Team-BHP - Automobile Insurance Queries? Ask me

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Now thinking of it, when I claimed insurance on my Safari last year, changed the whole bumper and one headlight and I did not even bother to ask about the discarded spares which obviously were valuable, with only minor cosmetic damage. I surely forgot to look into it but I wonder should the SS not retuned all discarded parts to me on their own? SS must have surely made good money out of them.

The discarded parts are property of the insurance company once they settle the claim and reimburse you either in full or part as per the policy terms in force between you and the company at that time.

@Mahesh Babu, I think what you said makes sense. That is exactly the reason I never bothered as I didn't pay for the part from my pocket. Insurance company did and therefore discarded part should belong to them.

However, this whole salvage charges thing made it appear that customer is going to own discarded parts and make money from them.

So, basically if salvage charges are applied customer owns the discarded parts, if not the insurer owns them. Makes sense?

But as a customer I would really not want to collect spare having no real value for me. Should I avoid HDFC Ergo in that case?

i have a baleno 2019 model and it's completing 5 years in August 1st week. Till now i got insurance from maruti only and current policy is of icici lomabard. This time i thought of getting it online through direct company websites. But nexa dealer (Prem motors gurgaon) is threatening that if i do not buy insurance from them, they may not give cashless claim and i might have to pay for it first. Or they might take 3-4 days extra to release the car until insurance company doesn't pay them.

I spoke to competent nexa gurgaon as well, he also said the same thing. There is a difference of 2-3 thousand in premium if i take it from maruti vs direct insurance companies.

I am confused what to do. I have taken only 1 claim in 5 years. Kindly suggest.

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Originally Posted by nevin007 (Post 5805318)

But nexa dealer (Prem motors gurgaon) is threatening that if i do not buy insurance from them, they may not give cashless claim and i might have to pay for it first. Or they might take 3-4 days extra to release the car until insurance company doesn't pay them.

I spoke to competent nexa gurgaon as well, he also said the same thing. There is a difference of 2-3 thousand in premium if i take it from maruti vs direct insurance companies.

I am confused what to do. I have taken only 1 claim in 5 years. Kindly suggest.

They are not supposed to be doing that. Absolutely atrocious. Choose your insurer, write to them and the NEXA higher-ups.

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Originally Posted by nevin007 (Post 5805318)

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Originally Posted by deadguy25 (Post 5805376)

They are not supposed to be doing that. Absolutely atrocious. Choose your insurer, write to them and the NEXA higher-ups.

There's no need to panic or be so reactive. Not all insurance companies have cashless tie up. First thing first, check whether the insurance company you are looking for, has cashless tie up with the service center of your choice. If it does then there should be no issues in cashless claim and you may ignore dealer's remarks.

I'd advise you to stick to reputed companies so that claim processing is efficient and fast.

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Originally Posted by nevin007 (Post 5805318)

Hi Nevin

- There is absolutely no rule that you have to buy the insurance from a car dealer only
- There are Supreme Court guidelines and consumer forum precedents that a dealer cannot deny servic if the insurance is not taken from them
- Always make sure to check the website of the insurance company which you want to buy by going into their cashless garage locator and searching the dealership name that you want
- If the dealership name is reflected on the website then the dealership cannot deny you cashless services from that company
- They dealerships just scare people to buy from them as they get their margins by selling insurance

You can DM me for allievate any further queries regarding car insurance

Happy Motoring !!

I recently renewed the insurance for my 1 year old Altroz DCT. At 8.2L IDV (10% lower than last year), I got a high total 14k premium (excluding 3rd party) with almost all add-ons. Surprised to see 5-10% deductible on engine protection also which is huge. For next time, which of these is unnecessary and can be skipped ?

Also, there was a pay as you drive plan by reliance where premium is lower based on your yearly odo. I drive like 5-7k km per year and that was approximately 3k cheaper. I didn't go for that as I was not sure of the fine print and didn't get any review for such plans. Has anyone used them ?

Edit: the last line on which team bhp logo got superimposed is consumables

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Originally Posted by Burgman_tales (Post 5811316)

For next time, which of these is unnecessary and can be skipped ?

Apart from the Zero dep, RTI and Key replacement add on covers, rest of the covers can be junked. You can keep the engine protect add on cover only if your daily commute route is prone to water logging.

Which Insurance co quote is this? Never came across deductibles for engine protect as yet with any Insurance co.

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Originally Posted by ghodlur (Post 5811339)

This is from Tata AIG. Also, only those 3 were optional I think. I didn't see an option to remove each add-on. I bought from policy bazaar. I tried buying directly from the Tata AIG website and app, but it just did not proceed after entering vehicle details.

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Originally Posted by Burgman_tales (Post 5811343)

I hope you have checked with other Insurance cos as well for a competitive quote.

Try calling Policy Bazaar and ask them to remove the unrequired add on covers.

Hi everyone. I want to know a few things about car insurance.

I bought Kia Seltos Xline last year and it's due for renewal in 20 days. I went with the dealer insurance which was of icici Lombard last year and it was very expensive at about 74000 rupees.

Now the dealer is again asking for renewal and is again quoting an exorbitant price of 48000 rupees with an IDV of only 16.5 lakhs.

I searched online and found acko at almost half the price for same IDV that includes all the addons including RTI.

I told this to kia sa and he told me that claims made through acko won't be cashless while acko in written on email has said they will provide cashless claims at any garage of my choice provided the garage is GST registered.

Now I want to know who is responsible for a cashless claim not getting approved ? Is it the garage or the insurance company?

Also if I have added Return to Invoice as an add-on should I still keep my IDV highest (even more than the actual depreciated value of the car, in acko it's comming out be 18.45 lakhs as the highest) or lower it down so as to reduce the premium even further.

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Originally Posted by Mr Anderson (Post 5815958)

I told this to kia sa and he told me that claims made through acko won't be cashless while acko in written on email has said they will provide cashless claims at any garage of my choice provided the garage is GST registered.

Now I want to know who is responsible for a cashless claim not getting approved ? Is it the garage or the insurance company?

Also if I have added Return to Invoice as an add-on should I still keep my IDV highest (even more than the actual depreciated value of the car, in acko it's comming out be 18.45 lakhs as the highest) or lower it down so as to reduce the premium even further.

If you are checking the premium quotes from outside then suggest to do so for an IDV which is 10% less than last year. If the dealer is arm twisting in saying the cashless claims from any Insurance co is not accepted, ask the same in writing. You can mail the same to IRDAI ombudsman or raise a complaint in bimabharosa website.

Cashless claims are usually entertained by the Garages or workshops, they have a general tie up with some Insurance cos (purely based on the commission they receive). Almost all Insurance cos claim to have cashless facility with all workshops but it will good to check with the workshops once.

Your approach to Insurance should be first correct IDV, then add on covers. Suggest not to tweak the IDV based on the add on covers.

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Originally Posted by Mr Anderson (Post 5815958)

Every insurer has a list of partner garages where cashless claims are supported. You don't need to worry about anything if the dealership is mentioned in that list. Dealership folks generally misguide uninformed customers to purchase through them, citing that claims won't be cashless otherwise. That's total BS.

However, you need to tread with caution when going with Acko. Back in the day, their dealer network used to be a big question mark. Don't know if things have changed now, but their network garage list wasn't even available publicly. During a reimbursement claim in 2022, I came to know that a good part of their network garages were just local multi-brand outlets. Cashless was available only at a few authorised dealerships but they were far away from my place, so I opted for a nearby garage of my choice. Claim was processed normally though, no complaints on that front.

Established players such as HDFC, Tata AIG, etc. are much more trustworthy than new entrants. Digit insurance is an exception though, as my experience with them has been really good.

One more thing, don't purchase from aggregator sites. They are good for comparing plans and premiums, but actual purchase should be done directly through company websites.

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Also if I have added Return to Invoice as an add-on should I still keep my IDV highest (even more than the actual depreciated value of the car, in acko it's coming out be 18.45 lakhs as the highest) or lower it down so as to reduce the premium even further.

No need to inflate IDV. Keep it 10% lower than last year's value. Actually people go for lowest possible IDV with RTI add-on to lower their premiums. With RTI, your total payout in case of theft/loss will be the car's on-road price, so IDV becomes irrelevant to an extent. But I don't think such penny pinching is worth it.