Why Do I Pay Excess on My Car Insurance Claim?

There are always so many questions consumers have about their car insurance and things they never fully understand. We have had so many questions around car insurance excess and why we have to pay excess for a car insurance claim.

Why Do I Need to Pay Car Insurance Excess?

We all know why we need to pay a monthly car insurance premium, but consumers often feel ripped off when they have to fork out a lump sum when it’s time to claiming.

There are a couple of reasons that excess is enforced by insurance companies and the main being that it discourages fraudulent claims. It’s pretty obvious that consumers are less likely to try cheat the system if they have to pay out of their own pockets for something. The other important reason that insurers enforce a claims excess is that it discourages the insured from claiming for small damages because if everyone claimed for every scratch and dent the insurance company wouldn’t survive.

You have 2 options when it comes to choosing your excess:

• Take a higher excess and pay less on your monthly premium
• or take a lower excess and pay a higher monthly car insurance premium

It really just depends on the amount of risk you are willing to take with your car insurance.

Things Everyone Should Know About Excess

The first thing you need to know is… what is your excess amount? If you have no idea you need to make sure with your insurance provider that you have the right excess that you can afford. So check your policy right now.

Another thing you need to make sure of is, comparing excess. When one compares car insurance quotes, we generally only compare the monthly premium because that’s what we have to worry about right off the bat. It’s important that you don’t only compare premiums but excess as well from the different insurance companies so that you can be sure you are actually getting the best deal.

Say you are in an accident and it wasn’t your fault you will in most cases have to pay the excess upfront for your own car and only after the repairs are done does your insurance company try claim the excess amount back from the other party’s insurance company. You should know that this is not always successful especially if the other party is not insured. 9 times out of 10 you don’t get your excess back.

Want to know more about excess and types of excess you may have never known existed check out the full article here.

Have you ever checked your car insurance company’s reviews?