Insurance Vs. Direct pay

2/22/2021 (Permalink)

SERVPRO answers your FAQs

It’s an unfortunate truth that when disaster strikes, it doesn’t wait for you to be financially ready. SERVPRO understands that making an insurance claim on your home isn’t always an easy decision. If you have a high deductible the choice can be even harder. To help ease this burden we wanted to share with you some information.

FAQ

One of the questions we get asked the most is whether the cost will be lower or higher if the customer files an insurance claim. The answer to this is simple. Filing a claim makes no difference to the cost. We charge the same amount to direct pay customers as we do the insurance companies. To charge differently would be considered insurance fraud and we will not take part in that. We use industry-approved software that most insurance companies use to generate all of our costs of the job. This way we can ensure that our costs are fair to all of our customers

Direct Pay Options 

Whether you file a claim or not, you will receive the same level of professional and courteous care. The only difference that you will notice if you are not filing an insurance claim is that we will have to do an estimate first. We have two options for you.

Option 1.

SERVPRO offers free estimates when we schedule an appointment for one of our Production Managers/Estimators to scope the loss and provide you a detailed estimate. They will inspect your home to gather information such as the rooms affected, measurements of those rooms, the type of material affected in each room, and the amount of equipment needed to mitigate your home properly. They will write the estimate within 24 hours and email you a breakdown of what needs to be done and how much it will cost. 

Option 2.

The option most of our customers pick is an onsite estimate. In this instance, we send the next available crew to your home and give an estimate for the services needed to mitigate your home. This way you know if you need to file an insurance claim or proceed as a direct pay so we can get to work started right away. The biggest difference here is that should you decline services, there would be a $125 service fee during regular business hours and a $175 service fee after hours.

No matter which option you pick, there are a few important things to note. If you aren’t filing an insurance claim, we will require a 50% deposit of the estimated cost. If you decide to file a claim afterward, just provide the insurance company and claim number as well as the name of your claim handler and we can work directly with them. Additionally, any estimate we provide is subject to change. Once we get to work we could find additional damages that require more work than anticipated. 

The most important thing we want you to take away from this is that no matter what, “we are always here to help.” We want you to feel confident and prepared for whatever decision you make.