Basic rules and nuances of voluntary CASCO insurance

The MTPL policy insures the liability of the car owner to the victim in an accident, CASCO insurance insures all risks that are not included in the MTPL, and denotes voluntary insurance of the vehicle. The CASCO Insurance Law regulates the rules and types of insurance.

With CASCO you can insure vehicles, various equipment and material assets that are in the car at the time of the accident, the life and health of the car owner and his passengers who are in the car at the time of the accident, as well as compensation for material damage caused to third parties as a result of the accident.

Legislative framework of CASCO

The CASCO insurance procedure is carried out according to several legislative acts:

• articles of the Law “On Protection of Consumer Rights” No. 2300-1,
• Federal Law "On the organization of insurance business No. 4015-1,
• resolution of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, on the application of legislative acts in courts, on registration of insurance by citizens of their property,
• Article No. 943 of Part Two of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation.

Insurance companies may offer their own conditions and rules for concluding an insurance contract.

What does the insurance premium rate depend on?

The price of insurance is influenced by many different factors:

• for what period is the contract drawn up? The shorter the insurance period, the more expensive the insurance premium, how the premium is paid, one-time or gradually in installments, the type of contract - full insurance or partial, as well as the availability of additional services, whether there is a deductible in the contract or not,
• information about the vehicle that is insured, name, brand popularity, frequency of theft of such vehicles, year of manufacture or age of the vehicle, what anti-theft system is installed,
• information about the driver, age according to the passport (if less than 21 years old, and more than 65 years old, the risk of accidents increases), time spent behind the wheel, driving experience, what is the longest driving experience without accidents,
• from the insurance company, how popular it is, what region it is located in, what special conditions and rules it offers.

Types of CASCO insurance

Insurance can be:

• full, when all types of risks associated with a motor vehicle are insured, theft, collision, fall, heavy objects falling from above, natural disasters of flood, earthquake, hurricane, hail,
• partial, when certain types of risks are insured, for example, only a collision with another car, in case of confidence in your secure garage and confidence in the environmental situation,
• aggregate, decreasing with each insured event,
• non-aggregate, having a constant amount of compensation payments, independent of the number of accidents.

IMPORTANT !!! In addition, the price of the insurance premium depends on the method of restoration of the car. This could be monetary compensation for the restoration of a vehicle, or restoration of the car at the insurer’s service station.

In the second case, the cost will be cheaper. Insurance payments are calculated taking into account the service life of the vehicle and spare parts, with and without wear and tear.

What is a franchise

Very often, car owners are offered to include in the contract a deductible, an amount of monetary compensation that is not paid by the insurer, but the participant in the road accident pays for it themselves. Sometimes it is a certain percentage of the total insurance amount, or it may look like a certain amount.

There are the following franchise options:

1. Conditional. If an accident occurs, the amount of accrued damage does not exceed the deductible amount, and the car owner will not be able to receive any insurance payments. The insurance premium in this case is cheaper.

1. Unconditional, when the amount of damage caused to the car is greater than the deductible amount determined by the insurance contract, the car owner receives full monetary compensation, without any deductions.
2. Dynamic, when the amount of insurance payments decreases after each accident.

How is a contract drawn up?

The insurance contract may differ depending on the internal regulations of the insurance company, but the insured must first of all pay attention to such points as:

• study the rights and obligations of the parties;
• read how an insured event is recognized;
• rules for calculating the amount of payments under the contract;
• contract time;
• check the amount of the insurance premium and the sum insured, etc.

What documents should be given to the client?

After concluding the contract, the insured must receive the following documents:

1. Insurance contract.
2. CASCO policy.
3. Receipt or check for payment for the service.
4. Vehicle inspection report at a service station.
5. Rules of voluntary insurance in a specific insurance company.
6. Reminder for the insured in the event of an insured event.

Bonuses and promotions

When purchasing insurance, insurance companies very often offer their regular customers various options to reduce the insurance premium. In this way, insurers try to attract new clients. All possible conditions are considered for certain persons and certain categories of car owners.

This takes into account:

• age of the car (insurance premium is higher if the life of the car is shorter),
• the car was purchased on a loan (CASCO insurance is required),
• driving experience of the car owner (the insurance premium for a driver with little driving experience will be higher),
• Is the car included in the risk list (make and model),
• Is an anti-theft system installed?

Advantages and disadvantages of comprehensive car insurance under CASCO with a franchise

Different CASCO options with an added deductible have their own advantages and disadvantages. For example, claims and registration of insurance cases occur less frequently, but the driver often needs to invest his own funds in repairs, which does not always pay off the savings when taking out a policy. The franchise can reduce its price by up to 40% (the parameters are individual and depend on the current coefficients and the commercial offer of the insurance company). If we add to this the presence of accident-free driving experience, long experience, one registered driver, then the final cost of insurance is significantly reduced. And in case of serious damage or theft, compensation is still paid in full (based on the price of the car or the level of damage).

Please note that the deductible will only be beneficial to experienced drivers, since insurance companies significantly inflate the coefficient for short driving experience, which makes them expensive. This happens for a simple reason - an inexperienced driver has a greater risk of getting into an accident twice during the policy period, which increases payments.

When choosing, you should also focus on your own driving experience. If you have recently had minor accidents or your bumper has been damaged (but you have not contacted the traffic police), then it is better to choose CASCO insurance with a minimum deductible value. If your accident-free experience is more than 10 years, then you can rely on luck and save money.

Today, many companies offer clients to automatically calculate the cost of a future policy using a special calculator.

New compensation amounts

New insurance amounts have been introduced for cash payments after the occurrence of an insured event.

The amended motor insurance rules for 2021 provide the following amounts:

1. When drawing up a European protocol on an incident, the insured amount is 50,000 rubles, previously this amount was half as much.
2. In order to receive compensation funds for the restoration of a car under CASCO, he should submit an application to the office of the insurer where the contract was concluded.
3. The minimum monetary compensation for worn-out parts and assemblies is 50%, versus 20% in the old version.
4. An insurance contract can be concluded at any branch of the insurer.
5. Car wear and tear has decreased to 50%, versus 80% in the old version.

How quickly can you get insurance?

To receive insurance monetary compensation for the restoration of technical specifications, you should collect the entire list of documents to submit to the insurance company. It is necessary to start from the moment the incident is registered and recorded in the protocols; 5 days are allotted for this, after the accident. When submitting an application to the insurance company, you should attach an identity card, a technical passport of the car and an insurance contract, as well as the entire list of documents drawn up at the scene of the accident.

Within 20 calendar days from the date of filing the application, the insurance company must provide a response. Either pay cash insurance compensation, or provide a ticket to a service station with strictly specified deadlines for restoration repairs, or a reasoned refusal to pay insurance compensation.

IMPORTANT !!! In case of violation of the terms of at least one of these points, the car owner has the right to receive a penalty in the amount of 1% of the amount of compensation for each subsequent day after the deadline. The amount of the penalty can be demanded for the entire period of delay if a justified refusal to pay was not sent to the policyholder on time.

An official guaranteed refusal to pay compensation funds will be in the following cases:

• radiation contamination of the territory,
• revolutionary unrest,
• military operations,
• nuclear explosion.

Such reasons are approved by law. There will be no payments if the car is confiscated, according to the decision of the judicial authorities.

What is the procedure for obtaining insurance?

Before taking out insurance, the car owner should be thoroughly prepared. First of all, you need to check whether the company providing the services has an insurance license.
To do this, you should go to the website of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation and find the required insurance company in the file of the unified state register of insurance entities. Next, you need to make sure that the car owner correctly understands the terms used in insurance; the correct choice of the type of insurance depends on this. It is especially important to understand in detail the terms “hijacking”, “theft”, “damage”. At the same time, each insurance company may understand these terms in its own way, so it is recommended that you familiarize yourself with their vision in advance on the organizations’ websites. In addition, when choosing an insurance company and the type of contract, you should pay attention to the following points:

• carefully read the requirements of the insurance company for certain insurance cases, for example, some require parking cars in parking lots equipped with a specialized security system;
• clarify the necessary time frame within which the insured must contact the insurance company upon the occurrence of an insured event;
• clarify the time frame within which the insurance company undertakes to pay insurance or make repairs.

The contract process itself is as follows:

1. Preparation and collection of documents.
2. Contacting the selected insurance company.
3. Insurance cost calculation.
4. Vehicle inspection at a service station.
5. Execution of the contract and its payment.
6. Issuance of documents to the insured.

What documents need to be prepared?

To conclude a CASCO agreement, the car owner must have with him the following documents:

• passport;
• driver license;
• STS and PTS;
• car loan agreement (if there is one);
• car purchase and sale agreement (if the car is only from the showroom);
• other documents required by a specific insurance company for certain types of contracts (for example, a car parking contract).

Ways to save on insurance

The insurance premium increases with the rise in prices for the car and spare parts, and in addition, due to fluctuations in foreign exchange rates. If back in 2013, the insurance premium for a vehicle on average cost from 4 to 6% of the price of the purchased car, now this amount is 6-12%.

Therefore, various methods are used to reduce the insurance premium:

1. Inclusion of the deductible amount in the insurance contract.
2. Conclusion of a break-even agreement (in cases where no accidents occur with the car owner’s car for a long time, which, accordingly, is not accompanied by monetary payments).
3. Conclusion of a partial insurance contract.

What is a CASCO policy?

A CASCO policy (Spanish: casco - helmet) is insurance protection for the insured's vehicle against various threats - damage or loss as a result of an accident, theft, exposure to natural factors, etc.

Thus, compensation can be obtained even for losses caused as a result of a traffic accident due to the fault of the owner or driver of the car.

However, CASCO does not provide civil liability insurance and cannot compensate the injured party for damages.