Filing for a claim needs to be a well-thought out process. Taking care of all the points, steps, and documentation will prevent unwanted iterations, unnecessary delays, or chances of outright rejection. Check out the steps you need to take in case you want to file a claim on your comprehensive car policy when you meet with an unfortunate accident:
What add-ons can you purchase with comprehensive car insurance?
Besides offering a wide range of benefits, another great advantage of this plan is the vast array of add-on covers that it provides. Similar to a cherry on the cake, these add-ons enhance the security and coverage of your comprehensive car insurance plan.
To explain a little more, suppose you purchase a Roadside Assistance addon cover under your comprehensive car plan, you can get 24*7 assistance in all/any circumstance where your car faces minor/major breakdowns in the middle of nowhere. Similarly, with an an NCB Protect Cover, you can keep your bonus secure if you make a claim during a policy year. Purchasing this add-on cover enables the insurance firm to offer you complete assistance in various ways like arranging alternate vehicles, arranging mechanics, towing cars, delivering fuel, booking a hotel stay, and many more.
What is NCB in comprehensive car insurance?
Before beginning with NCB in comprehensive car insurance, let’s dig in a bit more into the Comprehensive Car plan. Generally, comprehensive policies hold higher premiums as compared to third-party insurances. This happens because the Comprehensive policy tags an ‘own-damage cover’ with itself thereby providing a wider coverage. In most cases, about 80% share of the premium of your comprehensive policy is towards own-damage.
The NCB (No Claim Bonus) is provided on the own-damage cover inside the policy. Ideally, the NCB is rewarded by the insurance firms to the insurance holders for a claim-free year. No Claim Bonuses are nothing but accumulative reward. From the first year of renewal itself, you can avail a discount of 20% that can further go up to 50% in the coming years for ‘own-damage’ premium amount.
Tenure of the Policy | Percentage of NCB that can be Availed |
1st Claim-Free Year | 20% |
2nd Claim-Free Year | 25% |
3rd Claim-Free Year | 35% |
4th Claim-Free Year | 45% |
5th Claim-Free Year | 50% |
How is a comprehensive car insurance premium calculated?
Now, calculations call for Calculators. Isn’t it? Well, one of the most preferred ways to calculate the premium of your comprehensive car insurance plan is through the Turtlemint premium calculator.
Typically, a premium calculator can be described as an online tool created to assist individuals to know the accurate premium of their car. All that car owners are required to do is enter accurate car details like the model of the car, make, variant, registration date, manufacturing year, RTO location, the status of the NCB, etc. Consequently, you will receive phenomenal support with customized results from this premium calculator.
Other than this, you can even follow another easy formula to compute your car premium amount. The formula is:
- Own-Damage Premium – (NCB+Discounts) + Third-Party Premiums As Per the IRDAI + Cost of Add-ons = Comprehensive Car Insurance Premium.
All in all, if you have an idea regarding the appropriate amount of your car premium, it can help you to go for the best suitable premium quote as per your budget and desire.
Factors that determine car insurance premium
Premiums vary due to several factors. Similarly, in this case, 7 chief factors determine the car insurance premium. These include,
- Car Model And Variant: Ideally, insurance firms provide insurance to high-end cars like Audi, BMW, etc. However, this is offered at higher premiums in comparison to budget-friendly cars like Santo and Alto. The premium is higher because of the high value of car parts and repairs.
- Car Owner Age: Individuals below 25 years of age are referred to as risky drivers. Hence, insurance firms provide car insurance at higher premiums to this age group (18 years-25 years).
- Nature Of Fuel: A CNG car holds a higher premium as compared to diesel and petrol cars. Insurance firms charge quite a pricey charge based on the nature of the fuel.
- Registration Location: Now, this is another factor that determines the premium cost. This is because the cars are insured at a maximum premium, especially in urban areas. In urban areas, the density of traffic is quite higher than the suburban areas and hence are prone to unusual accidents.
- No Claim Bonus (NCB): NCBs are offered by insurance firms to the insured person to make no claims in a policy year. This advantage is offered in terms of discount that ranges from 20-50%.
- Discounts: Discounts often reduce the premium of a car insurance policy. For instance, you can receive a 2.5% discount on premium in case you get an ARAI-approved anti-theft device for your car. Furthermore, once you become a member of the AAI (Automotive Association of India), you can avail yourself of exclusive discounts.
- Year Of Manufacture: Over the years, depreciation lowers the market value of the car. Eventually, it decreases the IDV (Insured Declared Value). Simply put, cars having less IDV hold a lesser premium amount.
How to reduce car insurance premiums?
Moving on to reducing car insurance premiums, the process is quite easy. When you are aware of the components that create an impact on the premium of your car insurance plan, it becomes much easier and hassle-free to cut down on the existing comprehensive car insurance premium costs. Here is a list of 7 ways to lower your premiums.
- Choose an affordable IDV for your car. Choosing a pricey IDV will give you a higher claim, however, you need to pay a higher premium as well. Hence, choose your IDV wisely.
- Renew your policy before the expiry date. If you delay the renewal procedure, you might need to go through a thorough paid inspection. In many cases, you might even lose your NCB.
- Drive sensibly and safely. Earn a no-claim bonus. This is probably one of the best ways to reduce your premium without any inconvenience.
- Get rid of all the extra and unwanted car insurance add-on covers that significantly increase the amount of your policy premium.
- You can lower your premium by acquiring discounts by joining the membership of AAI following which you need to install ARAI verified anti-theft devices in your car.
- Try raising no claim for expenses incurred in minor accidents. Raising no claim will give you the No Claim Bonus (NCB) advantage. Consequently, the premium for your upcoming year will increase again. Therefore, try bearing minor accidental expenses from your pocket without depending on claims.
How to purchase a comprehensive car insurance policy?
Purchasing a comprehensive car insurance policy is quite easy and a hassle-free task. Following are the steps to purchase a comprehensive car insurance policy.
- Step 1: Visit the insurance website or come to Turtlemint
- Step 2: Go to the ‘Get Your Quote’ section. Enter your car registration number along with other asked details. Next, click ‘proceed’.
- Step 3: Put in your details. This includes your name, mobile number, and the rest of the quotes for comprehensive car insurance plans.
- Step 4: Compare the displayed quotes. Choose the policy that best suits your requirements along with the preferred price point.
- Step 5: Proceed with the payment for the policy as per your desire. Consequently, the policy documents will be sent to the email ID that you have registered. Or a company executive will get in touch with you soon.
Take a look at some of the Top Comprehensive Car Insurance Companies
Name of the Insurance Company | Motor Incurred Claim Ratio (2020-21) | Network Garages |
Magma HDI Insurance | 78.91% | 3300+ network garages |
Digit Insurance | 74.91% | 2900+ network garages |
IFFCO Tokio General Insurance | 84.04% | 4300+ network garages |
Reliance General Insurance | 76.89% | 6200+ network garages |
New India Two Wheeler Insurance | 78.20% | 216 network garages |
ICICI Lombard Two-wheeler Insurance Policy | 65.77% | 4800+ network garages |
HDFC ERGO General Insurance Company Limited | 70.02% | 7600+ network garages |
Universal Sompo General Insurance Company Limited | 87.96% | 3500+ network garage |