Having a car insurance policy can help you stay up to date with regulatory compliances as well as stay protected against the damages to your car. Depending on the type of car insurance purchased, these coverage shall be available to you.
But there are quite a few situations where you might think it is better to skip making a claim for the reason it is just a minor damage. Been there, done that? Any time deciding whether to report the damage to your insurance company can be a tricky decision. For instance, you scuff the side panels while reversing your car in a tight parking space. It can be considered as a trivial damage and can be skipped with your insurance company. But if the same thing happens to injure a person cannot be regarded as inconsequential. This is when you should raise a claim with your insurance company. Similarly, this articles lists down a couple of scenarios where you can skip filing an insurance claim. Continue reading to know more.
Damages due to third-party mistakes
The first situation when you can skip raising an insurance claim is when a third-party damages your vehicle. For instance, your car was parked carefully but was rammed into it by your negligent neighbour while parking his car. Here, you are no longer the person at fault and raising a claim from your car insurance policy can be avoided. Instead, you can raise a claim with your neighbour’s insurance policy to reimburse the cost of third-party damages. Since all car owners need to compulsorily purchase a third party car insurance online or offline, the cost of repairs can be reimbursed. For that, you need to file an FIR (first information report) that helps strengthen your claim for damages. Although it is a tedious process, it helps you save on your accumulated no-claim bonus and other benefits.
To protect your NCB
The next situation where you can skip filing a claim is to protect your NCB or No-Claim Bonus. NCB is the concession offered by insurance companies at the time of renewal of your car insurance online or even offline. This benefit if only available to comprehensive plans and the amount of no-claim bonus goes on increasing all the way up to 50% starting from 20%. Also, the increase in such benefits is based on consecutive claim-free policy renewals. Any claim made for minor damages or repairs resets such NCB percentage thereby restoring your premium amount to its original. Thus, NCB benefits can also help you avail cheap car insurance on subsequent renewal.
Deductibles
Lastly, deductibles is something to account for when raising a claim. At each claim, the terms of your insurance contract stipulate and out of pocket payment known as compulsory deductible. However, some policies also have a voluntary deductible which may increase the out of pocket expenditure at such claim. So, keeping in mind the terms of your contract, you must decide whether to raise a claim or not.
To summarise, when making a claim, check if it can be raised from the third-party’s policy if you are not at fault. Next, account for the loss of NCB benefits in subsequent insurance renewal along with the amount you will be required to pay as deductible when filing the claim. Insurance is the subject matter of solicitation. For more details on benefits, exclusions, limitations, terms and conditions, please read sales brochure/policy wording carefully before concluding a sale.
