Things to Consider Before Making Car Insurance Claims

Why did you insure your car ? of course to protect it from any loss or damage that might happen. But you still have to reconsider if you’d like to make an insurance claim, is it feaseble ? and how this claim could effect your insurance policy ?.

You can’t just make a claim for any scratch on your car, because too many claims can get you a penalty which will raise your premium. You also have to look into the cause of the acccident, causes such as drunk driving will only give you a bad reputation to your insurance company, and there are more things to consider.

Here I’ll give you things that you shall notice and consider everytime you’d like to make a claim:

1. Policy Renewal. Everytime your insurance period ends, usually you can renew it or you can choose not to. But please notify that insurance company can also decide not to renew your policy. This can be affected by many factors including previous accident and claims.
2. Minor Loss and Own Risk Payment. Everytime you make a claim, the insurance company will ask you to pay an own risk / excess fee. So if your car only experience a minor loss, it would be better if you don’t file a claim, especially if the repairment cost is only a bit more expensive than the own risk fee.
3. Penalty. Usually every insurance company have a bonus and penalty policy. If you spend a whole year without a claim you’ll get a bonus which can be a discount for the insurance rate. But otherwise, a year full of claim will get you penalty and a lost of bonus, this penalty could raise your premium to the point that can surprise you. So it is suggested that you get full information about this before you buy an insurance policy from your insurance company or an agent, about how much bonus or penalty that you can get and the factors that affect them.
4. Causes of accidents. If the accident happens because of your fault, the claim might be dropped or as I said before at least you’ll get a penalty except for minor accidents that might get exceptions. But still it depends on the claim numbers already filed and your “reputation”, including the history of tickets and violations such as drunk driving.
5. Reporting an Accident. If you think you experience a claimable accident, then you should report it right away to your insurance company and police department so that the damages, injury and evidence can be assessed as soon as possible. retardation of report coul cause and investigation delay and might cause the insurance company drop your claim.
6. Garage Cost. You should think about this one, because most of the insurance company will not cover the cost of storing your car while it’s waiting to be repaired, and if the claim is being assessed which could take sometime the storage cost might be remarkable. To solve the problem you should contact the insurer to make an agreement about who’s going to pay for this. This could work especially if you have a good reputation.
7. Get an Advice from Your Agent. It would be better if you ask your agent before you make a claim, after all they have better knowledge than you, and to see the fact that each insurance company has different rules and features that might confuses you.