How to File Claim for Car Scratches in India

Posted on: Jun 22, 2022 | 3 mins | Written by: HDFC ERGO Team

How to File Claim for Car Scratches in India

Getting scratches on your car is usually inevitable, no matter how carefully you drive. After all, you cannot predict the behaviour of other drivers or the state of Indian roads. In fact, it is possible to get a scratch right after driving your car out of the showroom.Now, small scratches can be ignored, and many car sellers also offer you paint protection features like plastic coating or lacquer coating which can be beneficial to a certain extent.However, multiple or big scratches can ruin the look of your prized vehicle and stress you out. In such cases, you might be planning to make a car insurance claim to recover your losses. Should you go ahead with it? The answer might not be straightforward. Read on to know why.

Does your insurance policy cover scratches?

This is a matter of research. First check if your car insurance is a comprehensive policy and comes with own damage cover.If you only have third-party cover in your insurance, you are out of luck, as the third-party car insurance only provides you protection from challans and any third-party damages but doesn’t cover your own vehicle. If you have a comprehensive policy, you may be able to make a claim for the paint job which is needed to fix scratches... depending upon the terms and conditions of your policy. Keep in mind that you may have to prove that the scratches are neither caused as part of the routine degradation of vehicle paint nor have they occurred because of carelessness on your part while driving.

Check the feasibility of making a claim for fixing paint scratches

As per an old saying, just because you cando something does not mean you shoulddo it. Even if your policy allows you to make a claim for fixing the scratch, you will still need to weigh the pros and cons of making the claim. First, you should check the cost of fixing the paint job and if it is lower than your No-Claim Bonus, do not make the claim. Second, if it is lower than your compulsory deductible, do not make the claim.Basically, unless a serious paint job is needed, you are better of paying for it from your own pocket.

Impact of the claim on your No Claim Bonus

Car insurance companies give no claims bonus to people who drive their vehicles in a safe and responsible manner. If you drive your vehicle for five years and do not make a claim, you can get as much as 50% No Claim Bonus. This will be a direct discount of 50% on the premium cost of own damage cover of your vehicle. If you own a high-end vehicle, this can be a significant amount of saving. As is obvious, if you make a claim, any No Claim Bonus you may have accumulated gets nullified. You will need to start from zero again. You can get an NCB protector add-on while buying the car to prevent this from happening. But if you don’t have that add-on, you will need to ascertain if making the car scratch claim is worth losing your NCB or not.

Role of deductibles in the claim for car scratch

Car insurance claims involve a concept of deductibles which has been kept in to ensure that policyholders refrain from making spurious claims. There are two kinds of deductibles in the policy. First is the compulsory deductible and second is the optional deductible. While compulsory deductible is something that everyone needs to pay, optional deductible is generally chosen as a method to reduce your policy premium. If you make a claim, the optional deductible is cut from the claim amount, should the need to make one arise. Now, if the cost to make the paint claim is less than the compulsory deductible, then you are better off simply paying for the repair from your own pocket. Same is the case for optional deductible.

Impact of scratch claims on your car insurance premium

As mentioned earlier, the first impact of making a claim for car paint scratches on your premium is that it wipes off any no claims bonus that you may have accumulated. Hence, your premium amount shoots up. Also, keep in mind that if you keep on filing claims regularly, insurance companies may increase your policy premium since the underwriters keep on regularly analysing and flagging cases where a policyholder makes frequent or spurious claims. Understand that the basic concept of insurance is to cover cases of unforeseeable problems. It is not meant to be a way to cover regular maintenance activities for your vehicle, and if you do that, car insurance companies will deem you as risky. And it will lead to increased premium. All in all, if you find scratches on your car and want to fix them, see if you can do it as an out of pocket expense. Filing an insurance claim to fix scratches, especially minor ones, should be the very last choice.

Disclaimer: The above information is for illustrative purpose only. For more details, please refer to policy wordings and prospectus before concluding the sales.

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