[ghodlur]

Originally Posted by Akhilash95

I don't have any photos from the incident , can I still claim insurance ?
I have a NCB of 40% transfered from the previous car. Is it worth claiming insurance if its possible?
How much % will the insurance cover for bodyshop works?

You can claim insurance for sure.
The decision of claiming Insurance vs paying from pockets would be if the repair cost exceeds the amount of NCB for next year.
If you have a zero dep add on cover for the car, then you would have to pay only the compulsory charges and consumables cost if any. If you do not have have zero dep add on cover, then based on the depreciation chart, you will have to pay from your pocket. For eg if its only metal repair, then you can claim 100% repairs charges. If its painting, then you will have to pay 50% of the painting charges.

[JohnyBoy]

Just wanted to share two recent experiences and try to understand the logic.

1. Renewal of insurance for my 6 year old Punto. For alst 5 years, I was taking the insurance through the dealer/car showroom. Got the quote from the dealer as usual. I went to policybazaar just to see how their rates are. They were showing similar rates (few hundred rupees difference in the premium of around 5.5k). One thing was the site was not showing the break-up of the premium - how much was for own car, how much for 3rd party, how much included for passengers, driver etc. Also no indication of how much NCB was accounted for.
The rates were similar to that form the dealer, in fact 200-300 less. I wanted to see the break-up and inclusions/exclusions. Called their customer service, the guy was decent, polite and he told me the details will be availbale only when they issue the policy (that's after I pay). I was not happy with that, asked him to check and call me back. Got a call the next day, and it was the same response. I'm not sure why they were not giving the details. Anyone else experienced this? I don't think they are hiding anything - because this policy is a basic one - no add-ons like zero dep, road side assistance etc - only the mandatory items.

2. Renewal for 1 year old Polo - last week got a call from the dealer for the renewal which is due next month. They sent the quote also. Meanwhile I was interacting with HDFC guys for another matter and just checked witht hem whether they can give a quote. Someone from HDFC Ergo called and he wanted the previous policy to be shared with him. I told him I wiould share any details you want - about the car or policy. But he was not ready to take the details and give a quote. He was insisting on the previous policy copy. (I didn't have any problem sharing the old policy with him, but his refusal to give a quote without that made me little uncomfortable). Any idea why they are asking to see the previous policy copy?

[adithya.kp]

I am surprised not many talking about national insurance here. I am considering it for my next car as my current policy is from national insurance. (I never claimed anything. so dont know how good they are on that front) Their web site sucks though. But I had an offline discussion with a guy and was very impressed.
Can someone tell if they are good?

[JohnyBoy]

Originally Posted by adithya.kp

I am surprised not many talking about national insurance here. I am considering it for my next car as my current policy is from national insurance. (I never claimed anything. so dont know how good they are on that front) Their web site sucks though. But I had an offline discussion with a guy and was very impressed.
Can someone tell if they are good?

National insurance is a PSU company. So you can expect all the good (no hidden charges etc) and bad (you may have to visit their office multiple times in case of claims etc).
No personal experience.

[ghodlur]

Originally Posted by JohnyBoy

1. Renewal of insurance for my 6 year old Punto.

2. Renewal for 1 year old Polo

To answer your queries serially:
1) I would suggest to use Policy bazaar or any aggregator sites only for comparison purposes. You can then buy the insurance online from the shortlisted Insurance. During my Punto insurance renewal process few months back I had checked the website for price comparison. On a few Insurance quotes I found that the features offered on these website to be totally different from what was offered actually by the Insurance co. hence take an informed decision.
2. Instead of approaching HDFC Ergo guys offline, better check the Insurance quote online. There you would not require to produce the current Insurance policy, they do ask for previous insurance policy no and that's it. The reason the chap might be asking for previous policy is that they would better it for the renewal quote.

[JohnyBoy]

Thanks ghodlur sir for the reply.

Originally Posted by ghodlur

To answer your queries serially:
1) I would suggest to use Policy bazaar or any aggregator sites only for comparison purposes. You can then buy the insurance online from the shortlisted Insurance. During my Punto insurance renewal process few months back I had checked the website for price comparison. On a few Insurance quotes I found that the features offered on these website to be totally different from what was offered actually by the Insurance co. hence take an informed decision.
...

Yes, I was using for comparison only. I was wondering why they were not giving premium break up. Even after asking multi times. Could be technical issue like the software they use doesn't have the feature. Or they are inclduing very basic features only and don't want to share that with customers.
Is this experience with everyone? Has anyone got premium breakup and policy inclusion/exclusion details from policybazaar or other similar portal?

Originally Posted by ghodlur

...
2. Instead of approaching HDFC Ergo guys offline, better check the Insurance quote online. There you would not require to produce the current Insurance policy, they do ask for previous insurance policy no and that's it.

I don't think they need previous policy no. I tried the websites, they want only the details - car registration location, date, what all add-on packages needed etc. Yes, while issuing the new policy, I have to give the old policy no, but not to get a quote.
Here again I was wondering why HDFC person was insisting on previous policy copy. I was ready to give all the details over phone, but he was not ready to give a quote without the policy copy.

Originally Posted by ghodlur

...
... The reason the chap might be asking for previous policy is that they would better it for the renewal quote.

This doesn't seem to be the reason. He was asking for previous policy copy, not current renewal quote.

[drhoneycake]

Need some help here.

I purchased my Hyundai Verna Diesel in December 2014. When I bought the car, Hyundai had the offer of 1st year premium free. The insurance premium comes to about INR.49,000/-. The value of the car on the insurance was 9,96,000/- when I paid close to 12.9 lac OTR.

Now I get a call from Hyundai saying they have some offer wherein the Insurance is gonna cost me around INR23,000 and change. Bumper to Bumper Zero dep insurance. And I can select Bajaj Allianz, ICICI or HDFC ??? Now this lady tells me my car's value is 8,50,000/-

Im really confused here. Can the insurance experts please guide me with this ????

My renewal is not due till December, but this offer is only till this month end from Hyundai.

Regards,
Aniketh

[SoumenM]

Originally Posted by drhoneycake

Need some help here.

I purchased my Hyundai Verna Diesel in December 2014. When I bought the car, Hyundai had the offer of 1st year premium free. The insurance premium comes to about INR.49,000/-. The value of the car on the insurance was 9,96,000/- when I paid close to 12.9 lac OTR.

Now I get a call from Hyundai saying they have some offer wherein the Insurance is gonna cost me around INR23,000 and change. Bumper to Bumper Zero dep insurance. And I can select Bajaj Allianz, ICICI or HDFC ??? Now this lady tells me my car's value is 8,50,000/-

Im really confused here. Can the insurance experts please guide me with this ????

My renewal is not due till December, but this offer is only till this month end from Hyundai.

Regards,
Aniketh

The reduction in the car's value (Insured Declared Value or IDV) is due to depreciation. Its a one year old car so the depreciation will be there.

Use insurance policy comparison websites like policy bazaar etc to compare the quotes.

You can select the IDV (higher IDV means higher premiums, but will pay you more in case of total loss incident). Zero depreciation cover can be added as a top up in most policies. In my experience you will end up saving 3-4k by buying online yourself.

Good luck!

[ghodlur]

Originally Posted by drhoneycake

Im really confused here. Can the insurance experts please guide me with this ????

Aniketh,
Would suggest to check the policy document where they have mentioned the depreciation table. Based on the years of ownership, the Insured Declared Value (IDV) is depreciated by a certain %. Since the Insurance renewal is your second year of ownership, deduct 10% from the last year's IDV value. Your actual IDV should be 896400/- and not 850000/-. Get premium quotes for the correct IDV. You need to be careful that you don't under insure your car. Also suggest not to fall for the dealer's gimmick.

Originally Posted by SoumenM

You can select the IDV (higher IDV means higher premiums, but will pay you more in case of total loss incident)

It is a wrong practice to over insure the car. Higher IDV does not necessarily mean higher payout in case of total loss. The point to be noted is that you are over insuring the car and not the Insurance co. For them its business of additional premium revenue but when it comes to total loss payout they will look for all loopholes of not paying you the complete amount.

[JohnyBoy]

Originally Posted by JohnyBoy

Thanks ghodlur sir for the reply.



Yes, I was using for comparison only. I was wondering why they were not giving premium break up. Even after asking multi times. Could be technical issue like the software they use doesn't have the feature. Or they are inclduing very basic features only and don't want to share that with customers.
Is this experience with everyone? Has anyone got premium breakup and policy inclusion/exclusion details from policybazaar or other similar portal?

...

Update: policybazaar is showing premium breakup now. Also the details of inclusions and exclusions.
Maybe it was a tech issue last month when I checked.

[SoumenM]

Originally Posted by ghodlur

Aniketh,
It is a wrong practice to over insure the car. Higher IDV does not necessarily mean higher payout in case of total loss. The point to be noted is that you are over insuring the car and not the Insurance co. For them its business of additional premium revenue but when it comes to total loss payout they will look for all loopholes of not paying you the complete amount.

Agreed Sir I just wanted put the point forth that changing the IDV is possible if he feels its too less. 10% depreciation for second year is a good indicator.

[JohnyBoy]

Originally Posted by drhoneycake

Need some help here.

I purchased my Hyundai Verna Diesel in December 2014. When I bought the car, Hyundai had the offer of 1st year premium free. The insurance premium comes to about INR.49,000/-. The value of the car on the insurance was 9,96,000/- when I paid close to 12.9 lac OTR.

Now I get a call from Hyundai saying they have some offer wherein the Insurance is gonna cost me around INR23,000 and change. Bumper to Bumper Zero dep insurance. And I can select Bajaj Allianz, ICICI or HDFC ??? Now this lady tells me my car's value is 8,50,000/-

Im really confused here. Can the insurance experts please guide me with this ????

My renewal is not due till December, but this offer is only till this month end from Hyundai.

Regards,
Aniketh

There are 3 things here.

1. IDV - last year's value was 9.96L and this year they are giving 8.5L. It looks fine to me. This is a reduction of 14.5%. As godhlur and others mentioned 10% reduction is the norm, but there may be slight variations from company to company. As pointed out by SoumenM, you can increase the value if you want. What they are suggesting looks fine to me.

2. Premium - again, this looks fine. Did a comparison in policybazaar. For an IDV of 8.5L, the premium ranges from 21k to 27k - including zero dep coverage. What they offered, 23k is not very low or very high. You can always negotiate and get 1-2k more discount.

3. Renewal date - there is no need to renew it now. You can do it 1 week before the expiry of current policy. Hyundai or rather the delaer is pushing you just to close the sale. You can ask them to call you 1 week before the expiry. If they say the offer is valid only this month (I'm sure they will), tell them you will take from someone else, they will be agree to give you the same price next month also.
You can check online portals or talk to couple of insurance companies meanwhile. You can close this around 21-22k for 8.5L IDV. You can wait till 1 week before the expiry.

[gypsyFreak]

How about middle level insurance companies. My Scorpio is up for renewal and i keep getting calls from these companies. Vinsure and Classicinsurance to name a few. Their quotations look ok. I am getting 22K for 7 lakh IDV with NCB 20%.
I guess they work similar to Policy bazaar only that these companies are offline and have no online presence.

Any feedback on such companies.
Is it fine to go ahead with such companies or better to directly connect with insurance companies itself?

[ethanhunt123]

I had a question regarding the NCB transfer. I recently renewed my policy for the old car and got a NCB benefit of 20% (last year was issued by Bajaj Allianz and this year by Royal Sundaram). When i go for a NCB transfer - will i get a certificate for 20% NCB or 25% NCB ? Also - which insurance company would i need to approach - Royal Sundaram or Bajaj Allianz.

[reverse_gear]

Originally Posted by JohnyBoy

2. Premium - again, this looks fine. Did a comparison in policybazaar. For an IDV of 8.5L, the premium ranges from 21k to 27k - including zero dep coverage. What they offered, 23k is not very low or very high. You can always negotiate and get 1-2k more discount.

You can check online portals or talk to couple of insurance companies meanwhile. You can close this around 21-22k for 8.5L IDV. You can wait till 1 week before the expiry.

Here's my experience with HDFC Ergo for my 1 year old Duster (due for first renewal in 2 weeks time). The car's IDV at purchase for 10.44. First year premium was 26,500 for bumper-to-bumper cover (I think it is called Silver plan by HDFC Ergo).

The renewal quote that they have offered me this year (after NCB) is 14,160 for the same policy. This is all done directly with HDFC Ergo, no intermediary involved.

If I check online on any site (including insurance company sites), the quote will range anywhere above 21k for zero-dep policies. I have no idea how the quote offered directly is so much lower, but it does tell me that there is a huge margin that is hidden in the sales process.

Also, when I had purchased the car last year, the dealer quote for insurance was 43,000. I refused to go through the dealer and got it done directly for 40% lower price.