Know The Policy: Consumable Cover Add-on in Car Insurance

A Comprehensive Car Insurance plan is known to score over the basic Third-party Plan because of three reasons – it includes the law-stated cover, it offers the Own-damage cover, and it allows you the opportunity to purchase add-ons. Add-ons such as a Consumable Cover can come in handy to derive more out of your car insurance policy.

Add-ons are not compulsory – you have the option to buy or skip them. Therefore, you should only go for them if they are suitable for you and add value to your policy. Are you wondering if a Consumables Add-on will add value? Read ahead to know consumables cover in car insurance meaning and other details.

Before you understand what is Consumables in an old or new car insurance policy, let’s understand what are vehicle consumables. Consumables are commodities that have a specific and limited use. Once you use such a product, you may not be able to re-use them in the future. For example, once you use nuts and bolts in your car, they cannot be reused. They would have to be replaced now and then. Similarly, the engine oil of your car, once used, gets burnt out.

Your Comprehensive car insurance usually does not compensate or pay you for any of the car’s consumables. At the time of claims, you are supposed to pay out of your pocket for the replacement of these consumables. To avoid this, you can opt for a Consumables Cover as it covers such expenses. Since this is an additional cover, your overall premium amount increases. However, the exact payable premium differs from one car model to another.

Here’s a list of the consumables in car insurance that are usually covered by most of the insurers under this add-on.

Imagine, you are on your way to the office. Unfortunately, your car meets with an accident. Your car now needs repairs worth Rs. 14,000. Of this, the ‘Own Damage’ component of the Comprehensive policy takes care of the repairs worth Rs. 12,000. Here, you need to pay the remaining Rs. 2000. This is the cost of repairing/refilling consumables like engine oil, nuts and bolts. But, with a Consumable Cover Add-on, you do not have to pay even Rs. 2,000 for the consumables from your pocket. Your insurer would pay for the entire bill of Rs. 14,000 (Note that cost associated with Deductibles and Depreciation on car parts have not been considered in this example for the sake of simplicity). A Consumable Cover, thus, enhances your Comprehensive policy’s coverage.

You have the option to purchase this cover via the online mode or the offline mode while buying or renewing your car insurance policy. You can buy a Consumable Cover by following the below-mentioned steps.

Before you opt for a Consumables Cover, check these terms and conditions

Inclusions:

Exclusions:

Consumables in a car insurance claim do not contribute much to the bill as compared to part replacement, but it is never disadvantageous to save money with the help of a Car Insurance Add-on cover. The basis for raising a claim against this cover remains the same – you need to inform the insurance company as soon as possible and get on with the claim process, which can either be a Cashless one or a Reimbursement one.

1) Cashless Claims: Most of the top insurance companies have tie-ups with garages – such garages are referred to as Network Garages. In case you raise a Consumable Cover Claim where your car is taken to a network garage, then the insurance company and the garage will settle the bill amongst themselves. You will just have to pay the deductible amount.

To raise such a claim, you will have to contact your insurer, share basic information for verification and they will send their executive to the garage and take things forward. Make sure to not get the repair work started before the insurance executive gets to examine the damage and consult with the garage mechanic regarding the repairs.

2) Reimbursement Claim: In this type of a claim process, you can get the car repaired from any garage – not necessarily a network garage. Once your car is repaired and the garage bill is printed, you need to send it to the insurance company, along with documents like the policy copy, to reimburse the claim amount. Here also, you need to inform the insurance company before the car is being repaired. Otherwise, the insurance company will not know the extent of the occurred damage – they need to inspect it themselves as part of the claim process.

In this process, you will have to pay the money up-front to the garage and then coordinate with the insurance company to get the reimbursement amount. Therefore, this can be viewed as a reactive claim settlement process. On the other hand, a Cashless process is a proactive process where you do not have to make much of an effort to get things sorted as the insurance company and the garage manage things on their own – you can relax and wait for the repaired car to be delivered at your doorstep.

The top benefit of a motor vehicle Consumable Cover Add-on is that you do not have to pay for the consumables used while repairing the damaged car – the insurance company handles that as well along with the repair bill. By paying a marginal amount to purchase the Add-on, you get the benefit of not worrying about paying for the consumables.

You must opt for a Consumable Add-on Cover if:

Listed below are some of the tips that will help you take care of the car consumables: