Car Insurance Claims and When Do Car Insurance Claims Pay Out
Buying a car and getting a car insurance go hand in hand. First, the Motor Vehicle’s act makes it necessary for all cars plying on Indian roads to at least have a third party insurance. Second, having comprehensive car insurance helps to recover all costs spent on repairing damages to a car due to any unforeseen circumstances.
Now, if your car suffers from any damages you would need to raise a car insurance claim. Let’s know more about the process of raising the claims and how much time the insurer would take to pay out the claims.
Process Of Raising A Car Insurance Claim
• Intimate your insurer: As soon as your car suffers any damages, intimate your insurer either through call or email. Take your car to the nearest garage and get an estimate of the damage. Fill the claim form available on the website of the insurer along with the requisite documents.
• Inspection from surveyor: The insurance company would send a surveyor to inspect the damages and pass a report to the insurer. After the report submission, your car would be sent to the network garages for repair.
• Documents submission: Once the repair work is complete, you will need to submit the repair bills, payment invoices, and other documents to the surveyor.
• Cashless claims: If you have submitted all the documents and get your car repaired at any network garage, the insurance company will directly settle the claim amount. You will just have to pay for the deductibles as agreed by you at the time of purchasing the insurance.
• Reimbursement of your claim: If you are not getting your car settled at any of the network garages, you would have to pay the amount initially, and later the company will pay out the claim amount as per the terms and conditions.
Now that you know the process of claim settlement, here is the answer to the time by when your claim will be settled.
How much time does it take for the insurer to payout the claims
Ideally the money is paid within the 14-28 days of submitting all the required documents. However the period may vary depending upon the claim amount and the verification process of the insurer. Type of claim is another factor that is responsible for varied claim settlement period.
• Physical damages get settled the fastest as the settlement are made immediately after inspection.
• Roadside assistance claims take upto a week’s time or 7-8 business days.
• Settling for total loss may take almost a month or even more.
However, the reputation of the insurer also plays an important role in claim payouts. Some insurance companies are fast in settling claims as this affects their goodwill.
Important Tip: Submitting your bills immediately helps in settling the reimbursement process at the earliest.
At kotak general insurance we try to settle all your claims within 7 days of receiving the relevant documents. To make your claim settlement process seamless, check our claim settlement page or call our toll free number for any guidance. Other than settling car insurance claims at the earliest, our insurance plans, such as Kotak Car Secure, provides several coverages for your car so that you can drive on roads worry-free.
Disclaimer: The content provided is for education and informational purpose only, none of the information contained in our blog amounts to any form of opinion or advice. Please go through policy related documents carefully or consult an expert before making any insurance-related decisions.