Today I am listing down the various things one should keep in mind while renewing a car or bike insurance policy. Continuing from my previous post on exploring various insurance providers in India, I must say the story has taken a happy twist. As soon as 9 am in the morning, I started getting calls from various companies including those whom I contacted yesterday. First it was Bajaj Allianz sales representative to ask me about the details of the requirement. This guy was friendly enough to not put me on hold while he got busy with calculations. Promptly called me back in less than 10 minutes and gave me a quote as well as all other details on how to go about renewing without me having to go around places. However, when I asked for all these details to be sent out on an email, they denied to provide me the quote stating IRDA concerns.
In the mean time Reliance General Insurance folks too called me up. Looks like yesterday evening call effect! I gave them also all the information and asked for a quote. They took about good 1 hour to call me back. These folks quoted almost Rs 3000 extra when compared to Bajaj Allianz at the beginning for the same ‘Comprehensive insurance cover’. I informed Reliance folks about my conversation with Bajaj Allianz and asked them why they are charging so much. They started talking all stories blaming IRDA for the standard norms. By hearing all that, I was about to switch over to Bajaj Allianz and I made my decision clear to Reliance folks. The person asked me to wait for awhile as he would re-calculate and get back to me. In next 5 minutes, he called me back and matched the premium as that of Bajaj. That was astonishing! When I asked him how he could reduce so much this time, he went on talking about various options available with insurance companies to provide discount offers to the customers.
I could smell something fishy with both of their competitiveness. Decided to play a bit more prank on each other and because of which I got to know all the loopholes in the system, I have listed most of them below. So, forget not to enquire with a couple of companies before renewing your policy. This is my golden set of tips if you are planning to renew your policy.
- Make sure to start negotiating at least 15 days ahead of expiry date.
- Don’t blindly go ahead and renew your policy with current provider.
- Contact multiple insurance companies to get quotes.
- Ask and evaluate various options provided by each vendor.
- Get the quotes exclusive of ‘Voluntary Accessories Deductibles’ discount.
- Insist on providing best discounts – month ends fetch better deals 🙂
- Forget not to mention that you are in touch with other providers as well.
- Ensure you get ‘No claim bonus’ if you qualify.
I certainly got a fair deal from Reliance at the end of the day which includes 3rd party coverage upto 7.5 lakhs, own damage cover for full IDV, owner/driver plus 4 passengers personal accident cover of 2 lakhs per head, hired driver personal accident cover of 50k etc.,Though I was cursing the online softwares and customer care reps yesterday, it appears to be great blessing in disguise. If they had worked properly, probably I would have ended up with an additional 3K dent in my pocket! Customer is still the king in multiplayer market. Hope this helps you…
ravikumar says
Hi Mohan,
Thanks for sharing such a use full information. The insurance is not just necessary as it is made mandatory by all these bodies but it saves you from big financial losses that may occur in future. The car insurance premium depends on the model of the car too. The expensive luxurious car will be insured at a higher premium while the basic models are insured at lower premium.
Thanks
saverable.com
Chiraranjan Banerjee says
Dear Mr Mohan, Thanks a lot for sharing your experience . I am sharing mine. My vehicle an INNOVA commercially registered , has to pay huge tax & insurance yearly as such . The vehicle had an accident @Rs 5000/- last year . My insurance agent told me not to claim for accident, stating no claim bonus would be at the tune of Rs 8000/- and I did not claim ; but while paying the insurance , they gave me no claim bonus @ Rs 1500/- only . The company is NATIONAL INSURANCE COMPANY
Regarding renewal of insurance I have the same opinion of asking all the players in the field , but how to go about it? Am I to go to all of them personally?
Please enlighten me about the above cases.
Regards CHIRARANJAN BANERJEE KOLKATA
Naresh says
all vehicles must be compulsorily insured as determined by the law. The minimum car insurance coverage as determined by law is third party liability coverage. What this means that if you meet with an accident, your insurance, must cover the person who is in the other car, a person walking on the street or the other vehicle that has been damaged because of the accident.
pradeep says
i took a “chola protect”policy from chola insurance,which is a nil depreciation policy with add on benefits and paid a heavy premium for 1 Yr old car. but i was issued a normal private car policy without nil depreciation and other benefits.i had long drawned discussion/fight with chola company over phone.their argument is that they have given me the policy according to what papers were submitted.but it was their employe who took the papers and submitted.company is not ready to accept the employe’s mistake/fraud of not submitting the proper papers.(how do i know which forms i suld have filled)i am left with losss of 4000 rupees plus normal car policy.so never buy any car policy from “CHOLAMANGALUM”.
Ramanand says
Hello,
Your post is very informative and absolutely helpful tips. Well, I have motor insurance policy with HDFC ERGO and I am quite happy with them. I never checked the other banks offerings and terms. Next time definitely I will follow your tips.
Mohan says
Your words sound very encouraging! thank you for visiting and if you wish, you can register for email update that will keep you posted about new articles on this blog.
Praveen says
Last year I wanted to renewal my bike insurance, when I went into Reliance Fresh I saw there a hoardig stating that they also do Bike insurance and so I went to that desk, there the guy told me that they do insurance throught ICICI .(ICICI insurance in Relaince den??? but Reliance fresh belongs to Mukesh and Reliance Finance belongs to anil, another instance where the Reliance brand got lost of business due to their split 🙁 )
The ICICI(or Reliance) guy had a computer with him and logged into icicilombard.com 🙂 and calculated the premium.. (I thought why I cant I login into this site at my office???) and when I am about to accept it, he told a jhalak that they charged some 90 rs as service fee 🙂 . A service charge of 90rs for 900rs of premium???? expensive !!!
Then I thought its better book the insurance from office next day and left that place 🙂
Later I went to Bajaj Allianz (my bike is pulsar and he it is the insurance company from start)., and he calculated the amount on IDV (bike value) of 32000., then I told him I bought this bike in 2004 and did a five years old bike worth that.. He told that the LEAST AMOUNT THAT THEIR SOFTWARE CAN ACCEPT IS 32000 🙂 Did I had to believe him or not??? If yes Bajaj Allianz are a clever guys (so that they can get more premium) and if it is true is Bajaj is going to pay 32000 rupees if I lost my 5 years old bike???? I think no 🙂
Mithun John Jacob says
But, you forgot one thing : About cashless claim service and also the collaboration with your favourite service center. That are 2 important factors to “always” consider when buying Motor Insurance !
Mohan says
@maggi
Oh yeah! we never get to know all these things unless we experience it through hard way. This is yet another 2 paise to share my experience 🙂
maggidoodle.blogspot.com/ says
Hey this was very informative. Thanks for sharing! I never thought about “month end” deals … nice point! 🙂
Mohan says
@Shrinidhi Hande
Comprehensive coverage is always a good option in my opinion. For as little as 100 rupees, we can avail the personal accident insurance cover worth 2 lakhs for an un-named passenger.
Regarding that issue on commenting with URL, you were using OpenID with registered user status. It was erroring since I had not enabled user registration on my site. Now that I have fixed the issue, you should be able to comment without any issues going forward.
@Chakri
Yeah, for two wheelers, we tend not to query anything since the amount will be very less. If we negotiate, we can get better deals there too like high Personal Accident cover for very low price.
Chakri says
Thanks alot mohan for educating on the insurance providers. U know, I never thought about these kind issues. Usually, just contact the Insurance provider, and blindly pay the amount he demands (for my old 2 wheeler, it was only costing me only Rs. 600 to Rs. 700). Henceforth, definitely, I ‘ll take care of these things too dude.
Shrinidhi Hande says
Government requires me to have only 3rd party liability coverage, but insurance companies insist that I should buy full coverage… unfair…
Unable to comment when I include blog URL… why so?
Praveen says
IRDA states that it is must for any Insurance Provider(including private ones) to do 3rd Party Insurace coverage and they can reject this, but go to any Private Insureance Provider in India they will tell that they are not AUTHORISED to do 3rd part insurance
Mohan says
@Jennifer
Appreciate your thoughts.
@Jeevan
Cool. All the very best 🙂
Jeevan says
Good tips Mohan. I will remember these to explore the best deal in a month from now.
Jennifer says
Thanks for sharing your experience, Mohan. IN fact I think some of your advice and tips can go for American market too. BUt yes, dealing with the representatives is truly frustrating at times!!