How To Deal With Car Insurance Agents?

Be it making any investments or buying any insurance policy, as a customer you are looking for good deals to save money. This also holds true in the case of buying a car insurance policy. You feel that if you do not make any claims, the money that you spend for the premium of the policy will go to waste. This is the mindset of the insured which helps the car insurance agents in selling their products. The agent will most of the time make you believe that he is getting you the best deal. This is not always true as they look for their commissions too. Thus, while buying a policy from a car insurance agent, you must keep the following things in mind in order to have no issues later. Some of the points that you must consider are:

Avoid Cash Payments

Cash payment is something that a good agent with good credentials will not ask for. When they ask you to give a demand draft or a cheque, you must ensure that it is payable to the insurance company and not to the agent. You should double-check the name to be written on the cheque either from the insurance company helpline number or their website. Also, ensure you get a receipt of the payment once you have paid the premium. By checking this, you will be sure that the right premium was charged and was directly paid to the company. It is the job of the insurance company to pay commission to the agent and not yours.

Certifications

As per the new Insurance Act (Licensing of Insurance Agents Regulations, 2000), it is mandatory for all car insurance agents to get a license from the IRDAI. To get this license they need to clear an exam and only after clearing it, they are authorized to become insurance agents. This clause was introduced to safeguard the interests of the insured. With this the authorities have ensured that these agents are capable of giving the right information and advice to their clients and in this way, they can also make sure there are no frauds committed.

Wrong Information for Benefit

The way an agent earns is by getting a commission from the insurance company for the policy he/she sells. To get the most out of this, many times it has been observed that they give wrong information to you or the company. In both these cases, you will have a problem at the time of filing a claim. Thus, you should be very careful. Some of the cases of wrong information are:

• They might sell you a cheap policy and not include all the covers. They tend to reduce the premium by removing covers and just selling a basic policy.
• Agents reduce the Insured Declared Value of the car to reduce car insurance premiums. This will always create a problem at the time of filing a claim.
• They tend to increase the voluntary deductible which is the part you will pay at the time of a claim. Even though this reduces the premium, it will mean a loss for you at the time of a claim.
• They can misrepresent the claim history to get a lower quote while shifting your policy from one company to the other. This will again be an issue at the time of filing a claim and the new company will reject the claim if they find missing information.

While buying a car insurance policy from an agent you must do your research first. You must be sure of all the covers you want and also about the type of the policy which will suit you. Most of the agents do not help at the time of a claim, so it is better to buy the policy from the company directly. With websites available to compare policies, you can easily know the pros and cons of each policy, and can take a decision without the help of an agent.