Recover $1,000 morethan their first offer, or you don't pay for the report.
Cara only sells you a report when the evidence already says the insurer's number is low. If you send the counter and the claim doesn't settle at least $1,000 above the number the insurer opened with, email us and we refund the report in full.
- Covers both the total-loss and the diminished-value report
- Measured against the insurer's written opening offer
- No exclusion for the car's age, its mileage, or a lease
- Your settlement paperwork is the only thing we ask you for
Cara is not a law firm and does not represent you. The guarantee covers the price of the report, not the outcome of your claim.
A guarantee is only worth what it costs you to use it. Plenty of them are written so the conditions quietly do the work — an exclusion for older cars, a mileage cap, a demand that you prove what the insurer did. Ours has none of that, because we would rather you buy the report without weighing whether we'll honor it.
If the counter you send doesn't move the settlement, tell us and we give you your money back. That's the whole arrangement. The rest of this page is just us being specific about it, so nothing on it can surprise you later.
One flat-price report, one promise
Which report applies is the insurer's call, not something you have to work out. The guarantee is the same either way.
The total-loss report
The insurer declared the car unrepairable and paid its own estimate of what it was worth. If your counter doesn't move the settlement at least $1,000 past their opening number, the report is refunded in full.
The diminished-value report
The car was repaired and handed back carrying the accident on every history report a buyer will pull. Same promise, same threshold: $1,000 over the opening offer, or the report costs you nothing.
Each report carries its own
If your claim produced both a total-loss and a diminished-value report, each one is guaranteed separately against its own opening offer. One falling short doesn't depend on the other.
The free check stays free
The analysis that tells you whether to counter costs nothing and needs no card, so there is nothing to refund there. You only ever pay after Cara has already told you the offer looks light.
The number we measure against is the one in writing
The insurer's opening offer is the figure on the first document they sent you — the CCC or Mitchell valuation, the settlement letter, or the diminished-value offer letter. It is the one version of the number that both of us can read off the same page.
You have already given it to us
The document you uploaded for the free check is the baseline. There is nothing extra to send, keep, or dig out of your email months later — it is on your file from the day you run the check.
Phone numbers don't count — and that favors you
Adjusters often float a figure verbally before anything is issued in writing, and the written number is usually the lower of the two. Anchoring to the document makes the $1,000 threshold easier to clear, not harder.
A revised offer doesn't move the line
If the insurer raises its number after seeing your evidence, that increase is exactly the recovery we're measuring. The baseline stays at what they opened with.
One email, and the paperwork you already have
There is no form, no portal, and no phone call where somebody talks you out of it. Four steps, and three of them are ours.
Let the claim finish
We don't run a clock while you're still negotiating. Work the counter for as long as it takes, and come to us once the claim has actually closed and you know the final figure. Ask within 90 days of the claim settling.
Email contact@findcara.com
Send it from the address you used to run the check so we can find your file straight away. A single line is plenty: you sent the counter, and here is where it landed.
Attach the settlement paperwork
The final settlement letter or payout statement showing what you were actually paid. That is the only document we ask for — we hold the opening offer already, and you don't have to prove anything about how the insurer behaved.
We refund the report
We compare the settled figure against the opening offer on your file. If the gap is under $1,000, the price of the report goes back to your original payment method and we email you to confirm it's done. We confirm your claim within 2 business days and issue the refund within 5.
If your situation doesn't fit those four steps, write to us anyway. Claims end in untidy ways — an attorney took over, the insurer paid before the report reached them, you decided not to counter at all. Send the email and tell us what happened. We would far rather read it and sort it out than have you sitting on a report you couldn't use.
What this guarantee is not
Three things it doesn't do. None of them are buried anywhere else on this site, and none of them change what you get back if the counter falls short.
It is not legal advice or representation
Cara is not a law firm and does not act for you. What you buy is an independent, evidence-backed analysis of the insurer's own numbers, which you are free to send yourself or hand to an attorney.
It covers the report, not the claim
We refund what you paid us. We can't promise what an insurer will do, and nobody honestly can — so the thing we put at risk is the only thing that's ours to put at risk.
It assumes the counter was sent
A report that never reaches the adjuster can't move a settlement, so the $1,000 promise is written around one you actually sent. That isn't the end of it — an unused report has its own 30-day refund, below.
What people ask before they buy
What if the offer turns out to be fair?
Then you don't buy a report and there is nothing to guarantee. The check is free, and Cara telling you the insurer's number holds up is a real answer — we would rather say so than sell you a report with nothing to argue with.
What if I settle for less than I hoped?
That is exactly the case the guarantee is for. If the final settlement is less than $1,000 above the insurer's written opening offer, the report is refunded in full — whether it fell short by a hundred dollars or by nine hundred.
What if my claim is still open?
Nothing to do yet, and nothing running out. The guarantee doesn't come with a countdown while you're still negotiating — most counters take a week or two to get a response, and some go several rounds. Come back when the claim closes. The 90 days you have to ask start then, at settlement, not on the day we sent you the report.
What if I never send the counter?
Email us and say so. The promise is written around a counter that actually went out, because that's the part we can measure — but people change their minds, hand the file to a lawyer, or get paid before they act. We read these ourselves, and “I didn't end up using it” is a normal thing to tell us, not a strike against you. To say it as a rule rather than leave it to our discretion: if you bought a report and never sent the counter, tell us within 30 days of purchase and we refund the price you paid.
Do you exclude older cars, high mileage, or leases?
No. There is no cut-off by model year, no odometer limit, and no exclusion for a leased or financed car. If Cara sold you a report, the report is guaranteed.
Do I have to prove anything about the insurer?
No. We don't ask you to show that the claim was abandoned, that the adjuster acted in bad faith, or that you argued hard enough. The settlement paperwork is the whole evidentiary burden.
What happens to the document I upload?
It is read to check the offer and, if you buy one, to build the report. Your claim file is never sold, never shared with a marketing partner, and never sent to the insurer.
What if the insurer never put an offer in writing?
Tell us when you buy the report and we'll agree the baseline with you then rather than after the fact. It is unusual on a total-loss claim — the valuation report itself carries the number — but it happens, and it is far easier to settle up front.
How does the money actually come back?
To the payment method you used, for the full price you paid. There is no credit, no voucher and no partial refund — the report either did the job or it didn't. We confirm your claim within 2 business days and issue the refund within 5. Your bank then takes its own 5–10 business days to show it on your statement; we name that stretch separately so a slow bank can't look like a broken promise.
Start with the free check
Upload what the insurer sent and Cara tells you — at no charge — whether a higher counter is supportable. The guarantee on this page only ever comes into play after that, if you decide the report is worth running.