What can You do if Car Insurance Policy Expired?

Sometimes in our hectic schedules and busy lives, we tend to forget some important dates. One of them happens to be the date to renew car insurance and once we forget that, it really becomes an irritating task to get the car re-insured. It might look like hard work, but if you know the right way to do it, then the process becomes a walk in the park.

Let’s take you through the steps to follow so you can re-insure your car without any stress:

1. Find an Insurance Company

There are a lot of insurance companies involved in providing vehicle insurance, but you have to do your research to find the best one. Based on the car model, its age, and other details, you can shortlist the one that’s offering you maximum coverage for the lowest premium along with other benefits. Do remember to go through the terms and conditions carefully to be on a solid footing. Only once you’re sure of a plan and the insurance company, do proceed ahead.

2. Fix an Appointment for Car Survey

As much as you are going to select the insurance provider, the insurance company shall also select you, so to say, and be ready to sell you a car insurance policy. In this regard, you have to seek an early appointment for the company’s executive to survey your vehicle. The more time your car stays without insurance more complicated the process becomes. Try your best to get an appointment as early as possible. You might have to follow up aggressively, and even then sometimes it takes around 3-5 working days for the entire process. So act fast.

3. Get Your Car Survey Done

This is the most important part that will decide whether you’ll get the vehicle insurance or not and if you get it, how much is the premium going to be. A surveyor, who is usually a third party or a representative from the insurance company, shall visit your place to inspect your vehicle. After the survey, the following could be the different scenarios:

(i)  If there is pre-existing damage to your vehicle and it is substantial, you can be denied insurance.
(ii) If there is pre-existing damage, but it is minor, it might be just acknowledged and excluded from the insurance cover. It would depend on the extent of damage and how the surveyor/representative decides to define it. Accordingly, your car insurance policy will be drawn and executed.
(iii)  After the survey, based on the findings and the surveyor’s assessment of the damage to the vehicle, a predetermined fixed deductible might be set. The important thing to keep in mind here is that this deductible would be charged/deducted during the future claims process.

Another thing worth remembering is that you’ll have to pay for this inspection/survey of your vehicle to renew car insurance even if there are no damages to your car! In other words, the insurance companies charge for this inspection, damage or no damage!

4. Buy Policy Instantaneously

It normally takes 2-3 days for the surveyor to submit his report to the insurance company and for them to decide on your application. However, once the company’s decision is in your favor, you have only 24 hours to buy the policy as the inspection is valid only for 24 hours. Therefore, without waiting any longer, go ahead and renew your vehicle insurance immediately after getting a positive response from the insurance company.

An important factor to be considered here is that try to renew your policy as soon as possible or else you tend to lose the no-claim bonus. If your policy has expired beyond 90 days of the due date, the insurance companies can deny you no claim bonus that might be a substantial amount if you haven’t claimed it in the past few years.

So don’t wait any longer. If your car insurance has expired, get into action and buy a car insurance policy, now!