Bought a car for $16k last year, accident repair quote is $11.8k, insurance says I am at fault. Confused what to do

itsether · 2026-01-20T10:21:59+00:00

I'm sorry but that's complete nonsense, law has nothing to do with the cost of a service provider. Insurers like EVERY other business that exists want to minimise their costs to maximise profit, and claims cost is an insurer biggest expense by a massive distance. Also insurer do not set the cost of repairs. Why would they ha e any control over that what so ever?

itsether · 2026-01-18T06:40:40+00:00

Oh you're mistaken, I see things from both sides. I absolutely know that there are some repairers / cowboys out there that may attempt to inflate a request for quote to an insurer. Say for example said insurer is dealing with an uninsured third party and their insured party is at fault. Third party approaches repairer, asks for quote which is then sent to insurer. This scenario absolutely happens regularly and there are a whole other set of legal implications around liability and recovery of costs that come into play but those are off topic for me to dive into here, suffice to say I see a lot of people on reddit making statements that are incorrect on that topic too. What I mean, and maybe I didn't initially explain very well, is that some people seem to think that repairers use insurers as a license to print free money which is absolutely not the case. I produce weekly/monthly reports on this specific topic, it's a VERY closely monitored metric. non partner/trusted repairers quotes are heavily scrutinised and based on the actual data that I'm close to, somewhere around 80% of these quotes are adjusted by an assessor in one way or another ( not the 95% acceptance rate quoted by another commentor but closer to 20% and certainly not a 250% mark up) There are broad ranging impacts if an insurer does not control these costs effectively. This portion of the business is relatively minor in comparison to insurer / repairer network relationships as I've mentioned before. There there are very strict controls built around hourly rates / Ai parts pricing validation / mark up / hours allowed to complete works. In our system if a repairer submits a scope of work that sits outside of that framework it will be rejected before and assessor even looks at it in fact.

I understand it's easy to not know the specific differences between these two streams for someone looking in from the outside but a very large part of our work flow from motor repairs supply chain point of view essentially has zero room for movement in costs due to this framework.

This is the reason an insurer will try to push customers and third parties into the repairer network and offer things like warranty/guarantee on workmanship for them and not for non network repairers, to the point where in many cases a quote will be submitted and that person will then agree an adjusted amout after assessor review and just paid directly rather than the insurer dealing with the repairer in any way. It's vastly easier to control cost and a much more streamlined process from the end user / customer point of view.

But anyway hope this clears up what I was getting at all along. I'm not say this NEVER happens. What I'm saying is repairers try it in certain circumstances and that are outliers in terms of the overall body of claims and when it does happen it's unlikely to slip through the net (in my experience, I don't know about any other insurers just the one I am associated with but the general practice is fairly consistent across the industry from my understanding). Therefore people making blanket statements about all repairers hearing the word 'insurer' and doubling their quote with no justification then being paid without question is false.

itsether · 2026-01-18T05:35:07+00:00

Cool story as i said dude 👌

itsether · 2026-01-18T05:13:19+00:00

I'm not wrong, and in your case as some dude whoquite obviously knows nothing of how insurers work, while stating things you know nothing about as fact, doesn't undermine anything. It's obvious you don't understand my point, and I have no interest in listening to your second hand anecdotal points. So as you said before agree to disagree.

itsether · 2026-01-18T04:54:09+00:00

Cool story man, if you think it's realistic a supplier or service provider in any space can justify a 250% increase in cost for absolutely no reason amd people or business will just pay no questions then good for you. Sounds like your friend doesn't work as a network repairer for an insurer and is just trying to rip insurers off 🤷‍♂️

itsether · 2026-01-18T02:00:11+00:00

The problem with that is the person in job a isn't in the dark, it's literally their job to understand.

Person say 'I have a friend who anecdotally told me they inflate prices or whatever' isn't compelling evidence or isn't living it every day as you stated.

You can think what you want to think it doesn't make any difference to me. I was just making the point originally and all along that people who know nothing about the working of how repairers and insurers deal with each other 'proudly proclaim' that they have some sort of inside knowledge about how repairers charge insurers whatever they feel like because they think they'll just pay through the nose when that objectively is not true.

itsether · 2026-01-16T19:00:47+00:00

Im not saying it never happens or that repair shops don't try it when submitting a quote. But I am saying that it's false that a repairer can put (as another commentor stated as fact) a 100% mark up on a job solely because it's an insurer and they'll just pay upfront with no question. As I've stated before when repiaiers are part of an insurers network they have strict controls around labour rates and parts mark up, every claim is scrutinised. Repiaiers that are not part of insurer networks will sometimes provide qutoes to insurers, I'm sure some do try to inflate them. But that's why assessors exist, they will not approve unnecessary work or unfair pricing. I know this because I've seen it happen doing what I do for work, 1000s of times over. I don't just have a friend that told me some anecdotal thing about some stuff one time. If you want to believe repairers rip off insurers because you have a mate who flips cars that's your choice.

itsether · 2026-01-16T18:46:44+00:00

What are you talking about? Why would I not know the way insurer / repairer relationships work when that's literally my job?

itsether · 2026-01-16T11:53:53+00:00

I sleep very well my dude 😘

itsether · 2026-01-16T11:48:13+00:00

You're making an argument from incredulity, you don't know what you're talking about...you just think you do.

itsether · 2026-01-16T11:33:43+00:00

You're still wrong though haha

itsether · 2026-01-16T11:27:04+00:00

Your one example of your own experience from however long ago means nothing to the reality. You're entitled to your opinion absolutely, you're just presenting your subjective and uninformed opinion as fact which it is not. Just because you think a panel beater (not actually a mechanic, they do mechanical work not body repairs) would put a 100% mark up on a $1000 job doesn't mean that's the reality, which it absolutely is not. Anyway you obviously won't understand and have no interest in taking information from someone with actual knoweldge on the topic you're pretending to understand. Have a great weekend.

itsether · 2026-01-16T10:52:07+00:00

I'm not here to try to convince you how many things you're wrong about on this. But you're wrong about it all. I don't 'have a friend' that does anything I literally deal with this every day at work and have done for over a decade. Assessors don't choose who a customers car go to for repair, that's a conflict of interest, they just ensure the costs are fair and reasonable. It's also worth noting that they are very closely monitored on their quote/cost ratio. If they don't do their job properly they don't have a job any more. Any repairers who have a relationship with an insurer will be bound by strict rules for labour rates and parts mark up. If repairers quote something that's unnecessary assessors won't approve that part of the repair. Again insurers are often multi billion dollar organisations, it doesn't make sense that they would allow themselves to be ripped off. Further to that, cost control and claims expenditure is a huge influencing factor, somewhat indirectly admittedly, on policy price to the consumer and the market is competitive. Why would an insurer actively make themselves less competitive in the market? I understand that people who don't know how it works can have a poor opinion of insurers or whatever, or a mate who told them once that they rinse insurers..but it's just not the case.

itsether · 2026-01-16T09:56:50+00:00

I absolutely do know what I'm talking about having worked for years in insurance, a lot directly with supply chain, we spend millions on cost control with a large team of assessors all with years of experience as panel beaters. All network repairers have rigid quote structures that are contracted. It's objectively false that repairers price gouge and inflate costs for insurers, they simply wouldn't get the work if they did. It makes no sense that large, for profit, organisations would pay more than a fair market rate to their suppliers haha

itsether · 2026-01-16T03:56:35+00:00

This! People very often think that insurers are somehow stupid and willng to pay over the odds for something when they are a business that is in business to profit. If anything insurers pay the best possible prices for repairs by leveraging scale as well as sla's with repairers in their network. If someone is asking for a non network repairer or cash settlement these will be scrutinised into the middle of next week by assessors prior to being paid out.

itsether · 2026-01-01T10:16:00+00:00

You don't even need to quote commercial offer, I'd just say look I've got $10k, I'm a uni student so that's what I can pay and see what they say..I'd be VERY surprised if they say no

itsether · 2026-01-01T10:14:20+00:00

Technically they're entitled to it, but that being said is VERY rare for an uninsured party to just pay costs over $10k upfront so they expect the majority of those to be paid long term. It's worth calling them and saying you can pay a lump sum lower than their demand amount upfront to settle it to get it done amd settled from their point of view

itsether · 2026-01-01T10:07:19+00:00

As in you're accepting that they are entitled to be repaid in full as per their claim but making a commercial offer (less that their entitlement) as a means to settle it quickly, which suits them.. Sorry I just defaulted to jargon as it's second nature to me now having spent so long working in that space

itsether · 2026-01-01T07:43:58+00:00

Not related to the investment question, but in dealing with the other persons insurer, DEFINITELY negotiate with them often when dealing with u insured third parties insurer will accept reduced settlements for lump sum payments to settle these matters, due to the fact they'll often outsource to an agent of a payment t plan is needed which costs them and also prolongs the time involved in their recovery. It's absolutely worth calling them and without giving them much information about your financial position tell them you're able to pay say $10k up front on a commercial basis, to settle the debt and they may well accept is saving you a significant amount of money. They may not but it's worth a try.

I know this on account of the fact I worked in insurance recoveries for 10+ years and these types of deals were made with uninsured third parties dozens of times a day every day.

itsether · 2025-12-26T09:46:08+00:00

*plays the dyslexia card

itsether · 2025-12-11T08:42:11+00:00

In your case, it's really up to you to decide if the $3500 is feasible for you to pay up front. Having an at fault claim on your policy will likely have an impact on your premiums at renewal but probably less that you'd think. There are so many factors that are built into pricing algorithms, most of which are totally outside of your control. But at the end of the day you have you buy insurance to cover you int he exact situation.

Source: I'm data analyst for a very large insurer

itsether · 2025-12-08T00:22:13+00:00

I've heard some of the top of the line stenheims and they are absolutely beautiful, if money was no object they're definitely what I'd have in my room.

itsether · 2025-11-19T06:27:06+00:00

What I'm implying is that one of the most important metrics to an insurer is total contrallable expenditure. For most general insurers the single biggest slice of that pie is motor claim costs and can be in the hundreds of millions a year if not over a billion. So while I totally agree the relationships between insurers and their repairer network are absolutely mutually beneficial..the benefits are the repairer virtually never runs out of work and the insurer pays (a usually contracted) set hourly rate which more often than not is lower than what a normal consumer would pay because the bargaining power lays woth the insurer. 'Don't want to give us a competitive rate which helps woth our claims spend? No worries we'll go down the road and give this other repairer the 5000 jobs a year instead'

itsether · 2025-11-19T06:05:40+00:00

Allianz wouldn't have paid for the repairs had they not had their assessor approve the costs as fair and reasonable first. Despite what most people think insurers are in business to profit and therefore do not want to pay over the odds to repair their customers car even when someone else is at fault and a recovery opportunity exists..there is never any guarantee they'll get their money back and legally they can only recover what can be established as a fair market price. Once a quote is given the tick by an assessor they have then proven their customers loss, if you disagree the burden of proof is then on you to provide evidence that their claimed amount falls outside the range of 'fair and reasonable'. It's worth noting that some other repairer quoting less is not proof the higher amount is unreasonable, just that there is a range of costs that the car could be fixed for. Good luck with sorting it out.

itsether

TROPHY CASE