Understanding Coverage
It is important to learn that different car insurance policies are made differently. To cover yourself against car theft, you will require Comprehensive coverage. Such insurance tends to cover situations such as theft of your car, and also vandalism, riots, fire, and other specific weather conditions, among others.
Whats' Not Covered?
For instance, comprehensive coverage provides a wide array of protection that a driver stands to benefit from; however, one has to be aware of what comprehensive coverage does not guard against. Here are a couple of key points to keep in mind: Here are a couple of key points to keep in mind:
Liability Insurance:
This is a common type of coverage that pays for the harm you or your car does to others in an accident, although it will not pay for a theft that occurs to your car. Liability coverage is principally concerned with your indemnification against and possible legal liability for loss to others; it affords you no coverage for loss from theft or other noncollision occurrences.
Personal Belongings
In the event that both your laptop or phone and your car is stolen, then comprehensive coverage will not compensate for the loss in the gadget. Your car’s interior is not covered by an auto insurance policy; people’s items kept in the car are not protected. It is probably necessary to engage an insurance product under homeowner’s or renter’s insurance to look for compensation for stolen private belongings. You need to revise your policies to ascertain the nature of various sorts of property to be covered.
What to do After Your Car is Stolen
There are two major things to do whenever your vehicle is stolen in the streets of Africa, first, you have to file a police report, after which you report the theft online using the Vehicle Check’s tool.
If your car is stolen, you need to report the issue to the police first. This is an important process not only for legal issues but also because when you submit your claim to your insurance company, you will be asked to include a police report. The car ownership details, the theft details, and other conditions related to it, if provided to the insurance company, would definitely assist in the quick claims processing.
Another essential step is to report the theft online. The Vehicle Checks database is growing to be one of the largest databases for verifying that a vehicle has been stolen. You can spare just 5 minutes to facilitate a speedy recovery and file an online theft report. Here is how to report a stolen vehicle online for free.
Once you have made the police report, report to your insurance provider and make a claim. You must be ready to give information about your car and the theft, including make, model, and vehicle identification number, your police report number, and any other information you may have on the theft of your car. The faster you inform both the police force and the insurer of the theft, the faster the procedure for the recovery of your losses will start.
How Much can an Insurance Company Pay me if my Car was Stolen?
The amount you can get from your insurance company will depend on the policy you have taken and current value of your car. Almost every policy will pay you the Actual Cash Value (ACV), which is the pre-theft market value of the car. The next aspect that the insurer is likely to look at includes aspects such as the age of the car, its condition, its mileage, and others.
It is important to know that mileage could be altered. However, a comprehensive vehicle history report can reveal if there are odometer discrepancies associated with your vehicle, especially if it was imported as fairly used, again you can use the VIN check tool to learn more about your vehicle.
It is possible to evaluate a piece by comparing it to other marketable pieces that are currently selling at existing market prices. Nonetheless, the ACV may not be enough to pay off the remaining cost of the car if you owe the car’s financier money. Extra coverage offered by some policies includes GAP insurance, which protects the client in the difference between the ACV of the car and the balances owed on the loan. GAP insurance is most relevant to relatively young cars that rapidly lose their value, so the owner does not remain with a brutal bill in case their car is stolen.
How Deal with Auto Theft
Review Your Policy
It is always wise for any vehicle owner to now and then go through the insurance policy in a bid to understand the detailed aspect of the comprehensive policy. Policies can be very different and understanding the details of your insurance will prevent you from getting an undesirable experience if your car has been stolen. Make sure that you have opted for right limits, including the deductible as well as the exclusion clause.
Keep Records
Keep records that are accurate of your cars’ value. These could be counter check in terms of the recent appraisal, records of past maintenance. To make a claim and get a sufficient monetary amount, it’s good to be informed when filing the case and the current status and value of the car. Also, retaining the receipts and pictures of any modification done on the car can also assist in determining the car’s value.
Consider Add-On Coverage
Based on that you may wish to look for other optional products such as GAP insurance or personal possessions. These are usually helpful to offer more security in the event of a loss and it helps the policyholder determine whether he/she is sufficiently insured or not. As an example, if you often transport valuable items such as filming equipment or your personal belongings in your car, you may need to include this as additional coverage.
Some precautions and having the right insurance allows you to face such a theft a little more calmly. Figuring out the policies and the insurances, regularly keeping records and thinking through over insurances can dramatically affect the way you handle the situation after the car theft. Thus, although it is impossible to completely prevent the negative emotions evoked from losing a vehicle, it is possible to protect yourself from financial pressure over the occurrence of such an unfortunate event.
