school help: I’m broke, in a lot of student debt, and my car was just hit and totaled (but the insurance company only wants to give me $480). - Help.com

Try to get food at food banks. Look on the internet for a car, you might have to get a loan w payments so think how else you can cut back. Try to defer or consolidate your student debt.

Look out for a job and earn the money you need.

Yes keep looking for more and better work.

You could join the military, and get up to $95,000 in student debts wiped out.

But now you’re going to tell me that the military isn’t for you, yada yada yada. Right?

Unfortunately I had to leave one of my jobs because of my school schedule. I’m at school over 40 hours a week and doing school work at home when I’m not there. I try to pick up babysitting jobs here and there and I work at a hospital as a diet tech. I am supposed to start a dietetic internship in the fall, but it costs almost $10,000. I don’t know what to do. I can’t buy a car if I want to do the internship. I can’t get to school without a car. And if I don’t do the internship, I’m an idiot because it’s extremely competitive (with about a 10% acceptance rate) and it means I won’t be able to become a registered dietitian, which is what I’ve been working so hard to achieve. I was already buried before this woman hit me, now I’m just lost. I have no idea how I ended up here.

Can you sue her for hitting you?

Try this:
http://cyberbeg.com & http://www.wishuponahero.com & http://kiva.org & http://peopleinneed.net/

Or get more in debt but get through? When your a registered dietition then join the military.

I don’t have the time, money, or patience to sue. Plus, I don’t really want to… the woman who hit me was very apologetic and sweet and I don’t know that her situation is any worse or better than my own. I don’t want to put anyone through the aggravation. I just wish it never happened. Or I wish the insurance company would compensate me more fairly. :/

Do those sites really work?

No they don’t. Call a lawyer, she was apologetic because you can sue. You don’t have to pay the lawyer he gets a percentage.

Anyway good luck.

Listen to me. In the USA–and Europe–everybody has to have automobile liability insurance. Did you get a police report after the accident? Or did you just wave at the other person as she drove off?

Jeez . . . you don’t have to sue. Contact the other person’s insurance company (I’m betting, of course, that you didn’t get that information from her.) File a claim. If she hit YOU, then SHE is most likely at fault, and HER company should pay for your car.

You sound like your head is completely in the clouds. If you don’t look after yourself, no one else will! If you had hit HER, you can bet your last Starbucks vanilla latte that SHE would be filing against YOUR insurance company!

amen.

I got her information and her insurance is paying for it. The problem is that they are only going to give me $480 and I no longer have a drivable car. She was found 100% at fault and I’m not technically being penalized, but I’m still in trouble because I had a perfectly fine and working car up until last week. The $480 is obviously not going to get me out of the situation, but they won’t give me the full value of my car because it’s a 1999.

OK. Now, my friend, you are obviously a babe in the woods. Let me quickly educate you about insurance companies. They are sleazeball outfits that will try to low-ball you (as they just did) and intimidate you.

It’s hard to believe that your car is worth only $480. So if it was indeed “totalled,” the Blue Book value–also known as Actual Cash Value (ACV)–should be paid to you. If the repairs were only $480, that would be understandable. But how in the living hell did they come up with $480 with NO estimates from a body repair shop? I’ll tell you how . . . they think you’re a babe in the woods and they’re simply going to stiff you.

Now, you need to write a letter to the insurance company. Enclose copies of a couple of estimates for fixing your car. Not the originals–copies. Make a copy of your letter and send it certified mail, return receipt. Inform them that their offer is totally unacceptable, and cite the value of your car using Kelly’s Blue Book: http://www.kbb.com/

Tell them that since your car was totaled, you expect to be reimbursed for the Actual Cash Value of your car. Tell them that $480 is totally unacceptable, and that you will instruct your attorney to file suit within two weeks for a “BAD FAITH insurance settlement” if they fail to comply. Use those exact words in the quotes. That gets ‘em scared. Tell them you will seek exemplary and punitive damages for this obvious “bad faith” effort on their part.

Here’s some links:

http://www.after-car-accidents.com/au…

http://insurance.freeadvice.com/infor…

Now, this insurance company has deep pockets. The executives want to put more money in THEIR pockets by taking it out of YOURS! They figure you’re just a student whom they can push around.

You might as well start standing up for yourself RIGHT NOW!

Thank you for your help. The problem is that the insurance company won’t pay for the repairs because my car is old and certain repairs are prorated. My muffler cracked and my exhaust is all kinds of messed up now since the accident… BUT since there was already rust on the muffler, they don’t consider it part of the damage from the accident. So… they don’t count that towards the estimate for the damage caused by the accident. They won’t consider it “totaled” unless it reaches about $2,000 (and they’re not counting all of the damages since my car is “too old”), but I’ve already spoken to a few mechanics who consider it totaled. One mechanic told me that there was no way they would give me more than $550 at best even if I demand it. It’s obviously not a very fair system, as my car was perfectly fine and drivable before and now I can’t even pass an inspection without hundreds in repairs (which I clearly cannot afford right now).

Mechanics are not lawyers. If the amount offered will not restore your car to safe operating condition, ask for more. You have ALSO been “put out” with having no transportation–although your own policy should have covered that. It doesn’t really matter if there was some rust on the muffler, as long as the accident was the “proximate” cause of the crack in the muffler!

Tell the insurance company in your letter that your car was safe and drivable before the accident, and you expect the company to restore it to that condition. Hell, they could find a rusted muffler in a junk yard to replace the rusted one you had!

The key is the repair estimate. If the accident caused certain parts to fail, then the accident was the proximate cause for the failure, even if the part was somewhat worn or deteriorated before.

Play hardball. Don’t listen to mechanics about legal matters. You could even consult an accident attorney for free. Play hardball or this insurance company will run roughshod over you!

Alright, I’m in letter-writing mode then. Thank you for everything!

You have to show them that you’ll be a lot more trouble if they don’t fix your car right!

Tell ‘em you had a safe, drivable car before the accident, and you want a safe, drivable car after the accident . . . and that you’ve already had to incur extra expenses due to this accident, e.g., pay friends to drive you places or take taxis.

Give them a deadline so it’s not open-ended.

Don’t allow them more than three weeks–two is more like it, in view of the time they’ve wasted.

Looks like you should have suffered some injuries, too, if you got hit that hard. Make sure YOU are all right before accepting any settlement!