Does your driving history impact your car insurance rates?

Summary:

Your comprehensive car insurance premium rates depend on a host of factors. Your driving habits and history play a significant part in this respect.

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What is implied by driving history?

As the name suggests, this is a comprehensive record of your driving habits and their on-road outcome. This history involves your DL number, your vehicle’s registration number, personal identity information, challan details, any details of accident history, etc. A spotless driving history reveals that you follow traffic rules and maintain a safe and secure driving habit.

Driving habits and car insurance

Your driving history is a major determinant of your car insurance premium. Any insurance company possesses the power to acquire your driving record before deciding to insure your vehicle. These records are necessary for accessing the amount of risk involved while insuring your car. If your driving record is not too good, you might need to pay a comparatively higher premium rate.

Therefore, a safe and clean driving record not only aids you in getting a cheaper insurance premium payment rate but also aids you during claim settlement. It becomes far more reasonable if you are purchasing a car plan online.

Factors affecting driving history:

Some of the major factors that affect your driving history include:

1. Challans for any traffic rule violation: Your driving history will include any challan that you acquire for violating any traffic rule ever. It includes over speeding, signal violation, etc. Therefore, it is essential to inculcate and consistently maintain safe driving habits.

2. Accidents: Any accident record always leaves a black mark on your driving history.

3. Late payment of fines/challans: Your driving record is also tarnished if you don’t clear your challan or fine dues on time. It can even land you higher penalties or late payment charges.

4. Risky driving habits: Rash and dangerous on-road driving habit is always taken very seriously. Reckless driving can be immediately informed to the police authorities by your fellow road users. It can prove to be fatal both for you as well as other people on the road.

5. Vehicle insurance claims: Raising several insurance claims even spoils your driving data. This implies that your vehicle undergoes several damages caused due to unsafe driving behaviour. This even loses you your NCB that is awarded by the insurance company for raising no claim and eventually leading to premium discounts.

6. Influenced driving behaviour: In case you get involved in any reckless accident case due to drunken driving or driving after consuming any other intoxicating substances, it is considered to be a highly serious issue. It can charge you pocket-pinching penalties and even jail, thus spoiling your entire driving record for good.

Measures were taken by the IRDAI:

IRDAI has become very strict in encouraging and promoting healthy driving habits among Indian citizens for which they have undertaken the following steps if you possess a poor driving history:

1. Premium enhancement: The IRDAI has proposed to enhance the insurance or the premium value of those who exhibit improper driving attitudes. Moreover, if you possess and maintain a clean driving history, you will be awarded likewise with premium discounts during plan renewals.

2. Checking insurance renewal: IRDAI also monitors if the concerned insurance holder is renewing the lapsed car insurance punctually or not, be it the basic third party car insurance plan or an elaborate comprehensive plan.

3. Mutual interlinking of the IRDAI database and the database of the vehicle: The transport department has already initiated the procedure for interlinking the IRDAI database and that of the vehicle through the special Vahan software. This will make it easier for the authorities to determine any lapsed policy loopholes.

4. Heavy penalties: As per the implementation of the Motor Vehicles Act 2019, the authorities have decided to lay heavy penalties on vehicles that are driving without a valid car insurance plan.

5. Strict rules and regulations: For the effective reduction of traffic rule violations, the government and associated authorities have decided to go stricter with the implementation of the revised Motor Vehicles Act in 2019 as the primary initiation step.

Advantages of a clean driving history:

Considering the above IRDAI measures, we can well understand the importance of inculcating and maintaining a clean driving history:

1. Reduced premium payment amount: A clear driving history implies safe driving behaviour involving reduced risks and liabilities. This low riskometer effectively reduces your car insurance premium amount during renewal.
2. Enjoying special discounts: As a good driver, it is more possible that you maintain your car well and raise minimal claims. This accumulates NCB or the special No Claim Bonus, thus reducing your effective premium payment amount on renewal.

Importance of checking the driving record:

Checking your driving history is an essential step, and you can do this very easily with the help of your respective RTO. You have applied for a driving history record to your respective RTO. They will offer you all the records along with any traffic violations, challan details, etc.

Apart from this, you do this easily on your smartphone or laptop with a few simple clicks and taps. First, visit the official website of your respective RTO. As the page opens, you can enter your DL number to check out if there have been any traffic rule violations on your part. In case of any pending challan dues because of signal misses, over speeding, etc., you can readily pay them online and clear them. 

Importance of keeping a clean driving history:

You can inculcate a safe and sound driving history through the consistent use of the following steps:

1. Safe driving: It is the first and foremost duty of a responsible driver to inculcate safe driving habits on the road, thereby reducing your risk as well as the risk on your fellow passengers on the road.

2. Following traffic rules: You must always observe the traffic rules and regulations, irrespective of the circumstances, without violating them ever.

3. Paying fines: In any case, if you are charged any penalty because of any traffic rule violation, you must clear off the dues as soon as possible to avoid further late payment charges.

4. Checking the driving record: Using the official RTO website, you can frequently check your driving history details and try to improve it further.

The relation between car insurance and driving records:

Every time you purchase a new car or a new car insurance, the insurance provider can get a glimpse of your driving habits and history. Any insurance provider can easily acquire basic details like any accident history, traffic rule violation details, at-fault accidents, influenced/intoxicated driving history, etc. Any recurrent history of such violations may lead to enhanced premium amounts, depending on the location of the concerned insurance provider. They check this out for gauging the risks involved in insuring your car.

Conclusion

You have to maintain and observe all the existing traffic rules and regulations to avoid any unnecessary unfavourable circumstances, and always ensure maintaining the vehicle insurance policy. Third party car insurance is enough to meet legal standards. But, you must be careful enough to drive safely and enjoy the associated discounts.

Disclaimer: The above information is for illustrative purposes only. For further details, please refer to the policy wordings and prospectus before concluding the sales.