Dumb Girl Damaged My Car And Wants To Repay In Installments
I was driving and this girl turns in my lane in front of me from a driveway. As she turned in front of me she accelerated quite quickly. Moments later after joining the lane she apparently forgot something and wanted to parallel park at the side of the road. She hit the brakes and came to a quick stop about 10-15m ahead of where she joined the road. I didn't expect her to stop right after joining the lane and barely managed to slow down and crashed into the rear of her pickup truck. Her truck was pretty old but my BWM is quite new.
My car got more damage than hers.She gets down and tells me its ok making as if I'm at fault and then suggests we park somewhere! We park, she goes to collect her purse from a shop (assuming that's what she forgot) and she says I can pay her $500 for her truck and not have to have my insurance rates go up or get tickets from the cops.
I argue saying its her fault as she turned in front of me and then stopped suddenly and I hit her quite close to the stop where she came in. She then starts looking as if she's about to cry possibly to get sympathy but I insist that she pays me or we go through insurance. She agrees to pay for the repairs once I send her a quotation from any place I want and admits fault.
I got a quote for $9000 approximately and sent it to her. She responds saying its expensive and that if she had the money she'd pay. She said she's a student living on a tight budget and it would take time for her to earn enough. She said she would pay in installments over 9 months. She claims if she passes through insurance her rates will go very high and she could get a careless driving ticket and the cost would be more for her. I don't know if that's true but then again she didn't seem that bright.
I can afford to repair my car now myself but I'm not particularly rich or anything. I don't mind her paying in installments as long as she pays it all even if it takes a year or slightly more. Should I accept her installment offer? How safe is it to trust her on this? What if she does not pay the total amount? I have her contact information and insurance details and she has mine. I'm not sure if I can trust her on this, she did try to put the blame on me, she does not want to use insurance, she was acting in a way to try to make me feel pity for her by talking extremely timidly and politely and I do wonder if she's being honest about not having $9000. However if she really is as nice as she tried to seem and not just acting I don't mind her paying over a long time and if she pays on time, I could reduce the cost by putting in $1000 myself (or is that a bad idea?)