How to claim your car insurance policy?

In India, owning a car is one of the proudest moments in people’s life. Over the years eventually it becomes a part of your family. You remember all the outing that you did with your car, places that you visited and memories cherished. But life is uncertain and you may never know when your car might get damaged due to some accidents, natural calamities, manmade incidences, at times might get stolen as well. During such time you will not only be shattered but will also be left in huge financial crisis if you don’t own a suitable car insurance policy. Therefore, it is advisable that people should always opt for buying comprehensive car insurance policies that will not only take care of the third party damages but will also look after the damages done to your own car as well.

Just buying an insurance policy is not enough you need to be aware on how to get a claim on your policy. To file a successful claim on your car insurance during such crisis situation you can follow the steps given below:

Ideally there are two ways for insurance claim. Either you can choose to go at the workshops that feature in the insurance company’s list of network and file for cashless claims or you initially pay the costs for the expenses incurred and then claim for reimbursements.

To avail cashless claim facility you need to call up the insurance company’s contact centre after the incident so that your claim is necessitated. The insurance company will then provide addresses of the nearest cashless service centres through SMS or request over the phone. A dedicated call centre will guide you to the nearest workshop. The surveyor will carry out necessary inspection and then authorize the claim. Thus, the expenses are settled directly with the workshop/garage on a cashless basis.

If you wish to carry out the repairs at your own expense and file for reimbursement claim subsequently, you will need to provide the surveyor with the requisite proofs like repair bills from the garage. Ideally the disbursal amount of reimbursement claims will take approximately 7-10 days to come into your account, post the submission of necessary documentations such as if it’s an earthquake it demands for seismic report, incase of accidents they need suitable F.I.R etc.

In India, there are several insurance companies who allow policyholders to track their claims either by visiting the company portal or calling up customer service or via SMS alerts. The policyholders need to save the claim intimation number and provide the customer service team with mobile number and other details to track the position of their claims.

Today, getting any random car insurance will not fulfil your coverage needs. Infact you will end up buying wrong policy which will not even cater to your car needs and might burn a huge hole in your pockets. Therefore, it is advisable you need to closely study the policy document to understand what is covered as well as the exclusions, to avoid nasty surprises after filing the claim. Certain incidences like trying to start the car under water-logged conditions during monsoons will further damage your engine. Such consequential damage is typically not covered under a car insurance policy.

Online sites are a great place to start as they help you easily to compare the cost of insurance and also provide you variety of options to choose as per your requirements. If you can’t afford to devote your valuable time on research then you can entrust the job to a well known insurance agents. It is one of the reliable ways to ensure that you get best insurance quotes in less time without having to go through the hassle and tedious task calculations.  A good car insurance policy will offer you medical payments coverage, collision coverage, actual cash value, auto coverage, physical damage coverage and injury coverage.