Although, driving a car is fun, it entails a lot of risks on Indian roads. This is why car-owners in India resort to comprehensive car insurance policies. Almost all the risks on road are covered in regular car insurance policies, however, in papers. If you are armed with a motor insurance plan and rest assured that your risks are well covered, you need to know that the coverage comes into effect only when you make a claim successfully. If you make mistakes in any step of filing a claim your motor insurance plan will not cover your financial losses, the money you paid for the premium would prove to be a waste and most importantly, the main purpose of availing a comprehensive auto insurance cover would be defeated. In a nutshell, you need to know the right steps to make claims and use your vehicle insurance plan to good effect. Here are 4 simple steps to avoid rejection and reap the benefits of having a valid car insurance cover.
- Inform Your Car Insurer
As soon as you meet a mishap on the road while driving you need to intimate the same to your motor insurance provider. It is the most crucial step prior to registering a claim as it makes the insurer aware of the whole incident and paves the way for smoother, faster and successful claim process.
- Register an FIR
If the mishap that takes place with your car is theft, registering a FIR in the nearest police station is mandatory. Your motor insurance provider will not entertain your claim request if you don’t submit FIR copy along with other documents. Even though, regular car insurance policies don’t require a FIR in case of accident, still you are better off filing a FIR and produce the copy at the time of a claim.
- Assess The Extent of Loss
Once your motor insurance provider is informed, they would send a surveyor to to examine your car and estimate the loss. This representative would report to the insurer about the loss incurred. Since all car insurance policies come with a network of garages with cashless facilities, your plan would also
guide you to the nearest garage for repairing your car. This will not only help you get the best service but you also don’t have to spend anything for the servicing. It will avoid any to your car that you unknowingly may cause in an You should not make any attempt to take your damaged car to any nearby workshop yourself as it may cause consequential damage that car insurance policies don’t usually cover. If the damage is too severe to take the car to the garage, car insurance policies generally make arrangements for towing facility.
- Settle The Claim
Finally, it is time for settling your car insurance claims. Most providers of car insurance policies settle the claim within a stipulated period of time. And if the car insurers are aware of the mishap from the beginning, the whole process will take even less time as they remain better prepared to pay out the claim.
The advantage of informing the provider of car insurance policies is you don’t have to worry about the cost and quality of the repair. But if you don’t do so and take your damaged car to any workshop you have to pay the repair cost as car insurance policies don’t cover such expenses if the repair doesn’t take place in the garage of the insurers’ network. You might even face the rejection of your motor insurance claim for not informing in time.
All policyholders should go through the terms and conditions of car insurance policies to know what to do and what not to do for a successful motor insurance claim.