An endless number of insurance companies have popped over the years in the market and have a big name in selling different types of insurance policies to people. To some extent, such policies are a savior because they promise to cover your expenses in times of a medical emergency and help you beat the financial stress in such challenging times.
But the sad reality is that hardly a few insurance companies live by their words, and the rest simply tend to hit behind the bushes when it comes to compensating the victim party.
Especially the company representatives known by the name of insurance adjusters play some dirty tricks and games to take advantage of innocent policyholders and throw water on their expectations of compensation.
Want to know how they easily trick people and get you an inexpensive solution? Read on to know about the dark secrets of insurance adjusters:
Taking advantage of lack of communication
There have been multiple cases wherein the adjuster and the victim party hardly have any communication or no communication at all in regard to the personal injury.
In such a case, the victim usually waits for their claim to be cleared, and the adjusters skillfully take advantage of such a lack of communication and send them a check considerably lower than what they deserve.
When the victim develops a notion that the cheque amount is the only sum that they are going to get against their claim, they go and get it cleared, thinking something is better than nothing. And, that is the end of the story.
The victim party has to bear with a financial crunch, ever-growing medical bills, and many other associated expenses, whereas the adjusters eat their share of the cake, abandoning the victim party.
Being notified that the check has been cleared, they put a full stop to the case and shut it down as soon as possible so that it becomes an unsung mystery buried deep in the files of cleared claim cases.
Tricking based on statute time
There is a statute limitation on every claim processed, and adjusters always are in search of finding a way to cross this period to refuse your claim. And, they may give pretty silly reasons for the same, including not picking up your call.
Thus if you often find your adjusters not attending your calls, it’s not always because they are the busiest people in the world but because they think of dodging you.
Further, feeling frustrated and agitated, people tend to give up on the claim, and that is when these adjusters win their game. Once the victim reaches the breaking point, the adjusters may come up with a low offer, and the second party may easily accept the same and consider moving on rather than fighting over something pointlessly.
On the contrary, when the victim tries to contact the adjusters, they usually do not attend the call, nor do they give a call back just to ensure that time runs out this way playing hide and seek.
Next, when the statute time is crossed, the victims can neither claim their amount going by the process nor by filing a lawsuit.
They force you to accept your fault
Going by expectations, an insurance adjuster should take the side of their party and should fledge them with the benefits they deserve against their purchased insurance scheme. But the harsh reality is way beyond the expectations and is altogether a different story.
Again, here, we would like to mention that the adjusters are employees of the insurance company where they are getting paid for their bread and butter. And, do you know what their work profile basically looks like?
They are expected to sell the most extensive plans while selling insurance claims and be smart enough to offer the lowest ball when it comes to settling a claim.
So, if you have been thinking that the adjusters will help you out when you walk to them with hopes of getting your bills and claims settled, you are probably going to walk back with a heavy heart.
After all, their job is to offer a lower value, and for this, they can even go to the extent of proving their clients wrong and forcing them to accept that it was their fault that caused the accident.
And, mind it, they will do all of this using the sweetest ways possible. Taking on the liabilities on their head will cause the company to pay, and thus they will go ahead to showcase that their insured party is the actual reason behind the collision event.
Questions, counter questions, confusions, emotions, all such things act as a helping aid for insurance companies to make their clients seem like the real culprits. Further being fooled by them, many clients tend to accept things that they have not even committed due to the counter questions, allegations, and precautionary measures shot at them.
And what next? The claim amount gets reduced considerably with a helpless victim fighting financial crunch.
They will convince you not to hire an attorney
Attorneys are supposed to be the biggest enemies of insurance adjusters. Unscrupulous activities shouldered by the insurance adjusters in the name of their employer insurance company can be put to a stop when you do have a Younce, Vtipil, Baznik & Banks, P.A. by your side.
Attorneys can render a helping hand in getting the victims an entire claim, and no adjuster would like to end up giving the victim higher payouts. Thus, starts the task of convincing the victim party not to hire an attorney for intervening in between.
But how do the adjusters convince the victim that attorneys are not required in between? They will say false things such as the attorney will take away all your money and leave you with none at all.
You can also get to hear that if you do not hire an attorney, you can save more rather than wasting on their fees and a lot more. But in reality, the adjusters say all such things to keep the attorneys out of the radar so that they can proceed with the case as per their will and not in favor of the claimant.
They do not play such games to save you from paying the fees to the attorney, but because attorneys can be the biggest roadblock for them when they try their best to offer the lowest possible claim.
But you need to realize by dropping on your plans to hire an attorney, you hoist a red flag that symbolizes the adjusters can take full advantage and fool around by hiding things you actually deserve.
Unethical recording
Sometimes adjusters may be innocuous enough to make inappropriate use of your statements. It starts with their request of asking you for a piece of recorded information, and further, they may use those same statements to trick your claim.
They can make use of your honest statements as a tool to get your claim to stoop down to a lower sum of money. Take, for example- what will you answer when the adjuster asks how are you?
Most of the people reading this will think of the answer to this question as ‘I’m fine.’ Probably people filing for a claim would also answer it the same way. But here lies a mystery behind a simple question like this where you are asked about your wellbeing.
As soon as you give a recorded statement of being fine, the adjusters may use the recording in an out-of-context format and present your injuries as less severe and injurious.
Hence, always be careful about what you speak, especially when you are about to record your statements because you never know when and how adjusters can play their game and leave you in a state where you have to settle down for a meager settlement claim.
Delays in payments
Fighting different types of car crash injuries that emerge out of a car collision can be highly challenging. But apart from all the pains and sufferings, another challenging thing is the fact that you have to meet the additional financial expenses that come along with sustaining and recuperating injuries that arose from an accident.
The list of medical tests, medicines, and other medical bills can be simply endless and can put peer pressure on your savings. In such a state, a medical insurance policy might be the only ray of hope that you may have in hand to save yourselves from breaking your bank at the time of such an emergency.
Well, the insurance adjusters are aware of the same, and instead of helping the person in need, they may chalk out strategies to take advantage of such a situation. The easiest route comes out, like delaying the payments.
By postponing the payments as much as possible, at the first point, they already land you in a place wherein you may feel helpless in a financially burdened situation. Secondly, when the victim party feels tired of fighting their case, a meager settlement is raised, which is hardly a fraction of what the victim is eligible for.
And, usually, the second party settles down for the same to cut down the unnecessary arguments.
But instead of settling down for a mere amount under pressure, stand firm and do not tap on whatever is offered because you may draw a sum that is twice or thrice the amount offered if you hire an attorney and are adamant on your claim.
Adjusters may place a surveillance camera
How do the adjusters reduce your claim? Though there are various ways in which they can do this. The best and easiest way is to prove that the injuries of the claiming party are proved less serious. Despite the reality of your injuries, the adjusters don’t give it a damn and aim at proving it to be less severe.
For this, they may go to any extent and length to keep surveillance on you and your whereabouts. A surveillance camera that can prove your day-to-day activities can prove to be a great weapon for them while they use the clippings to present that you are not injured.
Even for the simplest of things, such as throwing garbage in the trash, if they happen to spot you doing this, they might use it to show that you are not as deserving as your claim says about you.
Using social media for rescue
These days, people update almost anything and everything on their social media. Despite this, it sounds pretty cool when you have too many followers and people who wish to take a sneak peek into your life but can backfire on you when you have filed a claim and are waiting for it to be settled.
Facebook, Instagram, and similar media profiles can transform into real monsters if your adjuster plans to use them to hurt your claim. Insurance adjusters may pry on your social media profiles to search shreds of evidence that speak against you.
A leisure trip, a picnic day out with family and friends after an accident can do more bad than good when you have adjusters who are in search of a chance to complicate your claim. So, stay watchful and feel as if you are being observed all the time and let your actions match your perceptions.
Do not post any leisure trip memories or happy moments on social media because you never know when the surveillance cameras may capture something that is not true in depth but can be pretty deceiving and misleading. In such a case, instead of grabbing the eyeballs of the adjusters, focus on your recovery so that you have more chances of getting your claim.
Conclusion
These are a few common tricks used by the insurance adjusters that you are prone to encounter when you file an insurance claim against personal injuries. Sometimes being unable to get a complete claim amount results usually due to the ill intentions of adjusters.
And, the only way to fight such a thing is to hire a personal injury attorney who can shoulder your responsibility and assist you as a guardian angel to fight your claim while you recover from your injuries.
