At-fault driver's insurance went totally silent after totaling my truck — still making payments on a car I can't drive

I went through almost the exact same thing last year — total loss, zero communication, still paying on a loan for a car I couldn't touch. What finally broke the logjam for me was sending a formal written demand via certified mail directly to the claims supervisor. Suddenly they had a response within a week. Email and phone calls are too easy for them to ignore.

They are absolutely running out the clock on you. The longer you wait without pushing back, the more leverage they have — you get desperate, you accept whatever low number they throw out just to end it. Don't let them frame the delays as normal "processing time." That's a tactic. Document every single call attempt with date and time.

I used to work on the claims side and I'll be real with you — files that don't have someone actively pushing on them get shuffled to the bottom of the pile. It's not personal, it's just volume. But here's what actually gets attention internally: filing a complaint with your state's Department of Insurance. Adjusters hate those because they trigger mandatory response timelines. You can usually do it online in about ten minutes and it costs nothing.

A couple of things worth knowing: most states have regulations that require an insurer to make a settlement offer within a specific number of days after a total loss is confirmed — often somewhere in the 30-day range depending on where you live. If they've blown past that, they may already be in bad faith territory. Also keep every payment receipt for those loan installments you've been making. Those out-of-pocket costs during the delay are part of your damages picture.

Not legal advice, but when an insurer goes silent after accepting liability and a total loss determination has been made, that pattern can support a bad faith insurance claim depending on your state's laws — which is separate from the underlying accident claim. If you haven't at least had a free consultation with a PI attorney, it might be worth it just to understand your options. Most won't charge for that initial conversation.

Also — are you dealing with any physical symptoms from the impact? Rear-end collisions can cause soft tissue stuff that doesn't fully show up until weeks later. I'd hate for you to get the vehicle settlement squared away and then realize you've got a neck or back issue that was never documented. If anything feels off, get seen now while there's still a clear connection to the crash.

Stop waiting for them to call back. Call every single day until you have a specific name, a direct number, and a written commitment on timeline. If you don't get that in the next week, file the state insurance complaint and CC the adjuster on the confirmation email. That alone will light a fire.

Ugh, I'm so sorry you're dealing with this. The fact that you're still paying on a loan for a truck you can't even use is genuinely awful. I really hope you get some resolution soon — you're clearly doing everything right and they're just making it needlessly hard.

Quick question — did you also file a claim with your own insurance at any point? Sometimes your carrier can subrogate against the at-fault insurer and that actually speeds things up because now there's another company breathing down their neck. If you have collision coverage and haven't looped in your own insurer yet, that might be worth looking at.