# Can the Other Driver's Insurance Pay the Shop? | DG > Yes — third-party liability claims bill the shop directly too, with no deductible at all. How direction-to-pay works, and when your own policy is faster. - Canonical page: https://dgcollision.com/answers/can-the-other-drivers-insurance-pay-the-shop-directly/ - This file: Markdown twin of the page above (clean text for AI assistants and crawlers) - Business: DG Collision Center, 693 Metro Park Cir #20, Lewisville, TX 75057 — (972) 219-0864 (text: 817-907-2822) — since 1978 - Hours: Mon–Fri 8:30am–5:30pm, Sat 10am–1pm, closed Sunday · 24/7 towing · 4.9/5 on 500+ Google reviews - Full site index for assistants: https://dgcollision.com/llms.txt - Last generated: 2026-08-14 --- # CAN THE OTHER DRIVER’S INSURANCE PAY THE SHOP DIRECTLY? Quick Answer Yes — third-party claims direct-bill too, and the headline is better than most people expect: on the at-fault driver’s liability claim there is no deductible at all. Their carrier owes for the damage their driver caused — repair, rental, towing, all of it — and with a direction to pay on file, their payment routes straight to the shop while you pay nothing. The honest trade-off: a third-party claim moves at the pace of their liability investigation, and Texas’s prompt-payment clocks bind your own carrier, not theirs — which is why the fastest path is sometimes filing on your own collision coverage now and letting §542.204 force your deductible back from their side within a year. We run both paths weekly and will tell you which fits your claim. Get a Free Written Estimate By [Shah Jiwani](https://dgcollision.com/about/shah-jiwani/) · Owner, DG Collision Center Updated October 5, 2026 4 min read I-CAR Gold Class · PPG Certified The Longer Answer ## TWO DOORS TO THE SAME REPAIR — AND THE HONEST SPEED LIMITS ON EACH Door one: the third-party claim, straight at their carrier. When their driver caused it, their liability coverage owes you restoration — the repair at a shop of your choosing, [a rental while yours is down](https://dgcollision.com/guides/rental-car-after-accident/), reasonable towing and storage, the documented lot. Payment mechanics are routine: you (or we, with your authorization) put a direction to pay on the claim, and the carrier’s repair payment issues to the shop directly — no deductible subtracted, because deductibles are a feature of your policy, and your policy isn’t the one paying. The catch is pace and posture: their carrier’s first duty is to its insured, so nothing pays until liability is accepted — statements taken, the police report read, sometimes a slow comparative-fault dance — and the statutory clocks that discipline first-party claims don’t bind a third-party carrier. Translation: door one costs zero dollars and an unpredictable number of days. Door two: your own collision coverage now, their money later. You file with your carrier, the repair starts on first-party speed — the §542 deadlines do apply there — and yes, you front your deductible. Then subrogation runs: your carrier recovers from theirs, and Texas Insurance Code §542.204 requires your carrier to pursue your deductible against the at-fault side within one year of paying the claim — or refund it to you. In practice on clear-liability wrecks, deductibles come back; what you’ve bought with the temporary float is weeks of your life. The decision rule we give customers: clear fault + cooperative carrier = door one is fine; disputed fault, a slow adjuster, or a car you need back = door two, with [the full not-at-fault playbook](https://dgcollision.com/guides/accident-not-my-fault/) covering the edge cases, including what happens when their driver turns out to be uninsured. Either door, the shop work is identical — and documentation is what makes both doors swing. A third-party carrier pays what’s proven, so the same discipline that wins supplements wins liability claims: the damage mapped and photographed, the estimate built from the car rather than their drive-by, teardown findings entered with evidence, and every receipt — tow, storage, rental — filed into the demand. That’s our half of the job regardless of whose logo is on the claim. Yours is three texts long: [the claim number](https://dgcollision.com/answers/i-have-a-claim-number-now-what/) (theirs, yours, or both), photos, and where the car sits — send them to (817) 907-2822 and we’ll map your fastest door the same day, including the free [pickup](https://dgcollision.com/answers/will-a-body-shop-pick-up-my-car/) and the loaner that makes the rental question smaller than their adjuster wants it to be. Related Questions ## ASKED ALONGSIDE THIS ONE What exactly is a direction to pay? + A: A short authorization — signed by you — telling the carrier to issue repair payment to the shop instead of routing it through your mailbox. It doesn’t sign away rights, doesn’t change what’s owed, and doesn’t stop supplements; it just removes a round trip from the money’s path. Read anything before signing it anywhere — ours is one paragraph and we’ll walk you through every line of it. The other driver’s insurance wants me to use their shop. Do I have to? + A: No — their network is their cost-control program, not your obligation, and the shop choice stays yours on a third-party claim just as firmly as on your own. Their carrier owes the reasonable cost of proper repair wherever you have it done. A documented estimate from your chosen shop is what they owe against; a steering suggestion is just that. Their insurance company is ignoring me. What actually works? + A: Leverage, not volume: a complete documented demand (estimate, photos, receipts, the police report) is harder to ignore than phone calls, and the pivot they respect most is real — filing on your own collision coverage and letting your carrier’s subrogation department become their problem instead of you. §542.204 makes sure your deductible follows. Slow third-party carriers are why door two exists. Do I still get a rental if their insurance is paying? + A: Loss of use is part of what an at-fault driver’s carrier owes — typically a reasonable rental for the repair’s duration, arranged or reimbursed. It starts when liability is accepted, which can lag the wreck by days or weeks; our free loaner doesn’t wait on their timeline, which takes the pressure off accepting a lowball just to get wheels back. Go Deeper [The full not-at-fault playbook](https://dgcollision.com/guides/accident-not-my-fault/) · [Rental rights after a wreck](https://dgcollision.com/guides/rental-car-after-accident/) · [Getting the deductible back](https://dgcollision.com/guides/get-deductible-back-not-at-fault/) · [All quick answers](https://dgcollision.com/answers/)