Were you involved in a car accident and sustained serious injuries? Well, the last thing you want to worry about right now is your insurance company trying to lowball you. You pay a premium to your insurance company for a reason: to have the company take care of your finances following a car accident. On average, Americans pay about $2,361 per year (3.9% of household income) as car insurance premiums. But insurance companies often lowball the car accident victims.
Now, you may wonder how an insurance company lowballs the victim following a car accident. In many cases, the insurance company does it so swiftly that you’re convinced you aren’t being lowballed.
We know the answer to the ‘why’ – the company simply wants to save money. Let’s look into the ‘how’ in this blog post.
Insurance Companies Try to Use Information Against You
If you weren’t at fault when the accident happened, you’d naturally assume you’d get compensated for the damages and injuries you incurred. But that’s not always the case. An insurance company will lowball you by using any information they can against you to prove that you aren’t eligible for the claim. They’ll call you shortly after the accident when you’re still processing what happened, and you may not even realize when you say something that weakens your case. To avoid such a thing, you must contact an auto accident lawyer and have them take care of all the correspondence with the insurance company. You can visit nicoletlaw.com to know how soon you should get in touch with a lawyer to ensure the insurance company doesn’t lowball you.
Insurance Companies Use Software to Calculate the Value They Owe
Due to the number of claims the insurance companies receive daily, they rely on software to calculate how much they need to pay against each claim. Now, remember that the software is designed to facilitate the insurance companies and not the customers.
The system fails to consider numerous miscellaneous factors, like how the injuries sustained during the accident affected the victim. While two accidents may look similar, the way they affect the victim can be different. The result is often an unfair offer.
Computer-generated settlements are a result of the set way an algorithm works, and these calculations are often not customized according to each case. As much as software has reduced the response time for the companies, they’ve also increased the number of unfair offers.
Insurance Companies Give Offers When the Victim is Most Vulnerable
Your insurance company may give you an offer quickly, which would make you appreciate their responsiveness. But know that the quicker a company gives you an offer, the more alert you need to be. It’s a clear sign that you’re being lowballed. What insurance companies do is they give the offer when the victim is most vulnerable and likely to accept anything that’s being offered.
At this point, the victim hasn’t taken an estimate of the expenses that’ll follow the car accident, and they accept the offer, which is usually lower than what the victim deserves. It’s only later that they realize that the money the insurance company offers doesn’t cover even the most basic expenses. But once you accept the offer, you can’t do anything about it.
Insurance Companies Don’t Perform a Detailed Investigation
It’s no secret that insurance companies try their best to save money and make profits wherever they can. Most of the time. They won’t perform a detailed investigation and give you an offer based on the little evidence you provided. You may assume that the insurance company will investigate on their end, but that’s not always the case. Based on little evidence, the insurance company will lowball you following a car accident.
Dealing with an insurance company isn’t always pleasant. It’s highly recommended that you get in touch with a reliable lawyer to take up your case and ensure you don’t get lowballed by the insurance company following a car accident.
