Each year, motor insurance providers pay out many hundreds of millions of pounds to people who have been involved in motor accidents or whose cars have been stolen or damaged in some way.
What if this happens to you? Here is our easy-to-understand guide to making a car insurance claim.
Inform the insurance company as soon as you can after the damage to your car has occurred. If your insurer has a 24-hour helpline, use that. Write down what happened as soon as you can and use that as a reference to make the written insurance claim.
If the claim refers to a criminal matter – for example theft from a vehicle or of the car itself, make sure the crime is reported to the police. Get the incident number from the police: your car insurance company will want to know in the event of any subsequent prosecutions.
Always ask the insurer to tell you exactly what you are required to do and what evidence will be needed to support your claim.
Be consistent: it may look awkward if you want to change your story later on.
Keep safe all documents that are relevant to the claim, and make sure the staff of the insurance company can get in touch with you when necessary.
Keep all receipts and photocopy any correspondence linked with your car insurance claim. If you make or receive any phone calls, keep written records of those calls and make sure you get the name of the person you spoke to.
Don`t take your car in for repairs and hope it will be paid for. Your insurance company will most likely recommend to you a garage, and you should consider taking your car there.
Your company must agree to pay your car repair costs. Until then, any repair costs are your responsibility. So get concrete conformation about the state of your insurance claim before proceeding with your car repairs.