The importance of purchasing a motor insurance policy cannot be overstated and carrying a third party motor liability insurance is mandatory by law in India as well.
It is not at all thus surprising that motor insurance is the highest contributor of non-life insurance business premium among all line of businesses.
Whenever you are plying on roads especially in a country like India with your private car, two-wheeler or commercial vehicle there is a great risk of accidental damage, repairing which can burn a hole in our pocket.
Obviously, there are always other risk associated with natural perils like flood, storm and man-made perils like theft, malicious damage. This carrying a comprehensive motor insurance for any type of vehicle you own in highly advisable.
It is also advised to keep the policy schedule and other policy document carefully so that you need not to search it here and there at the time of a claim.
In fact you should carry the policy schedule and keep a copy of it in the vehicle so that if any traffic inspector asks you to show the same you can show the same then and there on the spot.
There is no need to carry the physical copy and you can show the documents like driving license, registration certificate and insurance policy in the electronic form over the mandated mobile applications or web portal.
Even if you misplace the policy document you can easily download it from the online portal of the insurers or ask the customer care representatives but for that you need to remember and provide some details like policy number.
Real challenge comes in when you misplace the policy document and there is no further possibility of retrieving it from anywhere as you have also forgotten the policy number. Without remembering the policy number there is very little you can do of your own as your insurer will also be hardly in any position to help you with them same.
But there are a few other options available by which you can still know the insurance policy number, check your insurance policy status and a few other details by using the vehicle registration number.
How to find insurance policy number by vehicle number?
As you provide the vehicle registration number while purchasing the insurance and the insurance is at the first place linked with the unique vehicle only you will get the insurance details or can even renew the policy by providing the vehicle registration number.
Some things you can do are mentioned as below:
- Check the insurance status of your vehicle online at e-vahaan services by providing the vehicle registration number. The portal will show you the expiry date of current insurance.
- You can call the insurer, provide the vehicle details and get the insurance policy details from them. This is the best and easiest way to get the insurance policy details of your own car.
- Connect with the RTO where your vehicle is registered to get the insurance details from them. This can be a lengthy process as government official work may sometimes take a bit longer time to complete.
- In case you are already indulged in a road accident and do not know the insurance details of the other vehicle involved in the accident, and want to lodge the third party claim with the concerned insurer you can furnish the basic details at the online portal of insurance information bureau under the section vehicle insurance status search and find out details.
This IIB portal contains comprensive data of insurance policies of every registered vehicle in any state of our country. This is a great facility provided by the Indian insurance regulator IRDAI and below we outline the step wise approach to get the requisite insurance details:
Step 1: Visit https://iib.gov.in/
Step 2: Under the quick links chick on the v-seva tab.
Step 3: Fill in the required details like Name, email, mobile number, address, vehicle registration details, accident date and place and click on submit after entering the Captcha code. The registration number of the vehicle needs to be provided in the prescribed format and without any special characters.
Note: There may be a time lag of two months by insurers to provide the data so for a vehicle which is very recently insured the details may not be available. An individual is allowed to search up to a maximum of three times for a particular mobile number or email address. Also the data is available from 1 April 2010 and not prior to that.
Once the all above details are filled and mandatory criteria is fulfilled the insurance policy details will appear on the screen. If the current policy detail of the vehicle in scrutiny is not available due to the time lag and non-submission of the data by the insurer, previous insurance policy details will appear on the screen.
If you are unable to get the details by vehicle registration number engine number and chassis number can be entered to proceed with the search as for new vehicles insurers provide only engine and chassis number of the vehicle.
In case the online system of IIB does not work for any reason you can visit the RTO to provide the registration details of other car involved in accident with you to get the insurance details to file a third party claim successfully with the concerned insurer.