If you own a vehicle, purchasing a vehicle insurance is a must in most countries and nowadays people tend to buy full insurance coverage rather than buying a third part insurance cover which was just bought to fulfill the government rule. The main reason is with advanced road networks and more traffic on road increased the tendency of accidents.
With working experience of more than 08 years in 3 leading insurance companies in Sri Lanka I would like to share my knowledge of insurance with you to advice you about things you should consider before buying vehicle insurance without getting caught to sales and marketing tricks of sales guys and competitive insurance advertising and promotion campaigns.
How you can get caught. .!!
Car sale / Leasing Company
When you buy a new vehicle whether you purchased a brand new vehicle from a show room or a second hand vehicle from a small car sale, at both places you will get recommendations for an insurer. This is same even you higher purchased your vehicle with a Leasing company.
These companies will recommend, or sometimes from experience I can tell will force you to buy your vehicle insurance from one or several insurers and most of the time they have insurance agents from those insurers in-house. This is a point that you should think twice.
Do you think a company will do this for your benefit or the other way??
Most of the time it’s their benefit. Car sellers and leasing companies are getting commissions or they have any sort of a beneficiary agreement with insurers they promote.
For you also buying process will be very easy and hassle free. The other party will look after all documentation and assessing work for you. You’ll just have to give the cheque of payment. But remember most important part in an insurance cover is not hassle free purchasing. It’s getting the claim hassle free.
Attractive advertising campaigns
Do not completely have faith on TV commercials and other promotional materials of insurance products.
Most of the times these are very tricky. There can be options and special conditions you will never know until you try to use the particular product feature. So do not rely only on these eye catching promotion campaigns too.
Steps to follow in buying insurance cover for your vehicle.
Brief study of the insurance products in the market.
Surf the net, get details from TV commercials and collect other promotional material from insurers. You can also consider recommendations from your friends, car sellers and leasing companies too.
In few days you’ll know lot of insurance products and features and services they provide. Select few insurance covers from the list. (at least select 03 products).
Selecting the best product for you
Send inquiry e-mails or calls to the call centers of each insurance company and request to send a salesman to you. Insurance companies will be delighted to send a salesman to you, so no need to waste your time by visiting each and every insurance company in your list.
When you meet the insurance agent first let him explain all the features of their insurance cover. Get all brochures and other relevant documents as possible. Remember to let him know that you are comparing his product with competitor products. This can help you to get good premium rate and the salesmen will do a product comparison and sometimes a criticizing also will be done of competitor products to show you why his product is the best in the market which can lead you to find out strengths and weaknesses of each insurance company and sales officers will do the most of the job for you.
Now you have a wide selection and your knowledge of insurance products will also be much better. Leisurely go through all the details you have and decide the best suit insurance cover for your vehicle. Most of the times still you will be lost between 02 or 03 products without knowing which one to select.
Getting second opinion
Whether you have one or few products in mind still there are things you should do before purchasing.
Get a second opinion. Ask your friends, surf the net to find out after sales service provided by the selected insurer/insurers. It is not a surprise if you find out the service offered is opposite to what some companies advertise and boasts about.
But do not decide by just listening to one bitter experience from someone. In processing claims sometimes clients mistakes also cause for not releasing a claim. But clients will never accept it. (I’m telling with experience) and will continue to blame the insurer. So listen to majority opinion.
Purchasing the insurance cover for your vehicle.
Now you will clearly have an insurance product in mind. It’s time to call the sales agent of the relevant insurance company (during the time taken for you to decide you will surely get calls from this agent and others too)
Get a final quotation and ask him to give you a SPECIMEN of the insurance policy. No matter what the insurance company advertise and boasts in their brochures and other promotional materials the true story is there in the policy document. Most of the clients rely on brochures and commercials of insurers but the advertisers know how to play with words and give a totally different idea and trick you. So don’t get caught be wise and read the policy document carefully. Get all the unclear statements verified by the client support centre.
If everything is clear to you and if it seems to be the best option available for you it’s time to make the purchase and benefit a hassle free insurance cover for your vehicle.
BEST OF LUCK WITH YOUR NEW VEHICLE INSURANCE COVER ……
TUS….. J
Start your study now...!!
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source : statistical review, Company wise market share of gross written premium general insurance (IBSL) abbreviation used Company name Web address in the pie chart AAIPLC Asian Alliance Insurance PLC www.asianalliance.lk AILL Allianz Insurance Lanka Ltd www.allianz.lk ANDBIPLC Aviva NDB Insurance PLC www.avivandb.com ATPLC Amana Takaful PLC www.takaful.lk CIL CHARTIS Insurance Ltd www.chartisinsurance.com CILL Continental Insurance Lanka Ltd www.cilanka.com CIPLC Ceylinco Insurance PLC www.ceylinco-insurance.com COICL Co-operative Insurance Company Ltd www.ci.lk CTL Ceylinco Takaful Ltd www.ceylinco-takaful-limited-gi.html HNBAPLC HNB Assurance PLC www.hnbassurance.com JIPLC Janashakthi Insurance PLC www.janashakthi.com MBSLICL MBSL Insurance Company Ltd www.mbslinsurance.lk NICL National Insurance Corporation Ltd www.nationalinsuranceindia.com PIL People's Insurance Ltd www.peoplesinsurancebd.com SLICL Sri Lanka InsuranceCorporation Ltd www.srilankainsurance.com SSRS Seemasahitha Sanasa Raksana Samagama www.sicl.lk UAPLC Union Assurance PLC www.ualink.lk |
