okay as some of you remember, i got into an accident on NJ turnpike a few days ago and got some bad damages. The damages are going to be at least $10k to fix.. So i call my insurance company and they told me my policy was cancelled 4 days prior to the accident because of a failed inspection and a 40 day late payment.. Ok.. I guess its my fault but i live on campus and all insurance gets mailed to a house and nobody told me about the insurance company notices.. I sent them out a check in Feb. but they didnt cash it and they claimed to never have gotten it. Ive gone through dozens of people in the company and the truth is they are not willing to help me.. SO now im left to fix my car myself..

What should i do?

Sell it to someone who'll fix it up?
Fix it up?
Find a body shop that lets u finance fix up cost(anyone know any of em)?

BTW Its a 2004 Silver coupe with ALL features and options including NAV, sports package too, 7k miles,
Has about $27k loan on it

What are your thoughts people?cuz i just dont have $12-$15k cash on me now to fix the car.. and i dont wanna be carless for a few months ..

 

Not sure what to tell you. Sounds more like a personal financial issue then a get help from others type of deal. First thing I would do is talk to an attorney (hopefully you have one in the family) about the cancellation of your insurance. There might be some rules regarding (a) how long after no payments they can cancel you. (b)did they really cancel you or are they just saying that to save themselves 10k. If it ends up that you were not covered think you just have to figure you just spent 12-15k.

Might be time to either take out a loan or get yourself a real cheap car until you can afford to fix the G. I wont bother with a lecture cause it sounds like your gonna pay the price anyhow. Sorry dude.

 

Definitely look into an attorney. I wouldn't take "no" for an answer from anyone but a judge when you're dealing with that kind of money. Do you have any proof that you sent the check? Do you have any notices of cancellation?

Russ

Black 6MT Coupe
Jax, FL
PS2 and Headrest Monitors Thread

 

I was in a similar situation with insurance sending me notices to my house and me never getting them because I was at my apartment near school. The insurance co. told me (and student legal services confirmed) that I should have had my mail sent to my apartment and that it didn't matter if no one at my house told me about the mail because that's where I requested it be sent. I think you're pretty much shafted and it looks like you're going to have to front the bill unless you have some major evidence that contradicts their claims. Like just telling them that they sent the check and that they didn't cash it isn't going to fly.

Of course I am no legal expert and every case differs, so you might want to have a talk with that lawyer (it isn't cheap), but like I said it looks bad and you might have no choice but to figure it as a lost cause. Also, I don't know if you're state requires you to have insurance, but if it does, you're in for a whole new world...like Aladdin, but not.

 

sorry dude, that sucks. Because you were so overdue, I think they may have a valid point about canceling your policy. If your check arrived a couple of days late they may have cut you some slack if you were a good long time customer. But 40 days is a really long time, think about if you didn't pay your cell bill for that long, they would just cut you off. It's not their fault if you didn't get the mail, since you told them what address to send it to, how are they to know you don't live there anymore. Did they send you a late payment notice or cancellation notice that was dated prior to your accident, if so then you're probably out of luck and shouldn't even waste your time or money on an attourney. Usually they will send you a reminder to pay and a date you must pay by to insure unlapsed coverage. If they didn't cash your check back in feb then they probably didn't get it or you were already cancelled. Now if they did cash the check then you may have a valid insurance claim and maybe an attourney could help, but that's a big if they cashed it. Check your policy about late payments and cancellation of non-payment, it's probably clearly spelled out.

First off get insurance ASAP, it's required by law and if your car is financed the financial company will also require full coverage. Get it fast before you get into more trouble.

Don't sell it, because there is no way you would be able to cover your loan balance, even if you could get $15k for it you would be $12k in the hole with no car. It's not going to be easy to sell a damaged car and you will only get pennies on the dollar.

Most body shops will take credit card payments, you can split it up among a couple if you have to, you're better off just fixing it right now and paying the interest then wating a few months to save up the cash since at least you will have use of your car in a week or two. I'm just guessing but say your monthly car payments are $500, not being able to use your car for 4 months is a loss of $2000 right off the bat, not including the extra you'll have to pay for taxi or bus fare or a rental car.

 

If a legal notice of cancellation was sent to the address you provided, you have no leg to stand on. What insurance carrier was it and what state are you in?


<font color=blue>04 G35C DG AT
Prem Aero Perf
V1
R splash Guards
35% Tint
Clear Corners
Long Island, New York, USA
</font color=blue>

 

Usually you have a 30 day "grace" period on most insurance policies..However, Many years ago, I'm talking probably at least 25 years ago, I missed two (2) payments, and they did not cancel my policy..

The times have changed however, so you should get some legal advice....I think if you negotiate with you insurance co. they should be able to re-instate you and cover your claim

Its sad to think you pay insurance for so many years, and the one time you need them, all that paid money is for nothing!
I'm sure you will be able to reconcile this problem, do not put any money out of your pocket until your certain you have no other option....

To sell the car off damaged will only reap you a greater loss than where you are at now....
Usually, Insurance co.'s send a couple of late notices prior to cancellation...I'm not to sure about the Inspection, I received a notice some time back on my last car for the same thing...but I had it inspected, they just screwed up so It wasn't a problem.

One other problem is the insurance co will notify NJDMV that your are no longer covered by them...they will suspend you driving license until you either show proof that you are insured or have changed insurance co's and the policies overlapped...

hope it works out for you......<font color=blue>2old4this</font color=blue>


04 cpe IP/willow/5at/prem/18's/JDM clear corners/Piaa's/MTEC H4 Super White fog/highs

 

2fast,
financially, you will lose out if you sell it.
you said you're in college so i could only assume either someone helped you buy the car or you bought it with $ you got as gifts over the years. either way, it seems your family might have the means to loan you the money to get it fixed.

insurance uses 30 day grace period. if you had no accident, they might waive the grace period. but it's not worth it to them othrwise.

can't you blame the other car, i forgot your specifics.

04 6mtC, DG - possibly most babied G on the board.

 

2fast,
you got to mellow out.
i went to reread about your accident. looked up your prior posts.
1. you had minor accident and near death experience in the snow
2. you got pulled over by a cop for speeding but was let off
3. you got pulled over by a cop for speeding and got 3 tix
4. you have a new car with minor scratches
5. you have this big accident

and you wonder why you were quoted insurance estimate of 3500 per year and that they dropped you quickly.

not meaning to lecture, but if you want to live to be 25, downshift your life into a lower gear.

04 6mtC, DG - possibly most babied G on the board.

 

I agree with a lot of the advice given but it is crucial that you find out the stated date of cancellation. I had a similar situation with Progressive (thankfully no accident). I had been paying my bills over the internet and had been receiving "e-bills". For some reason they stopped sending the e bills and I only found out that the policy was cancelled when I went to pick up a service loaner. They had been sending hard copy bills but I ignored them because of the ebill history that I had. They reinstated the policy when I was able to get to a person who acknowledged that the ebills had been requested by me and not sent. The reason that the cancellation date is crucial is because you normally have a 60 day grace period. Think about it, they send you your first bill and it's normally not even recognized as late until the following billing cycle (30 days) at which point they send at least one cancellation notice. It may be a stretch but they could just be saying that the cancellation was in place. Check your account online and look at the records.... Good Luck

Loaded 04 6MT Black G Coupe. Aluminum Pedals, Clear Corners

 

There is no set "grace period" the cancellation date is the grace period. In NY a notice of cancellation is sent 15 days prior to the actual cancellation date. This is your grace period. After the cancellation date, and a claim, no carrier will re-instate. If you use a direct writer such as; Allstate, Geico, Progressive, you will get NO HELP from the carrier. Always use your local independent insurance agent, they are able to solve most insurance problems and will work for YOU not the insurance carrier. PM me if you have specific Insurance questions or blitzjb@aol.com.


<font color=blue>04 G35C DG AT
Prem Aero Perf
V1
R splash Guards
35% Tint
Clear Corners
Long Island, New York, USA
</font color=blue>

 

Well guys im using First Trenton in New Jersey. Well i dont know what to do now. I called some body shops and they require half payment as down, half when done. How many days do i have to get insurance in NJ? I hope i dont get my license suspended.. Im just going through a lot and im depressed.. Dont know what to do now.... What should i do?

Im thinking i should suck it up and fix the car.. and NOOO i did not get a cancellation notice. I told them that but they said their computer shows they mailed it in February... Thats messed up because i honestly didnt get it and they swear that they sent it, so its my word against theirs.. So what do i do now people? right now i just need a body shop that will sign a contract with me and accept $2k/mo monthly payments, or $3k.. Yes i paid for the car myself and i can afford payments and insurance but i just cant afford $12-15k cash at once, it'll dent me too much and i might not be able to get back up.

 

I can offer a couple of words of advice (and I will try not kick you too hard while you are down).

1. No interest credit cards. I get three of these in the mail each day. Fill out an application, Pay for the car repairs with that credit card. You usually have 6 months to 1 year until a 3.9% APR kicks in. Pay as much as you can each month. If you do not have the balance paid in full before the card expires, apply for another card and transfer the balance (FYI...usually takes 2 months to apply for a card and have the balance transferred). Should be able to do this for a couple of years.

2. Get a student loan. They usually have low interest rates, do not require payments until a few months after you graduate, and best of all will be tax deductible (currently you'll need to gross more than $55,000/year right out of college before you lose this deduction, $75,000 combined if you're married.) Unless you're going to be a doctor (and with the judgment you've used in the past I hope not) you might not hit that figure.

3. You could do the least respectable thing and file bankruptcy. I do not recommend this, but it is an option. It would financially ruin you for about 10 years, but again it is an option.

I really hope you get your head screwed on tight and put these mistakes behind you. Good Luck, sounds like you'll need it.

2004 Infiniti G35C-6MT
LR | Willow | Premium | Aero | Splash | BSM
30% Lumar Tint | Invinca Shield (C-Bra)
Z-Tube | JWT Pop Charger
RT Cats & JIC Y-Pipe(on order)

 

Ask the insurance carrier to provide "proof of mailing". If they can or will not, tell them you are filing a complaint the the NJ State Insurance Dept. You usually can not be without insurance at all -30 days max before they suspend your license.


<font color=blue>04 G35C DG AT
Prem Aero Perf
V1
R splash Guards
35% Tint
Clear Corners
Long Island, New York, USA
</font color=blue>

 

Ummm i dont think filing for bankruptcy now is a good idea..Also, can i charge like $10k+ on the credit card? I am only 18 and i got some loans for car and school... Dont think i will qualify for that..