You have not safeguarded your car enough until you buy this add-on: Return-to-invoice is like your car's security blanket.
When your car takes such good care of you, we're sure you would like to return the favour too? Would you believe us if we told you - we know a person who bought a car at least a year ago but loves it just too much to take it out of his parked garage! The car serves its purpose for regular spins inside the compound, but our friend is way too scared to expose his car to the harsh realities of today.
Would you believe us if we told you - we know a person who bought a car at least a year ago but loves it just too much to take it out of his parked garage! The car serves its purpose for regular spins inside the compound, but our friend is way too scared to expose his car to the harsh realities of today.
How long do you think it would take for you to come to this decision before the world outside scares you enough to want to protect your car this bizarre way? Which is how we come to our must-know topic of discussion of today – what is that next step you should consider to protect your beloved new car! Even though your comprehensive car insurance policy is essentially what protects you and your car from damages and financial liability. Are you still looking for some fool proof security by way of which you know that even if you fall flat on your face?
Thanks to your own stupidity or someone else’s on the road (god help but we know how much of it we find there is today!), there is that way of sure-footedness that will help you redeem your losses! When we say loss here, we mean that extreme level of total damage incurred making your car unusable or if someone were to steal it. The answer to such helpless, hopeless conditions is Return To Invoice Car Insurance Add-on
What is Return to invoice car insurance add-On?
RTI is an add-on option which covers the gap between the insured declared value and the invoice value of the car. It’s an option that will fetch you the entire amount of loss (the on-road price you paid for your car) that you incurred from losing it! RTI costs around 10% more than your normal comprehensive policy.
And it is made available subjectively by car insurance companies until the car reaches a specified age. Greek and Latin? Let us clarify:
Definition time!
- An insured declared value is the total value of your car agreed by the insurer which he will pay if in case of total damage or theft of your car. This value will correspond to the value of the car after the deduction of depreciation from the original sale price you bought it for.
- Depreciation is the decrease in value of your car owing to its wear and tear with time. Yes, as much as we dread it, this evaluation holds good even if your car is just a few-days-old-baby(starts as early as 5% for a car bought a few hours ago!)
When is Return to invoice applicable to you?
Return To Invoice is NOT an option you can claim to compensate for the small dents and repair bills like the last dent in your car or the crack on your windshield! It’s not an add-on for your claims on repairs and small damages. Return to invoice is what helps you retrieve the financial loss of a stolen car or a car that has been damaged beyond repair. Say, you stay in an area where car theft is extremely severe. Or say, your work place is such a locality and you do not have a secure car park.
You could even be that person who travels long distance everyday because your work requires you to and your car meets with an accident rendering it completely useless. For a car that’s fairly or absolutely new, this could mean heart break. A normal car insurance policy would not fetch you the kind of money you invested in the on-road price when you bought the car. And considering depreciation is applied at 5% for the first 6 months from Day 0 of purchase, and 10% for each year hence, you could lose QUITE A LOT of money even when your insurance company compensates you! An return to invoice add-on is what helps you bridge that gap!
RTI is that much-needed-friend-in-need until you drift away a few years later!
For a new car and up to a few years of its purchase, when you run into the kind of trouble we just discussed above, your insurance company may offer you this RTI add-on. TAKE IT! - it will help you fetch the on-road price you paid i.e the price that appeared on your invoice at the time of purchase of your beloved. (Thus, the name too) Take that option for as long as the insurance companies offer you, IF and only if, you are that person whose car is prone to such sever misfortunes!
RTI will not be available to you once your car is 3 years old!
RTI will not be offered to you post a couple of years of policy renewal i.e., when your car crosses 3 years of age. It’s fairly easy to work this out – insurance companies will be ready to ensure the full reimbursement of your stolen car - until the car’s depreciation is hard to ignore. After such a point, it’s practically a loss for the company to pay you a value that is much more than the current market value of your car, especially for a car whose wear and tear would have increased with time.
Most insurance companies withdraw the RTI option post a few years of your policy renewal. Your invoice cover for your car includes specifics like on-road price of your car, registration charges, dealer-handling costs, road tax on your new car etc. When you make a claim using RTI for your completely damaged/stolen car, your insurance company is likely to either pay you back the invoice cover in full or exclude one or more charges of the specifics mentioned in the invoice. Or, the other format of reimbursement would be when they compensate with a specified percentage, say 10% or 20%, in addition to the ex-showroom price of your car mentioned in the invoice.
When you have decided to go the whole way for your new car, you must consider the return-to-invoice option if you want to ensure that a grave situation of a bad accident or car theft does not render your financially sound investment of car, useless! That said, do not consider the RTI option, if your car is fairly secure in the localities you live and frequent because then, it would remain an investment that’s not put to use! If you are looking for such sound advice for that car you are looking to buy, or if you want us to tell you of all the ways you can protect your precious car, new or old, drop in a comment – the rest is taken care of!
