Concepts to know before buying Car Insurance Online

Authored by: Mr. Rakesh Goyal, Director, Probus Insurance

Buying a car nowadays has become a necessity rather than a luxury. With the scars of the pandemic still fresh, a greater number of people are preferring to buy their own vehicles as against using public transport.  With the spread of digitization, one has favored online transactions, and that is true even for buying insurance.

In the last few years, buying of insurance particularly car insurance has seen a rapid increase. However, before buying the online policies policyholder should understand some concepts of buying them.

Concepts to know before buying Car Insurance Online

Compare prices online

With the rise of insurance aggregators in the country, it’s a matter of a few minutes that one can compare the prices of the insurance. It would be best if you always compared all the options available in the market. Evaluate various car insurance plans available in the market, check whether they provide all the elements you need in the car policy. One can come on the platform of Probus insurance and do all the comparisons of all the plans, benefits, premiums, and network of garages and choose the policy accordingly.

 

Carefully read the inclusions and exclusions

One should not buy the policy just because premiums are low. Before buying the policy, one must certainly glance through what the product offers and what is excluded in the policy. Under inclusion, one should check the insured declared value (IDV) offered by the insurance companies. A policyholder should also look at whether the policy covers natural disasters and which forms of accidents are covered. Special attention should be paid to the limits imposed on the cover offered against natural calamities. Under exclusions, check which items are not covered under the plan, events, sub-limits, co-payment clause, and other things.

 

Types of cover to be bought

We have always advocated that one should buy comprehensive coverage and not just third-party liability cover. A motor insurance policy has three components which are third-party liability (TP, which covers damage to others), own damage (OD, which covers damage to owner’s vehicle), and personal accident (CPA) cover. Third-party and CPA comprise the mandatory part of the motor cover while OD cover is optional. Policyholders can also buy comprehensive insurance cover that will offer protection for damages caused to your car and yourself in an accident. Furthermore, comprehensive insurance will protect your vehicle against any accidental fires, thefts, and other damages. One should not look at premiums as buying only third-party insurance does not offer any cover for your vehicle or self.

 

Buy the right add-on covers

The basic policy covers accidental damages and a host of other things like loss or damage to cars due to natural calamities or against man-made calamities. However, policyholders should always buy add-on covers like engine protect cover, roadside assistance covers, and consumable cover among others. Buying such add-on covers might increase the premiums by around 20% over the base policy. Such an add-on can give huge respite to policyholders during the times when there is excessive flooding and not having such an add-on might increase the cost of repairing the car. Other important point while buying insurance would be zero depreciation cover, which will offer full settlement without factoring in the depreciation. In case if the car meets with an accident, a zero-depreciation cover ensures that policyholders don’t have to pay anything from their pocket for the damage caused as against normal car insurance that factors in depreciation and makes a considerably reduced settlement.