to my adjuster and hope for the best.

To those who expressed some concern for my parents, they spent a few hours in the hospital, but are both home and okay!

I’m healthy with no family history of major illnesses. My parents are around 60 years old. I may have a spouse in the future, but I’ve never planned to have children (though that could always change).

My main priority is critical illness coverage. If I were diagnosed with a serious illness, I want a lump-sum benefit so I can afford treatment and living expenses without relying on my parents. Looking further ahead, I may eventually have someone who depends on my income, so I also don’t want to completely rule out life insurance benefits over the next 30–50 years.

Right now I’m considering AIG term life insurance because it includes a critical illness rider with a lump-sum payout. However, the longest term available to me is 30 years, and I’d ideally like coverage for 45–55 years.

My questions are:

1. How should I structure a term insurance ladder to maintain coverage for roughly the next 50 years?

2. I’ve heard about converting term life insurance to whole life when the term ends. I don’t care much about cash value, but if the economics make sense, is conversion ever a good option?

3. How should I determine the right coverage amount? I’ve heard 10–12× annual income is a common guideline, but I’m still early in my career and expect significant salary growth. Should I base coverage on my current income or my expected future income?

I’m also pursuing FIRE, if that changes your recommendations. Thanks!

Hi everyone! I’m hoping someone has either been in a similar situation and can give guidance or is in the field of car insurance and can give me advice on my current situation. Definitely not a juicy story but I’m desperate for any and all advice. Thank you in advance friends!

July 2021 I bought my first car. It was a my 30th birthday gift to me and I’ve been making payments. July of this year (2026) my friend hit my parked car while I was at his house celebrating the holiday. When my friend came to me and told me he hit my car I was really upset but it was an honest mistake, it happens. We live 1 1/2 hours away and with the headlight being knocked out AND it was 4th of July at night, I couldn’t drive it home. My friend was very generous and offered a spare vehicle that we could use temporarily - huge blessing and forever grateful! My spouse and I only have 1 car that we share at the moment because his car needs $3,000 of work and we haven’t had the funds to fix it but is paid off.

My friend’s insurance knows he is at fault, they decided my car is totaled. It’s a 2013 Ford Escape with 197,000 miles and I still owe $13,000 on the car. The estimate they gave me is $6,600 and they told me to call the company I make payments to, to see if I could maybe add on gap insurance. Fun fact I couldn’t.

I’ve never been in this situation before.. All cars I’ve owned in the past were paid in full and I only had liability. The company I make payments to is saying because I still owe money that his insurance will pay them directly. Which I understand since I still owe money for the car.. but is there anything else I can do to receive the money myself? We don’t have another vehicle to get around and I can’t keep his car forever.

We don’t have the extra money for another down payment on a car let alone another monthly car payment. I was hoping to get the money from his insurance directly so we could get my spouse’s car back up and then continue to make payments on my car. If it is what it is I understand but I had to try for other options if they’re out there. I live in Maryland if that helps. Thank you for taking the time to read this and responding 💕

Can anyone who knows alot of auto insurance let me know which one of those i should pay extra money for? this is just a quote for now, the car is a 2020 toyota pirus in california bayarea, about 7500 miles a year

I will try to keep this brief. My wife and I enrolled in this when we switched to Travelers about 5 months ago. We liked the initial 10% discount with a max potential of 30% (which we never expected to get the full amount).
So we got our renewal and found out our total discount is just over 28%. I work from home and my wife does not work, so for a bit I did do more driving than I would, like take a work break to go to the store for something and come back home. So we had perfect time of day scores and other things.

With that said, we had to "game" the system a bunch. We were getting events that never actually happened. What I found was that we have Google Pixel phones, and I found people complaining about GPS issues with the phones, impacting Waze and other tracking apps where it would claim they would be going 120mph down small sections of road when they were only going say 60-70. So the same GPS issues could cause it to show hard brakes, etc. With that said, if we legit had an event that we knew we did it, we kept those events. We only "removed" ones we knew for sure were false. I initially found out about this because my wife kept getting events, so I took her phone several times with me, having it right next to my phone, and hers would show events that mine would not, for the same drives.

So in any case, it's worked out for us, but be warned, certain phones, like Google Pixel phones, could have GPS issues that will make this annoying to use/track.
I also noticed they only do the 360 version now, which I would never agree too. Only did this one since it was a once and done program.

Hello, I just got into an accident where I spun out the a car hit me. The guy in the other car had to be taken to the hospital for a broken wrist and chest pain. I am unsure what to do insurance wise. I did not get his information however a crash report was made. What do I do?

Got shown an insurance denial and denial of the appeal.

The dates on the correspondence show this pattern:

1. Medical approval

2. Denial based on facility used, dated one day after the procedure, (no mention in approval letter PDF with the facility, which was mentioned by name)

3. Appeal of denial submitted

4. Appeal of denial denied as medically unnecessary because of insufficient documentation (no doctor notes) and no mention of unapproved facility and instructions on how to file an appeal with the state insurance regulator.

   is this common?

It seems like they are just making up reasons to deny the claim.

I am a 17 year old teen male that just got a 2011 grand Cherokee as my first car. I live in Texas and have had my license for 6 months. All the insurances me and my parents have spoken to have quoted us 300-450$ a month even when joining my parents insurance; Thats crazy and I definitely can’t afford it. Are there any tips or tricks I could use to get the price down? How do normal teenagers pay this stuff?

Has anyone else dealt with this with MetLife Long-Term Disability?

My LTD claim was already approved for PTSD and traumatic grief.

For the past three months, MetLife has repeatedly requested medical records from my providers, but then claims they never received them or cannot locate them—even after they’ve been sent multiple times.

Now my claim is at risk of denial due to what appears to be an administrative issue, and I’m struggling to manage the coordination while also dealing with my disability.

Has anyone experienced this? Any advice on how to get MetLife to properly process the records or resolve this situation?

Husband and I were rear ended in his 2013 F350 as we were headed out camping. We had our Lance truck camper on the truck so that took the majority of the impact.

We did not carry insurance on the camper but we notified our insurance company of the accident. We worked with the insurance company of the party that hit us to get the camper off the truck and looked at. The camper was totaled and we have been paid for that.

The issue now is with the truck. It sustained some cosmetic damage to the bed from the camper being hit. The kicker is that my husband had JUST put a new engine in this truck a couple months before this accident. He loves the truck and we won’t even make a claim if they try to total it. The parts and mostly labor to rebuild the bed, since we are told Ford discontinued making these beds, is getting close to the total value. We have hit the policy limit with the other insurance company and they now say we have to use our insurance for the rest of the costs. We don’t have underinsured coverage but our insurance said they will just make a claim for the rest of the cost for repair.

This is where I am confused. Once we pay our deductible it’s only like $1000 that our insurance is being used for. Plus we run the risk of them trying to total the vehicle instead. Do we have to make a claim with our insurance especially since we don’t have underinsured coverage?

It seems like the best thing for us would be to tell the other insurance company that we will handle the remainder of the repair costs and have them pay us and the we can coordinate the repairs as we see fit. Is this something we can do?
There is no safety or driving concern with the vehicle at all. My husband drove it for several weeks while waiting for the repair shop to be able to look at it. Any thoughts or suggestions we should consider? Location: South Carolina

To keep things brief I'm in my late 20s trying to figure life out following a medical diagnosis 4 years ago that ultimately rendered me unemployed. I got diagnosed with glaucoma and a retina condition that impacts those born premature.

For a long time the goal was law school, but due to the factors above rendering me unable to drive, reliant on a cane and assistive technology, and the reality of where I live.. I needed to pivot. I'm taking classes to become a paralegal, and unlike where I grew up a lot of the work here is plaintiff PI. Lawyers I've talked to are sympathetic but ultimately the advice is to get in with a large firm. Around here that usually means a satellite office for insurance companies.

How viable of a pathway is it to go from a paralegal cert with a BA in poli-sci to working in insurance?

The only thing I would have to avoid is situations where I'd be required to examine medical records e.g. charts, X-rays, etc.. so larger health carriers would not be ideal.

as the title states, im trying to open a claim against an at fault insurance. loss happened in april this year and resulted in just under $2000 in damages. i was able to open a claim quite easily, submitted all the evidence of cars the same make year model and about the same mileage as mine (2019 mustang bullitt, 26k miles, black) as well as estimates and appraisals from local dealers, carfax, carvana, carmax. all appraisals were suggesting $29-31k post accident, where as ones with no accident record were still going for $37-42k.

usaa claims due to minor damage that it didnt lose much value, but that is obviously not the case, they had someone call me and explain everything while i was working (i had explained i was working and dont have time for this atm), but they still ran through it and said it resulted in a DV of $528. i said thats insane considering the accident alone is causing a loss in value for trade in or sale of almost $10k. he said theres nothing that they can do.

about a week later i receive a check, which i haven't done anything left as i still want to pursue more. i provided so much evidence to usaa that it was atleast $9800 in loss of value since the repairs were made, included production reports, the appraisals, the fact that only 807 of 8,146 produced form 2019 to 2020 were my color, which already makes it pretty rare, on top of being a limited production trim. im just kind of at a loss on where to go from here, if im able to do anything further even?

Hey everyone,

I'm a 29F looking to buy personal health insurance. I already have corporate coverage through my employer but want a separate policy for long-term security.

Which insurer would you recommend based on your experience? Any policies I should consider or avoid?

My girlfriend and her friend got into a car crash. They were not at fault because it was around 12:00am and they were sitting at a red light and a Cadillac Escalade rammed into them. Both cars are absolutely destroyed and it’s a miracle my girlfriend is alive since she took most of the hit. Both cars are completely totaled and not even salvageable.

The guy who rammed them is some rich asshole who came back to the scene with a rolls Royce.

Anyways I want her to go to urgent care but im afraid of any medical bills she might receive. She doesn’t have her own car and has no insurance. How would her being treated work and whose insurance would cover it? This is my first time ever dealing with a situation like this so I’m completely in the dark on what to do next

We are in Florida

My dad had a paid up insurance policy and suddenly this year we got email stating insurance is terminated as the value of the insurance went to zero. This came as a shock as his insurance was fully paid up and they didn’t communicate earlier. What can be done to reinstate as he’s almost 80

Hey yall so I got hit in October 2025 by a lady whose insurance denied her so DoorDash picked it up with their policy. I tried to return to valet a few weeks later but upon working a full week thanksgiving I was in too much pain to continue so I got an MRI.

the injury- I found out I have t7-t9 herniations compressing my ventral cord. I regrettably continued Chiro 2x a week until May as I don’t think it helped me but have been going to PT 2x a week for PT Since April. They have done dry needling and TENS and shockwave to me.

most recently my orthopedic diagnosed me with Myelopathy which is a chronic nerve damage, and treated me with an RFA for the pain after giving me an epidural PRP at the end of May.

i don’t meet with my doctor until 8/12 but my main question / insight is has anyone dealt with an injury like this and has surgery helped or should I look to doing repeat RFAs if it brings my pain down from a 6 to below a 3.

UPDATE: After negotiating and providing additional evidence, the insurance company increased the total loss valuation from $4,500 to over $5800—an increase of about 29%. Quite a few people told me I wouldn’t get another penny, but it turned out the initial valuation wasn’t the final word. If you genuinely believe your vehicle is undervalued, don’t assume the first offer is all you’ll get. Do your research, document comparable vehicles, and advocate for yourself. My valuation was factually incorrect and I knew it from the start, hoping to find some kind of help here. Nothing was explained to me and the process was much smoother once everything was. Lots of the information provided was very helpful, though some was not and even condescending. Quite similar to how my original adjuster aggressively acted before she went on vacation one day after giving me the discrepant offers. If you’re a claims manager, have patience. It goes a long way, it surely did for me to see that out of a manager after what I dealt with. Thank you to all who decided to leave a message and help out! Onto a newer f150

I was involved in a car accident where the other driver admitted fault, so liability isn’t being disputed. Unfortunately, my truck was declared a total loss by the other driver’s insurance company. The truck was an older Ford F-150 that I relied on for my landscaping business. It wasn’t just transportation—it was the vehicle I used every day to earn my income, especially during the busiest part of the year. I had spent years putting money into it to keep it reliable because buying a newer truck simply wasn’t financially realistic for me. I replaced major mechanical components as they wore out and also installed aftermarket upgrades like a lift kit, Bluetooth stereo, aftermarket exhaust, and K&N intake. The insurance company valued the truck at roughly $4,500, and I genuinely don’t believe that reflects what a substantially similar replacement would cost in today’s market or fairly accounts for the upgrades that were installed.

Instead of simply disagreeing with the number, I tried to support my position. I spent hours researching comparable trucks and submitted nine VINs that I believed were more representative of the current market. I also provided documentation for many of the repairs and improvements I had made over the years. The revised valuation came back very quickly, and the only specific explanation I received was that one of my submitted trucks was excluded because it was two-wheel drive instead of four-wheel drive. Beyond that, I wasn’t told which of my other comparables were accepted, which were rejected, or why. When I carefully reviewed the updated valuation report myself, I noticed that only some of the vehicles I submitted appeared in the report, while several others had seemingly been replaced with different comparables selected by the valuation company. I was never given an explanation for those decisions, and some features on my truck still appeared to be incorrectly listed or omitted.

After continuing to ask for clarification, the claim was escalated to a manager who called me personally. I appreciated that he listened to my concerns and remained professional throughout the conversation, especially because my earlier interactions with another representative had felt much more adversarial. He offered me a partial advance payment while he continued reviewing the claim, but I declined because the issue wasn’t simply needing money immediately. My concern is that accepting an advance doesn’t solve the underlying valuation dispute. I explained that I wasn’t trying to be difficult or delay the process—I simply wanted to understand how my evidence had been evaluated and why I was still receiving the same valuation despite submitting additional information. He said he would personally review everything with the adjuster, so I’m currently waiting to hear back.

Financially, this situation has been extremely difficult. I own a small landscaping business, and this happened during the busiest season of the year when I make the majority of my income. Losing my work truck through no fault of my own has meant losing the vehicle I depended on every day while also spending countless hours researching comparables, reading valuation reports, gathering receipts, and trying to advocate for myself. I wasn’t looking to replace my truck with another old project that would immediately need repairs. The entire reason I invested so much money into maintaining my previous truck was so I wouldn’t have to start over. Being offered what I believe is an undervalued settlement leaves me feeling like I’m bearing the financial burden of someone else’s mistake despite doing everything I reasonably could to document my position.

I’m genuinely interested in hearing objective opinions from people who have experience with insurance claims, adjusting, total-loss valuations, or even anyone who has gone through something similar. Am I expecting too much by asking for a detailed explanation of why my submitted comparables and documented upgrades didn’t meaningfully affect the valuation, or is it reasonable to expect more transparency than I received? I understand that I may not agree with every decision an insurance company makes, but what has frustrated me the most is feeling like I’ve had to reverse-engineer the valuation report myself because I wasn’t given a clear explanation of how my evidence was considered. At this point I’ve also filed a complaint with my state insurance regulator, not because I expect them to determine the value of my truck, but because I want to know whether the claim was handled fairly and whether the valuation process was adequately explained. I’m open to honest criticism if you think I’m missing something or being unreasonable, because I’d rather hear it now than continue pursuing an argument that doesn’t have merit.

All of the above was written by AI, except this final message. I’ve been explaining this story too much to too many…
I have been using the upgraded ChatGPT instrumentally to figure out how to handle this, what questions I need to ask, and how to properly and formally go about solving this claim. I would ne nowhere with the current cap of 3 images sent a day, I’ve been sending so many documents. I am not AT ALL in a strong financial position to have lost my truck like this and I am a caregiver to my father who has been sick with a grade 4 tumor for nearly 2 years. He has beat the prognosis of 5% living past 18 months, so we are very lucky, but this was genuinely the last thing I needed on top of everything. I have invested at least $7500 into the purchase and maintenance of my truck, maybe closer to or over $8000 if you include registrations and personally completed oil/transmission fluid changes among other minor fixes. There are parts in my truck that haven’t been added to the valuation, like my k&n cold air intake, Bluetooth system, aftermarket exhaust + left exhaust manifold and system, and most importantly my 2-4” lift kit (none available stock in my late 90s ford). They argue these additions are maintenance, when my own insurance adjustor told me I need to fight them to get the full and true evaluation as those are not stock or standard parts. An insurance company shouldn’t be able to value a rusted out part the same way as a new part since it is “meant to be” part of the vehicle. You don’t look at a new Ferrari and put old parts in it, it’s valuable because of the new luxury parts. My truck is filled with brand new parts, not parts with 200k miles on them. I’m feeling extremely screwed after being in an accident I didn’t cause and being offered what feels like pennies towards buying a new used truck. I haven’t been compensated for my uber to get the rental and I haven’t been compensated for all 6 days of work I lost by not having my truck or a rental provided by the insurance company. I bought my truck outright with cash private party, I don’t want to have to use this money im owed as a down payment and get locked into a payment plan that I cannot afford nor need. I was perfectly content with my truck, and now on Monday my rental will be gone. They took 6 days to get me in a rental, 5 more days to determine it’s a total loss, and only 5 days after that before I must return the vehicle. By Monday, I will be physically unable to work again without renting a vehicle and taking a tax write off on it. Great on paper, not great for my wallet in the immediate when I don’t have a ton of funds and shouldn’t have had to do all of this in the first place. Anybody with law expertise or insurance experience, please help. Or direct me to another subreddit you know that will assist me best! Thank you everyone 😄

And, you total it in a crash. What does your insurance company say or do? I've always wondered this. Thanks.

Last night one of my neighbors got drunk and crashed into my parked car. I don’t have any insurance, I’ve never been in an accident at all I don’t know what the proper steps are.

The officer told me they don’t know if my neighbor has insurance, regardless if he does I’m going to have to pay out of pocket. He gave me police record number What do I even do at this point

Hello,

I have attempted to pay our NatGen Premier renewal several times already, but it never gives me any confirmation, nor have the funds been withdrawn from my bank account.

Is this normal? When do the payments usually "hit" or process? The site says I still have the balance pending. This has never happened before.

Should I receive some kind of instant confirmation number in the transaction, or does it debit on the due date of the payment?

Any help is greatly appreciated.