Someone here said that he had dropped his comprehensive and only had liability. Liability insurance is required by law. Comprehensive is usually required by a lender. If he didn't have comprehensive, he can sell the car for scrap or pay to fix it himself; he won't get anything from his insurance carrier.Gregg wrote: ↑Tue Oct 04, 2022 7:38 pmDepends on the company. When I had an accident while getting divorced, the policy was still in both our names so they wrote the check to both of us and she had to sign it before I could deposit it. I paid to get my car fixed myself.sugar magnolia wrote: ↑Mon Oct 03, 2022 4:21 pm Even if he has comprehensive, they still won't cut him a check. If the vehicle can be repaired the insurance company pays the repair bill directly to the mechanic or body shop that does the work. If the vehicle is totaled the lien holder gets the check.
Buy Sugar is basically correct, except that there are different blends of payouts. I've heard of people who owned their cars outright,but still had comprehensive, who took the insurance check and either fixed it themselves or had their brother-in-law do it. The problem with that is that, if you get in another accident, you may not be able to prove the the damage from the first accident was ever repaired. The insurance company may say "Your car is worth $10k, but we paid you $5k to repair the last accident. So here's $5k."
Or, he might have a lien, but the car is worth more than the lien. Let's say the car is worth $10k, but the loan balance is only $5k. The insurance company would make the check payable to BOTH him and the lien holder. This happened to me once. I had to endorse the check and send it to the bank, who cashed it and sent me a check for the excess amount.