When I bought a car one year ago, the dealer bundled a car insurance policy in the deal and sold me the car. After the one-year tenure was over, I got a reminder to renew my car insurance plan. My neighbor was an agent who asked me to switch to the insurer he represented. He told me the innumerable benefits of the car insurance policy he had and sold me the plan. I was happy thinking that I had purchased the best car insurance plan. Unfortunately, my happiness was short-lived. When I compared my plan with my friend’s I found that I was wrong.
Sad, yet true! I understood my mistake and swore not to repeat it again. Want to know where I went wrong? Here are my mistakes:
I settled on a plan which had lesser coverage features
I was a novice when it came to car insurance policies. Therefore, when my agent told me the different coverage options, I thought that the features were exhaustive. Later, to my regret, I found that every car insurance policy has three basic coverage features. One, they cover damages faced by the car due to man-made and natural disasters. Two, they cover financial liabilities against third parties for causing bodily harm or property damage. Three, there is a Personal Accident cover for the owner/driver. Besides these features, some car insurance plans also have inbuilt add-on covers like roadside assistance, return to invoice, depreciation cover, etc. These inbuilt covers enhance the scope of coverage. I didn’t know this and bought a plan with the basic coverage features only.
I did not choose the required add-ons
Add-on covers are available with all car insurance policies. These covers enhance the scope of coverage and are available at an additional premium. I didn’t know of the available add-on covers. My agent sold me a zero depreciation add-on which I bought. However, there were other add-ons which were beneficial. Some important add-on covers which I later found included:
- NCB Protect which protects the NCB discount even after a claim is made
- Roadside assistance which is a boon in case the car breaks down in the middle of the road
- Return to invoice which pays the invoice value of the car in case of total loss or theft
- Additional Personal Accident Cover for unnamed passengers, which covers co-passengers too, etc.
Had I known of the available covers, I would have added them to my plan and made it comprehensive.
I did not check the Insured Declared Value of my vehicle
The Insured Declared Value was my car’s Sum Insured. I bought a policy without checking the IDV of my car. As it turned out, there were other plans which offered me a higher IDV. I should have bought the plan with the highest IDV so that the value of my car had been protected.
I paid the premium without comparing
When I compared other available plans, I found out that my premium was a tad bit higher than those charged by other similar car insurance plans. How can my car insurance plan be best if I paid a higher premium?
My mistakes were too many which I found out later. The reason, however, for committing all these mistakes was only one. I did not compare car insurance plans before buying one. Comparing available car insurance plans is important. It lets you buy the best plan. Had I compared, I could have chosen a policy which gave me the most exhaustive coverage features, had important add-ons which I could choose from, gave me the highest IDV and whose premium was reasonably priced. If I had studied all these four factors, I could have been successful in buying the best car insurance plan .
Wise people say that you should learn from mistakes. I made mistakes, but you shouldn’t. Always compare before you buy a car insurance policy. Coverfox is an online platform which lets you compare the available car insurance policies before you actually buy one. Use this platform to find the best car insurance plan. I learned my mistakes after I committed them, but you have been forewarned. So, go online, compare between the available plans, buy one and then say that you have bought the best car insurance plan.