Accident 101: Making a Car Insurance Claim

Making an Insurance Claim from Your Own Insurer

This is Part 4 of our Accident 101 Blog series. If you haven’t read the first three articles, you might want to check those out too.

 1 – What to do at the scene of an accident
 2 – Don’t fall victim to tow truck scam
 3 – At the police station7

Before we do that, perhaps it is best to remind ourselves the different coverage under the 3 main types of motor insurance policies.

Different types of claims you can file from your insurer

There are generally two types of motor claims you can file for. They are as follows:

1. Own damage claim

This is when your own car is damaged due to an accident. You will want to claim under own damage if the accident was your fault with the condition that you have a comprehensive policy. If the accident was not caused by you, then there is no need for you to claim under Own Damage since you would be able to claim from the other party’s third party cover. Unfortunately if you do not have a comprehensive cover, you would not be able to claim from any insurance. Which means that you will have to bear the cost of repair yourself.

Claim from: Own comprehensive cover
Condition: Accident was your fault
Pros: Speedy process
Cons: You lose your NCD, additional charges will apply (betterment, excess) (Click here to understand these terms)

2. No Fault Damage

You can make a No Fault Damage claim from your own insurance company when the accident was not caused by you also with the condition that you have a Comprehensive cover. Doing this, instead of claiming from the other party’s Third Party cover, is usually to save you time as the latter may take a longer time.

Claim from: Own comprehensive cover
Condition: Accident was NOT your fault
Pros: Faster claim process, retain your NCD
Cons: Additional charges will apply (betterment, excess)

This is one of the many benefits of owning a comprehensive cover, whereby when an accident takes place, you do not worry about having to handle the claims process yourself. Such as chasing after the other party’s insurance company, filing forms and necessary information. Having a comprehensive cover means all this is being done on your behalf by your insurer.

Below is a simple table to illustrate the types of claim you can make against your insurance company.

When the fault is undecided…

There are cases when the fault of the accident can not be determined by the police or the court. In which case, you should still proceed with claiming under No Fault Damage to received the biggest advance it offers. Often times, the decision would be that the fault be split evenly between the two parties. In which case, both parties will now have to bare the cost of their own damages. When this happens, the No Fault Damage claim that you have made earlier, would be automatically converted to Own Damage claim (and you will lose your NCD). 

Claims Procedure

Although we can provide you with a general claims procedure, it is still highly recommended that you call your insurance agent and/ or insurance company. They are in the best position to advise you on the type of claim that you should file against and the steps that you need to take. This is to ensure you the fastest claims process and to avoid delay and mistakes.

As mentioned early in this article, this post only covers the procedure needed when you are claiming from your own insurer. The procedure may get a little more complicated for a Third Party claim and therefore we will cover that in the next article.

Claiming from Own Insurance Company

You should notify your insurance agent/ insurance immediately after an accident. They will inform you what to do and which panel workshop you should send your car for repair. If you follow this instruction properly, the process gets easier. The panel workshop usually has the form that you need to make your claims. The documents that you need are as follows:

1. Claim form from your insurance company
2. Vehicle registration card
3. Original copy of police reports
4. Original copy of investigation result by police
5. Driver’s NRIC
6. Policy holder’s NRIC
7. Bill of repair work/ cost

Claiming from your own insurer is the simple and fast since everything is done for you by the workshop and the insurance company. But we would still want to advise that you keep yourself informed of the procedure that the workshop is taking so that you are always in the know. Make sure that you supply all necessary documents quickly to ensure a smooth process. The more you wait, the more time it will need for your insurer to approve the claim and the longer you will be without a car. Get an estimation of the time required to repair your car, and call the workshop when the day is close to find out the status of repair work.

Join us on our next article to find out how a Third Party Claim is made.

Want to understand what is NCD? Watch this video!