Given the growing prevalence of mobile applications for every service you can think of, insurance companies have also jumped on the bandwagon to interact with their policyholders. Starting with purchase of policy and premium payment to claim settlement, insurers are using mobile apps for faster completion of transactions, particularly in motor insurance. But claim settlement is where the apps especially come in handy.

Speedy settlement

Any motor insurance claim consists of three elements — claim intimation, surveyor assessment and claim settlement — based on the policy coverage.

When your vehicle meets with an accident, you have to intimate your insurer at the earliest. In most cases, you can now inform the insurer through a mobile application. You can not only initiate the claim process through the app but also check your claims history and status.

You can also lookfor nearby garages to take your vehicle for cashless service.

To reduce the time taken to settle claims, insurers have a do-it-yourself platform where policyholders can document the damage and file for claims through mobile apps.

Bajaj Allianz General Insurance’s Wallet app and ICICI Lombard General Insurance’s Insure app, for instance, allow policyholders to take a picture of the damage to the vehicle and upload it on the app.

As policy details are already recorded in the app, you don’t have to search for the policy number, document, vehicle number, vehicle make/model. You only have to upload documents such as registration certificate, driving licence, tax receipt (if any), repair bills, payment receipts and a brief description of how the damage occurred.

An officer will assess the damage of the vehicle based on the picture uploaded and send the claim amount accordingly. The ‘Instaspect’ feature in the ICICI Lombard’s app, for instance, allows policyholders to show the damage to the vehicle to a claims manager through a video call, allowing him/her to offer real-time approval for the claim amount based on the policy terms and conditions.

According to Amitabh Jai, Head - Motor and Health Underwriting and Claims, ICICI Lombard General Insurance, even the claim form which requires the signature of the claimant is digitised. It is authenticated through an OTP (one-time password). Through these digital platforms, the entire claims process usually gets settled within 24 hours.

Points to note

More often, the standard procedure for all motor claims is now through digital platforms. But if the amount involved is high, you may not have a quick settlement.

Sanjay Saxena, Head, Retail Claims, Bajaj Allianz General Insurance, says: “Usually, minor claims of up to ₹30,000 are admissible with minimum documents uploaded on the mobile app along with the photo of the damaged part of the vehicle. With that, the claim is settled in 20 minutes.” However, claims over a certain limit have to be physically verified by a surveyor to determine the extent of losses, post which the amount will either be transferred to your account or to the workshop directly for cashless settlement. This may take some time.

Similarly, if you have opted for cashless settlement, despite the claim settlement being made within a day, the repair works could take a day or two, causing delay in using the vehicle.

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