purchased a vehicle in 2012. I was told that I had gap insurance on the vehicle at the time of purchase. Never mentioned anything about a de...

Question

purchased a vehicle in 2012. I was told that I had gap insurance on the vehicle at the time of purchase. Never mentioned anything about a deductible. Car was totaled on the 26th of June. Car company is trying to make me pay a $500 deductible plus any past due payments. Owed 14000 on vehicle. Insurance company is pain 9,400 which is over $1000 more than what the car is worth. Any advice as to what I should do?

Answer

You should review all of your documents from the vehicle purchase. Hopefully you reviewed them before signing. If you find a GAP policy hopefully it will shed some light on the questions you are posing. The facts you present raise several questions and it unclear as to what you should do. After obtaining all your vehicle purchase documents you should consult an attorney about your situation.

Answer

This is not a collections/debt issue.

Being "told" by someone you have GAP insurance is not the same as having it. Who "told" you? Who was the insurance with? Do you have a policy and did you pay a premium for it?

I don't know what you mean about not having a deductible. All insurance policies come with some deductible. The GAP would cover the difference in value between what the car is worth and what you still owe on it if the car is totaled. Why are there past due payments? There should not be.

And a car company does not make sense here. It is either the lender or the insurer - not some car company who sold you the car.]

It seems to be that you really have no idea what is going on here and you are not very well-informed about your situation. I agree with Attorney O'Neal - you need to gather up ALL your purchase and car insurance documents and take them to a consumer law attorney in your area and spend the money to have the attorney review them.

First, see how much you owed on the car at the time of the accident. See also if you indeed had GAP insurance. The car was totaled but did you total it or was there another driver involved? I am trying to see whose insurance you would be dealing with. I assume there was just you because there would be no deductible otherwise.

if that is the case, your auto insurer would pay for the fair market value of the vehicle as of the minute before the accident. Insurers typically offer only 70% of what fair market value is and if you have any evidence to help bring it back to real world values that will help. There is going to be a deductible depending on your policy - you will have to read your auto insurance policy and see how much the deductible is and if it applies in a total loss situation (my guess is that it would, but this is not my area of law and it is your policy which is controlling, not my guesses).

If you still owed more on the car than the car is worth, you need to know if you had GAP coverage or not. GAP coverage is not based on what an unidentified "someone" told you. There is a written insurance policy for this. If you have GAP coverage then you make a claim under the GAP coverage and the GAP insurer pays off the balance to the lender.

If there is no GAP coverage then you need to pay off the balance to the lender. If need be, you will have to make some kind of favorable arrangements. Do NOT roll this cost into a new car. If you have to,get a clunker car that runs decently for a couple thousand and drive until the wheels fall off and you are back on your feet financially.