If you need to get work done on your car that will be paid for through an insurance claim, your agent might offer you a list of shops in the area. If so, see if this list is a direct-repair list. These shops have entered into a special agreement with the insurance company that makes your life a lot easier as you wait to get your car back.
Pre-Existing Relationship
Shops that enter into a direct-repair contract with the insurance company have essentially been vetted. An insurance company isn't going to want to contract with a shop that does shoddy work, so you stand a much, much better chance of getting great service if you choose a direct-repair shop.
Ease of Payments
Using a direct-repair shop is so much easier than using a random shop in terms of payments. With direct repair, the insurance company sends payments directly to the shop, so you never have to worry about forgetting to bring your reimbursement check or waiting for one in the first place. The only payment you might have to deal with is your own deductible. With a non-direct-repair shop, you have to wait to get money from the insurance company, and then you have to sign it over to the shop. That can add to the time you have to be without your car because the shop will likely want its money before releasing your car.
Reasonable Ranges
The shops on your insurance agent's direct-repair list will also be more familiar with what your insurance company offers in terms of reimbursement. Plus, the shop may even have worked out deals with the insurance company regarding how much they would charge for repairs done as part of the direct-facility program. With a shop that's not part of the direct-repair program, you might be able to get cheaper repair costs, but you might not. It's really a toss-up.
Shop Selection
The number of repair shops you can choose from is likely the only category where looking outside the direct-repair list wins. That's obvious, of course -- you're no longer limiting yourself to the select list that your insurance agent has. But you're also opening yourself up to the possibility that the repairs won't be as good or that the whole process for receiving payments and endorsing them over to the shop will be more complicated than is necessary.
Your insurance agent will have a list of direct-repair shops in the area if you need work done. In fact, even if you don't need insurance-paid work done, you might want to check who's on the list for regular repairs. Talk to your agent about what to expect when you use one of these shops.
Share23 September 2016
When I got married, I knew that there were a few things that I needed to learn about the way the world worked. For starters, I had to figure out how insurance worked since I wanted to make the most of my life without worrying about money. I started focusing on the policies that I had in place and gradually moved towards acquiring new life insurance and the like. Having each of these coverages helped give both me and my spouse peace of mind. We both knew if something happened to me that the other would be okay. Check out this blog to learn more about insurance needs.