With car insurance, you can protect yourself and your car from many financial liabilities. However, you should be quite careful when buying car insurance. If you’re a first-time buyer, you should first understand more about how to choose car insurance in India. Apart from hidden terms and conditions and a poor claim settlement ratio, many things could be wrong when you buy car insurance in India from unauthentic sources. To avoid being tricked by false insurance companies, you can follow certain tips to catch a fake policy. 

But before that, let us understand car insurance in India.

Car Insurance

The guidelines for car insurance are governed by the Indian Motor Vehicles Act of 1988. The law mandates that all cars in India should have a minimum third-party car insurance policy. As a result, no matter the type of car you have and the nature of usage, it is compulsory to buy a third-party car insurance policy.

However, it is advisable that you opt for comprehensive car insurance which covers not only third-party liabilities but also damage/theft of the car and injuries to the owner-driver. Add-ons available with car insurance plans, like engine protection, tyre protection, roadside assistance, etc. offer additional protection that is not covered in the base policy.

As a result, comprehensive car insurance policies are a better option than third-party insurance policies for all-round coverage. However, as you can gather, comprehensive insurance plans involve multiple factors. As comprehensive plans are costlier than third-party plan, you need to ensure that you get the best coverage in your budget. You also need to determine the Insured Declared Value (IDV) and add-ons that you need with your policy. Finally, you need to check the reliability of the company that you are buying your car insurance from.

Thus, it is crucial that you ensure proper checks before you buy a car insurance policy. 

Following are 6 crucial tips you should follow, when you are buying a car insurance policy, to avoid being fooled.

The 6 tips to follow when you buy car insurance:

• Do not buy the policy from an agent:

A lot of people have bought insurance policies through independent agents and continue to do so. If you have doubts about the agent’s authenticity, do not buy the policy from them. It will be better for you if you check the agent’s authenticity before signing for the car insurance policy.

• Confirm with the insurance company: 

When buying car insurance in India, do not make any rash decisions. Take some time to research properly and look online for different insurance providers. If you find some suitable insurance policies that you would like to compare, you can use an online insurance premium calculator to choose the best quote for your car insurance. Likewise, if you want to buy car insurance through an agent, you can call up the company they belong to and verify their identity. 

• Do away from cash payments:

Our world has transformed into the digital age, and almost every transaction can be carried out with ease. It will help if you opt for digital payment while buying car insurance instead of paying in cash. Digital payments are easy to track and therefore, safer. Hence, if a fraudster dupes you, it would be easy to catch them if the transaction is done digitally. 

• Confirm the policy before you sign it:

A lot of individuals do not invest time in examining the insurance document before signing it. This could be because the terminology may seem a bit confusing to them. If needed, get help from someone who can help you understand these terminologies better. Once you read through the complete policy document, it will be easier for you to understand all the terms and conditions.

• Open policy verification link:

When you are buying car insurance online, do not forget to open the link for policy verification. It is an easy way to check if the policy you have bought is valid or not since a fraudster would not have the option of confirming the insurance policy on their fake website. 

• Look for NCB, IDV and Deductibles:

After you have bought the insurance policy, ensure that you look out for the IDV (Insured Declared Value), deductibles and NCB (No Claim Bonus) that you are eligible to get through the policy. While it may sound like a minor feature, it would help you in the long term. If you haven’t checked it when buying the policy, it will create problems when you file the claim.

Conclusion

To conclude, a suitable insurance policy can save you from many damage-related costs and protect your car. But you should be quite mindful while buying the policy. You can avoid being duped by fraudulent companies by being observant and keeping an eye out for red flags. If you follow the tips listed above, you will be able to stay safe.