One of the most important reasons why we take the car insurance policy is to seek protection in times of loss. Whenever there is any accidental damage or theft, we need to file a claim to receive the benefits of the coverage. Every insurance provider has a varied process for claim filing.
What is a motor insurance claim?
A motor insurance claim is a process where the policyholder requests the insurance company to compensate him for the losses and damages borne by the car.
These losses could arise out of any reason such as accident, theft or a terrorist attack. The applicability of the reason for claim settlement will be as per the existing mutual agreement between the insured and the insurer.
Many a times, the insured also asks the insurance company to act on his behalf or intervene in cases where the damage has been caused unintentionally by the insured to a third-party.
A policy holder who makes regular premium payment has complete right to ask for the claim when his vehicle suffers any damages.
There are primarily two types of motor insurance claims, which include cashless insurance claims and reimbursement insurance claims.
Motor insurance cashless claims
In a cashless motor insurance, you are not required to pay for any repair expenses if you get the vehicle serviced at the garages empanelled with the insurance provider. On behalf of the insured, the motor insurance company directly settles the repair bills to the service station.
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However, in order to receive the claim, the damages that have been faced by the car must be included in the insurance coverage.
Following are the steps to file a claim for cashless motor insurance.
- You need to file the cashless claim by getting in touch with the insurer through website, phone call, mobile app or email.
- Once the claim is registered, the insurer is issued a claim registration number, which needs to be preserved for future references/ communications.
- Now, you have to take your vehicle to any of the network service stations of the insurance company for repairs.
- You must submit all the necessary documents to the surveyor.
- The car insurance company gives confirmation to undertake its liability.
Motor insurance reimbursement claims
This is just the opposite of the cashless motor insurance. Here you have to first pay for all the repair expenses. After that, you need to approach your insurance company for reimbursement of the expenses. The reimbursement will be done as per the terms and conditions decided previously.
In the reimbursement claim, there is no need to take your vehicle only to the repair station authorised by the motor insurance policy. You can go to any garage of your choice. However, you need to carefully preserve all the bills and documents that you need to produce while claim settlement.
It is compulsory to report the damage to the insurance provider and call the surveyor for damage inspection within 48 hours of the incident.
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Following are the steps to file a reimbursement claim:
- You need to file the cashless claim by getting in touch with the insurer through website, phone call, mobile app, or email.
- Once the claim is registered, the insurer is issued a claim registration number which needs to be preserved for future references/ communications.
- You have to now take your vehicle to any of the service stations of your choice for repairs.
- You must submit all the necessary documents to the surveyor
- The car insurance company gives confirmation to undertake its liability.
The person in charge of investigating, overseeing, liasoning and validating the claims is known as the surveyor. Once he submits the report to the insurance company, the claim settlement process is complete.
