A lady crashed my car that I finance from a dealer now I have to pay 4,300 out of my pocket what can I do?

You are not going to like my advice, but I have to give you the truth. I cannot lead you the wrong way just because you want to hear something else.

Under Illinois law, you are entitled to the fair market value of your car at the time your insurance company found it was a total loss. You are NOT entitled to more than the fair market value of your car. This is the case no matter how much financing you took out. If you bought a car worth $6,700 and you took out $11,000 of financing, the law says you have to pay the $4,300, and it's too bad that you are left with no car if you have had your car destroyed. That's just a bad break. If the way the contract was written leaves you with $4,300 of interest to pay, there is no way to avoid the payment short of letting the creditor sue you, take judgment against you and garnish your wages or otherwise destroy your credit reputation.

The bottom line is to pay the $4,300. Likely you can do it in payments.

Along the way, you should challenge the valuation that was put on your car. YOur insurance company probably relied on some sort of market study to determine what the fair market value of your car really was. You need to get a copy of the market study. You also need to do some research as to what the value of your car really was. Maybe the value your insurance company came up with was an unfair one. You might have to make a complaint of your insurance company to the Illinois Department of Insurance if that is the case.

In connection with that, you might want to hire an attorney to help you. The cost of hiring a young lawyer to help you is not going to be much compared with the savings you can realize.

Good luck.

Donald Nathan
www.donaldnathanlaw.com

As I am not licensed in your state, I can only offer you some general information. I am in agreement with the comments of attorney Nathan above. However, for future reference, whenever you are in a situation like this, where your financing exceeds the value of your vehicle, you should obtain what is called "Gap" insurance. This type of coverage pays the difference between the retail value of the destroyed car and any amount that you may still owe on the financing. This type of insurance would allow you to walk away from this type of an incident without any further debt.

Next time you finance a vehicle get "gap" coverage.

You signes a contract for the price of the vehicle and should honor the contract you signed.