Insurance Blues

[gd1418]

MODS: I don't know if this is the right forum to post this. If not, please move it to appropriate section. Thanks.

Friends,

Have to report a scary situation concerning insurance of the vehicle. On Sunday, 13th July I went to Sushant Lok in Gurgaon to my accessories guy to get the upholstry of my Safari done; have to keep the wifey in good humour too. This work was to take at least 4 hours, so I decided to get a pedicure and a haircut at my regular saloon. Since the Safari was opened up, I took the Maruti 800 of the shopowner to go to the saloon. Unfortunately near Hamilton Court at the police barrier, I was stopped and was asked for the car papers, licence and PUC. All these papers were in the glove box and I removed and showed. Now, the interesting part. I saw the PUC before handing over and saw the validity date as 13...08. So, I thought the validity was on for that day. The cop also looked at it and said - "aaj, aaj ke liye valid hai". I respond - "haan ji". Papers handed back and I'm on my way to the saloon. But something was wrong and was bothering me. After I parked the car, I took out the PUC again and looked at the date. It read - 13 June, 2008. Phew, it had expired a month ago. Well, I got my body pampered and then went straight to get a new PUC for the 800.

This prompted me to check the PUC of my both trucks. Since I was in the Safari, I checked and found that to be valid till 19th July, 2008. I thought I'll check that of Scorpio on Monday enroute to office.

On Monday while driving to office I nearly forgot and checked the PUC at a signal. This too was valid till 19th July, 2008. While removing the PUC from the folder, a white paper also fell down and when I picked up to put it back I found it was the Insurance on opening.

Now the horror story starts. The Insurance had expired on 11th Ma, 2008..!!! Now the panic set in, the vehicle that was cruising at 60+ kmph, fell down to 35 kmph, the hazard lights switched on and driving carefully on the extreme left. reached office and placed a call to my agent immediately, explained the situation and then blasted him for not reminding me in time or sending notice. He said that all his data in his comp got erased when his HDD crashed hence he couldn't remind me and also he thought that the company would send me a reminder. Now I recalled what had happened with a friend who owned a Scorpio; his insurance company did not send a reminder since they had removed Scorpio from the insured list of vehicles; the same happened with me also and the Scoprio is out of the list in IFFCO-TOKIO.

But my agent, who was out of town, said that he was on his way back to Delhi and that he would get this revived without any loss to me. I was very sceptical and waited till today with bated breath. The drive back to home yesterday evening was the same way and then to office this morning was ata comfortable speed because I left home at 7:30 am to avoid traffic and mishaps.

Reached office safely, and waited for my agent. He arrived at 11 am and took a copy of the old cover note and a blank crossed cheque in favour of IFFCO-TOKIO. At 2 pm a guy from Insurance company came for inspection and took several photographs of the vehicle from various angles. The cover note was issued at 2:40 pm and I am relieved. Now the nitty-gritty.

Last year I paid a premium of Rs.25,915/- where the IDV of my vehicle was assessed at Rs.4,35,000 and other electricla accessories were valued at 55,500/-.

The current cover note mentions the IDV at Rs. 3,90,000/- and I got the electrical accessories removed and the premium paid was Rs. 17,379/- with 20% NCB.

My vehicle is a 2004 Scorpio GLx. Is the valuation correct or to put it differently, is the current market rate of this model this much?

[GTO]

17 grand for a book value of 390,000 is definitely on the higher side, considering that you have a 20% NCB in place. Did you try procuring quotes from a competitor or two?

Good thing that you realised the insurance expiry before it was too late. I can't recommend the Palm software (Welcome to Palm - Choose your country or region) or the Outlook datebook enough. Both are free.

[simply_sunny001]

GD,this is highway robbery

Last year i changed the insurance vendor for my Safari from tata to Reliance

and for IDV of 6 Lakhs,i paid 18.5K but the insurance always mentioned the amount as 20K

These days,the insurance agents give hefty discounts,its not just about reliance.

The bottomline is that you should have checked with other vendors and should have picked up the best quote cos 17 k for 3.9 Lakh IDV is something i cant digest.

[djjebs]

Hi Guys,

One quick question! My brother has a Mariti 800 which is not being used for the past 18 months. Recently I thought of giving it for a quick service & using it for few days. But to my horror when I check the Insurance papers the insurance has expired on Feb 2007. What do I do? When I pay the insurance should I also pay for the time it had expired or does the insurance start from the time I pay the premium.

Please advice what to do?

[bblost]

Originally Posted by djjebs

Hi Guys,

One quick question! My brother has a Mariti 800 which is not being used for the past 18 months. Recently I thought of giving it for a quick service & using it for few days. But to my horror when I check the Insurance papers the insurance has expired on Feb 2007. What do I do? When I pay the insurance should I also pay for the time it had expired or does the insurance start from the time I pay the premium.

Please advice what to do?

insurance start from the time I pay the premium.
However the insurance company will insist on seeing the car.
If renewed before the insurance expires this is usually not insisted upon.

[gd1418]

I would've got the quote from other vendors if my insurance had not expired three months back and renewing was within the validity. In that case negotiations could've been done.

Here the insurance had expired 3 months ago. Going to a different vendor would not have given me the NCB. At least here there is a sort of continuity. Plus a lot many insurers are not touching certain cars like Scorpio, Qualis, Innova, Safari. They've categorised them as high risk vehicles.

What do you guys say?

Originally Posted by GTO

17 grand for a book value of 390,000 is definitely on the higher side, considering that you have a 20% NCB in place. Did you try procuring quotes from a competitor or two?

Good thing that you realised the insurance expiry before it was too late.

Originally Posted by simply_sunny001

GD,this is highway robbery

Last year i changed the insurance vendor for my Safari from tata to Reliance

and for IDV of 6 Lakhs,i paid 18.5K but the insurance always mentioned the amount as 20K

These days,the insurance agents give hefty discounts,its not just about reliance.

The bottomline is that you should have checked with other vendors and should have picked up the best quote cos 17 k for 3.9 Lakh IDV is something i cant digest.

[bblost]

Originally Posted by gd1418

Going to a different vendor would not have given me the NCB.

wrong.
You can carry your NCB to any new insurance vendor of your choice.

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/buying...-premiums.html (ARTICLE: No Claim Bonus - How to save on your insurance premiums!)

[simply_sunny001]

But GD,you seem to have paid lot more even after 20% NCB

Going to other vendors = getting the best out of competition

Regarding High risk thing,i'm not too sure as i dont know the reason behind it.

[gd1418]

True, but only if you renew well within the validity. As I mentioned, my insurance had expired 3 months ago and any Insurance Company would not have been under obligation to give me NCB.

Originally Posted by bblost

wrong.
You can carry your NCB to any new insurance vendor of your choice.

That's is a different matter altogether. I can give the calculation on which they charged this premium. I don't understand their calculation or for that matter any calculation. Maybe you or somebody can and then let me know where have I paid more.

Originally Posted by simply_sunny001

But GD,you seem to have paid lot more even after 20% NCB. Going to other vendors = getting the best out of competition

Regarding High risk thing,i'm not too sure as i dont know the reason behind it.

[condor]

@GD, the premium is on the higher side. I am paying 14k for approx the same IDV + accessories value, with NCB considered.

[supremeBaleno]

gdbhai, they seem to have charged you more than what is the norm for that IDV.

They have charged you Rs.17379 for an IDV of Rs. 3,90,000/- after 20% NCB reduced. Compare this with the insurance I paid last year for my car for IDV of 4,00,000/- (10K more than your IDV) which was Rs.11054/-.

Could you please post the calculation based on which they arrived at the premium ? For illustrative purpose, it would look something like this, in the case of my Baleno :

3rd year insurance (Bajaj Allianz) for 2007-08 :

IDV : 4,00,000 (previous year's IDV depreciated by 15%)

Premium @ 3.44% of IDV : 13760
minus (30% discount) : - 4128
minus (25% NCB) : - 2408
-----------
7224

add : Vehicle liability : + 2500
add : Compulsory PA cover prem : + 100
add : Legal liability to driver : + 25
----------
9849
add : Service Tax @ 12.24% : + 1205
---------
Total Premium : 11054/-

Or is it that insurance also depends on the type of vehicle (sedan vs SUV) with the latter being charged more insurance ? I don't think so.

[condor]

supremeBaleno : Or is it that insurance also depends on the type of vehicle (sedan vs SUV) with the latter being charged more insurance ? I don't think so.

Even if it did, the premium GD is paying is high. The figures I have quoted are for my Sumo.

[simply_sunny001]

Originally Posted by supremeBaleno

Or is it that insurance also depends on the type of vehicle (sedan vs SUV) with the latter being charged more insurance ? I don't think so.

its not at all dependent on the SUVs etc.

@GURUJI

let bygones be bygones,but be careful in future.

[supremeBaleno]

One reason I see is the discount part, which I got and which gd might not have. Usually when we bargain with various companies, they offer different rates of discount. In my case, RoyalSundaram offered 20% discount, while BajajAllianz gave 30%. If we don't ask, I guess they won't give any discount at all.

If the 30% discount is removed from my calculation, the premium increases to a hefty Rs14530, from the actual 11K. Though even this is significantly lesser than the Rs17379 charged for gd.

[bblost]

google for the following verbs india car insurance calculate premium

in the results you will find calculators from icici, carwale and so on.
Just check them out.
I found the icici calculator quite good.