Should You Raise A Claim For Small Damages Or Try Saving Your No-Claim Bonus?
Making a claim will lead to a loss of NCB, which, in turn, will lead to you paying more money for the policy for the next renewal, since you will lose the discount on the own damage premium.
Your No Claim Bonus will be affected even if the size of the claim you raise is small. So is it worth raising a small claim or should you repair those minor damages yourself and save the No Claim Bonus in the policy?
To get an answer to this question, it is necessary to understand the payment process of a claim . When a claim is raised to the insurer, they deduct a certain amount from the claim money before paying it to you. That includes the cost of consumables, deductibles, and the depreciation value of the parts of your vehicle.
Now, if, unfortunately, your car meets with an accident that causes damages to the car, your instant thought will be to raise a claim with the insurer. But what if the claim is of a smaller amount?
Let's look at an example and understand how smaller claims work.
For instance, say your car meets with an accident. It causes minor damages worth Rs 3000. After you raise a claim, the insurer will deduct the compulsory deductible, depreciation charges, and consumable charges from the claim amount, and then make the payment to you,
Let’s say, the vehicle’s Cubic Capacity (CC) is less than 1500, so the compulsory deductible will be 1000/- and let's say the consumable charges amount to 500/-. Another 1000/- gets deducted for depreciation.
So the amount payable will be:
Rs. (3000 - 2500)
= Rs 500
Here, as you can see, if you raise a claim, you will end up paying more money than the insurer.
Now, let’s assume that you have a 20% No Claim Bonus on your insurance policy. If you raise a claim, you will lose out on the bonus during the next renewal.
In this scenario, it seems better to shell out some money from your pocket and get the vehicle repaired, so you can save your No Claim Bonus.