Step 1: Get Contact Details

When you’re in an accident, it’s extremely important that you get the contact details of everyone involved in the accident. This means both participants and any witnesses if they’re present at the scene.

Here are the details you want to take down:

• Name
• NRIC Number
• Insurance Company
• Contact Number

Remember, you’ve only got 24 hours to launch your claim before you have to pay for all damages out of pocket. So make sure you get every detail down before you report the accident to your insurer.

Important Note: After the accident, it’s important to remain calm and not volunteer any information that can affect the claims process – this includes mentioning anything about the condition of your car or health when asked.

Step 2: Take Photos of Vehicles Involved

If you’re lucky enough to have a dashboard camera, that should suffice. But if you don’t, you’ll need to use your phone’s camera to snap a series of photos for your insurer to look at.

Make sure you take pictures of the following:

• All vehicles involved (including third parties)
• Damage to all vehicles involved
• Relevant road features around the vehicles involved (yellow box, four-way junction, etc.)
• The license plates of all vehicles involved

Step 3: Use an Authorized Workshop

When it comes to getting your damage repaired, it’s important to use workshops authorized by your insurer. Contact your insurer to get a list of approved repair shops via email or fax so at least you’ll have the information in writing – that’s because most policies only allow for repair work to be done by authorized workshops, otherwise you won’t be able to make a claim.

But if your policy allows you to use your “preferred workshop,” then you can use any mechanic you choose. Most workshops are quite familiar with the claims process so that’ll mean less hassle and paperwork for you to fill out.

Step 4: Check the Impact to Your Policy

After making a claim, don’t forget to call your insurer to ask about the impact to your policy! That way, you can see if you lost your NCD (Did you purchase an NCD protector for your policy?) or if your premium was raised.

If that’s the case, you might want to try shopping around for another policy. There’s no guarantee that you’ll find one, but it doesn’t hurt to search. Thankfully, you can make the search a lot easier by using MoneySmart to compare policy premiums.