Things That You Need to Know Before You Make A Car Insurance Claim

It can be nerve-wracking when you encounter a car accident but as long as your car insurance is active, it got you covered. You should remain calm and follow this easy guideline on how to make car insurance claim. Before we dive into what you should do and what documents to prepare when making insurance claim, you should first know what kind of car insurance you have for your vehicle protection.

Motor insurance can be divided into 3 types:

Comprehensive:

For comprehensive cover, the premium is higher because it covers the most from an accident caused by you, self-accident, if your car is on fire and if your car is stolen. The comprehensive cover allows you to make Own Damage claim or Own Damage Knock-for-Knock (ODKFK) claim if the accident is not your fault.

Third Party, Fire & Theft:

As the name suggested, you can only make car insurance claim if the accident is caused by third party, if your car is on fire or if your car is stolen. It doesn’t cover self-accident; hence the premium is lower than comprehensive cover. You only can opt for this coverage if your car is no longer under hire purchase loan.

Third Party:

Third Party coverage normally is preferable for an older car that already depreciates in value and no longer under hire purchase loan. This insurance only covers the third party that you hit; you have to pay for your own damage out of your pocket.

When an accident happens, make sure that you lodge a police report within 24 hours at the nearby police station to avoid any delay fine. It is better if you and the other party can go to the police station and lodge the report together. When the accident happens, please take note of the exact time and place, it is encouraged that you take photos of the accident scenes and the damage as many as possible to gather evidence to be submitted to the police and your insurance company.
If the accident involves a third party, make sure that you exchange important information such as their details, contact number and their insurance company. However, please refrain from admitting any fault and agreeing to any offer or settlement as this may affect your insurance claim.
After you have your police report done, you should notify your insurance company within 7 days after the accident occurred. But before that, please make sure that you have all the necessary documents prepared.

These are the documents needed when you are submitting your car insurance claim:

1. Copy of your insurance policy or cover note.
2. Police report.
3. Copy of your IC & driving license. If the vehicle is not under your name, prepare a copy of the owner IC & driving license too.
4. Copy of updated vehicle registration card or Vehicle Ownership Certificate.
5. Copy of Form 9 and Business Registration License if the car is company-owned.
6. Duly completed and signed claim form which you can download from your insurance company website.

If the accident is not your fault, you have to prepare these extra documents to submit ODKFK Claim:

1. Police Investigation Result.
2. Copy of third-party insurance policy or cover note.
3. Copy of third-party IC & driving license.
4. Copy of third-party updated vehicle registration card or Vehicle Ownership Certificate.

Once you have all the documents ready, give your insurance company a call or go to their website to find out their Panel Workshop. If your car is badly damaged by the accident, you should straight away call your car insurance provider for towing service to their Panel Workshop.
You need to submit a copy of the documents mentioned above to the Panel Workshop so that they can key in all of the details in Merimen system (Claim system). Delay in submitting the documents will cause a delay in your claim too. Once the workshop has your details, they will inspect the damage of your vehicle and submit the estimate of repair to your insurance company.

After receiving the estimate of repair from the Panel Workshop, your insurance company will assign an adjuster to inspect the damage and reporting back to them. Your insurance company will come up with an offer after the adjuster finalized report is received.

The Panel Workshop will receive the offer from your insurance company and will start the work to repair your car. However, if the offer is insufficient, the Panel Workshop can submit a Supplement report to request for any parts that are not approved in the first place with firm justification.

The whole car insurance claim process time is varies depending on the damage of your vehicle. Sometimes it will take longer if your car spare part needs to be ordered from overseas.

If your car insurance cover is Third Party, Fire & Theft (TPFT), when someone hits your car, you can submit a third party claim. The documents needed are the same however the process is slightly different.

Third Party claim is on a reimbursement basis. Therefore, you need to find a workshop that familiar in handling claim and engage your own adjuster for the adjuster report. You need to bring the relevant documents together with the Estimate of Repair, Adjuster Report and repair bill and invoices to the third party insurance company to submit your claim. You can claim back the adjuster fee and claim for Loss of Use too from the third party insurance company. The process of TPFT claim is slightly longer than comprehensive claim. When you are not satisfy with the claim offer from the third party company, you can appeal with firm justification.

The purpose of car insurance to protect you from unforeseen losses, so you have to make sure that your car is sufficiently insured to prevent further losses. But the most important thing is to make sure that your car insurance is active.