When a financed vehicle is totaled, your lienholder gets paid from the settlement before you see a dime — and the payoff figure they submit doesn't always match what's actually owed. We check the math before it's finalized.
Once your insurer agrees on a total loss settlement amount, that money doesn't go straight to you if the vehicle is financed or leased. The insurer sends the lienholder's payoff amount directly to your lender first, and only the remaining balance — if any — comes to you.
That makes two numbers matter just as much as the total loss valuation itself: the settlement amount, and the payoff figure your lender submits.
A payoff figure requested weeks before settlement doesn't account for payments made since, and can overstate what's actually owed.
Some payoff quotes include early-termination or processing fees that aren't appropriate in a total loss context.
Interest continues accruing while a claim is processed — a slow claim can inflate what the lienholder is owed by the time it's finally paid.
Insurer, lender, and policyholder often aren't looking at the same numbers at the same time, and discrepancies get missed.
We request a written, dated payoff statement directly from your lender and compare it against what the insurer is deducting from your settlement.
A correct payout starts with a correct total loss value — we build an independent appraisal if the insurer's number looks low.
If the numbers don't reconcile, we push back on whichever side — insurer or lender — the error is coming from before you sign a release.
Send us the settlement offer and your lender's payoff statement — we'll tell you plainly whether something's off.
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