Photo: How insurers determine the end of winter (Getty Images) Author: Konstantin Shirokun
Yes, many drivers will probably be interested to know that insurance companies sometimes live by their own calendar. Which is tied not to the phases of the Sun and Moon, but to the type of rubber on the wheels of clients' cars.
Read about how you can end up without a CASCO insurance payment due to the wrong tires in the RBC-Ukraine article.
Those drivers who have been in a serious accident know how appropriate a CASCO policy payment can be. For insurance companies, each insurance case is also, excuse me, an extraordinary event, especially if we are talking about an accident with serious consequences.
Linking insurance to winter and summer
Since the accident rate on the roads increases in winter, insurance companies work to reduce the risks of insurance cases. And therefore, they include clauses in CASCO insurance agreements that stipulate some “seasonal” details. If these conditions are violated by the client, the insurance compensation for the “injuries” received by the car will be cancelled or reduced.
This method of insurers really encourages the driver to strive for road safety, and on the other hand, it can give the insurance company an official reason not to pay for the repair. Officially, the refusal looks something like this: “the technical condition of the car did not correspond to the weather conditions.”
As you might guess, first of all, we are talking about the mandatory presence of winter tires on the insured car. However, sometimes agreements also require filling the car with winter fluids – apparently, this refers to the windshield and rear window washer system.
When summer and winter come
However, given the current Ukrainian climate, it is not easy to determine one of the main factors – the date of the beginning of winter. Therefore, the period during which the car should drive on winter tires is determined, so to speak, creatively. Most insurers consider winter not only the strictly winter months, but also part of autumn and spring – which is quite logical. But different insurance companies have their own winter period: there are such dates for the beginning and end of winter:
- December 1 – March 1;
- November 15 – March 15;
- October 15 – April 15.
At the same time, the insurance calendar often includes such a humane step towards the client as the off-season between winter and summer – a “gap” of one or even two months. For example, one of the leading companies considers the winter season to be the period from November 15 to March 15, and the summer season to be the period from May 15 to September 15. Consequently, the type of tires on a car in the transition months – two autumn and two spring – is often not regulated.
Please note that in some CASCO contracts the mandatory use of winter tires on a car is dictated not in a certain period of the year, but under specific weather conditions: snow, frost, ice (black ice). This means that if an accident occurs in the middle of winter, but on clean dry asphalt, insurers do not have the right to refuse payment due to summer tires on a broken car. And vice versa.
Winter is not only about ice
Let us remind you that winter risks for motorists are not only related to slippery road surfaces. The car can also be damaged by snow and ice falling from the roof of a house or from the top of a cargo trailer, by pebbles of anti-icing mixture on the road, by lumps of ice flying from under the wheels of trucks, etc. Unfortunately, even the most expensive insurance policies often do not cover all winter risks.
Short
You may have heard this for the twentieth or hundredth time in your life, but we will also say these two most important things. First, before signing any agreement, you should carefully reread its entire text, including paragraphs with small print. And second: in matters such as insurance, you cannot skimp on reliability, that is, you should always choose a company with the best reputation on the market. Yes, it will be more expensive, but it is the insurance companies with cheap policies that try to avoid paying the car owner for insurance claims at the slightest opportunity.
In preparing this article, materials from AutoBild and Autocentre were used.
Let us recall that RBC-Ukraine recently reported what is better for a car: a canopy, a garage or a parking lot.