9 Checklist to Know Car Insurance Quotation is the Right One for You

We see so many insurance companies and brokers coming up with quotations with the lowest premium costs but at the cost of the benefits and coverage. It will be sheer luck if any of these quotations turn out to be what you need. That is why we are here to help you from falling to their frequent mis-selling and identify the loopholes in the car insurance quotations.

The below-mentioned points will help you understand your quotation and then, you can easily keep an eye out for these things in your car insurance quotation - 

1. Premium Amount: The premium will also vary based on the types of car, duration and the policy you take. In other words, this is what you will have to pay when you buy an insurance policy. It is normally a one-off cost per year. Go by a SWOT analysis and compare at least 3-4 quotes from other insurance companies. This may vary based on the price of the car, its repair, depreciation and the possibility of theft.

2. Excess:This is what you will have to pay if there is a claim and/or an accident is your fault, as long as it is an irrecoverable claim. Any amount over and above the excess will be paid by the insurance company. However, you will not have to pay any excess if it is a recoverable claim – i.e. you are not at fault, and your insurer can recover the claim from the third-party’s insurance company.

3. Car Value:Always check that your car is insured for its correct value. Some may depreciate it more than what you would expect just to bring the premium down. Additionally, some may not be aware of the correct value and use the market value at the time of quotation. In order to compare various quotations from different companies, you must first check if the value of the car has been kept the same - else it will not allow for a like-for-like comparison.

4. Agency Repairs:Check, and recheck if you have been quoted with or without agency repairs. If your car is fairly new and high valued, then you are better off asking your company to revise the quotation to include agency repairs. This simply means that your car will be repaired at your car manufacturer’s workshop and not at the insurance company’s dedicated garages. This usually comes with an extra cost for a third year registration and the subsequent years, whilst it’s either free or comes at a minimal cost for the first two years of the car’s registration.

5. New Car Replacement:Normally, all insurance companies will offer a cover for new car replacement for the first 6 months. This means that if your car becomes a total loss or cannot be repaired, then you will be compensated in terms of a replacement car as long as the total loss occurs within the first six months of the policy. However, again if your car is significantly expensive and new, you are better off asking for the same cover but get it extended for the first 12 months of your policy.

6. Driver and Passenger Accident Benefit:These two covers are optional and have an additional cost. These covers compensate the driver and the passengers up to a certain amount for death or bodily injury caused due to an accident.

7. Windscreen Cover:Not all insurance companies offer a windscreen cover where the damage to the windows or windscreen is the only damage to be repaired. It is certainly a handy cover and something that you must always ask for before signing up for the insurance.

8. Protected no Claims Discount: This is also an optional cover and cab be very useful if you have filed no claims for the past three years or more. The last thing you would want is a higher premium the following year simply because you had a small claim. This cover will protect your no claims bonus which would enable you to get a significant discount on your car insurance premium every year.

9. Limits:There will always be limits imposed on several covers mentioned in your quotation/policy, such as personal belongings, third party property damage, emergency medical expenses, etc. If the claim is over and above the allowed limit, then the insurance company will not pay 100% of the claim – they will only be responsible for compensating up to the said limit.

Hope this helps you carefully analyze and compare the quotations. This checklist can help you pay only for what you buy. For further assistance, get in touch with our team at PolicyBazaar. We will compare and decode the quotes, while you only have to decide and pay.