Auto Insurance Claims: insurance company writes me a check, what do i do with it, insurance check, insurance auto

Question
My vehicle was vandalized and i notified my insurance company and they told me to take the car into a drive-in claims center. They gave me an estimate on the damages and asked me which repair shop i was going to take my car to then i explained that i was going out of the country in a few days and that i didn't know which repair shop i was going to go to. She wrote me a check for the repair minus the $500 deductible and made the check out to me. Now how do i do this, i know i have to pay the deductible but do i pay the deductible to my insurance company or the repair shop and can i deposit the check that's under my name to my account and then write a check to which ever repair shop i go to?

Answer
You pay the shop for the deductible.  You can either deposit the check and write one to the shop or you can just sign the insurance check over to the shop.  If the shop finds that they need anything else, they will submit a supplement request directly to the shop and will negotiate those charges directly with the insurer.

Good luck!