How to Make a Vehicle Insurance Claim
A few weeks ago, I had the misfortune of accidentally breaking the rear windscreen on my car. It was one of those freak things that are likely to never happen again. Something got wedged between the windscreen and the boot of my car. This created a perfect lever to shatter the glass into a thousand pieces as I slammed the boot shut.
Get full cover
The fortunate part is that I had purchased full insurance cover from Champions Insurance. I have actually been on full cover with Champions for most of the 3 years that I have had my car. The only time when I deviated what when I bought third party cover a while back. A few days later, I had an accident with a banana cart in town that scratched the front passenger side door on my vehicle. Oh well! Things happen.
Making an Insurance Claim in Zimbabwe
Here, in any case, is how to make an insurance claim in Zimbabwe. The information is based on my example with Champions Insurance. To be frank, I was quite skeptical about my chances of getting anything from Champions at the beginning. However, the company did deliver at the end of the day.
- Go online and download the relevant insurance claim forms. For me, this was in the form of the “Windscreen Glass Claim Form.” You can also get in touch with your insurer and they will email you the relevant insurance claim form.
- Fill in the forms and attack relevant documents. In most cases, this includes your identity particulars and pictures from the accident scene.
- Submit your claim.
- Wait impatiently while your claim is being processed.
Make sure you have attached all the relevant documents
Insurance companies, not only in Zimbabwe, but also across the globe, work in mysterious ways. What you don’t want to do is submit incomplete documentation. Doing this will only serve to protract your agony, since you will still have to submit all the require papers at the end of the day.
Don’t make false claims
We don’t need to state that you should never make false insurance claims. Doing so is liable to get you thrown in jail. It also needlessly increases premiums for others.
If the repair is urgent, make the payment yourself and then claim your money later
This is something that I discovered when it came to having my Windscreen repaired. The whole process took so much time that I finally decided to have it done using my own funds. I actually drove around with sheet of plastic covering the rear windshield area. However, after water, nevertheless, found its way into my car, I decided that enough was enough.
The fortunate bit was that I found an repairer who was actually cheaper than all the quotes that I had send to Champions. This made it easy for me to later send the company the receipts. From there, the process of getting back my money was relatively simple.
What’s my verdict of Champions Insurance?
At one point, I would have sworn that I would never use Champions Insurance again. However, the company did come through at the end of the day. I suppose the delays are really natural due to the prevalence of cases of insurance fraud. At the end of the day, I am going to stick with the company, and this is a company that I would recommend to my peers.