Our guide to car insurance contains all you need to know about finding the right type of motor insurance policy, how to lower the cost of your premium and what to do in the event of a claim.

If you want to go directly to another section of our guide to car insurance, you can click on one of the links to the left:

How to get the best car insurance deal

What kind of motor insurance do you need?

What drives the cost of car insurance

How your car insurance quote is set

Where does my money go?

Where to go for your car insurance

What you need before applying for car insurance

How to cut the cost of your car insurance

Other ways of cutting your car insurance bill

How to make a car insurance claim

What happens if a claim is rejected?

Motor insurance jargon buster

How to make a car insurance claim

Each year, motor insurance providers pay out many hundreds of millions of pounds to people who have been involved in motor accidents or whose cars have been stolen or damaged in some way.

What if this happens to you? Here is our easy-to-understand guide to making a car insurance claim.

• Inform our Claims Department on 0845 344 0199 as soon as you can after the damage to your car has occurred. We have a 24 hour helpline to process any claims. Write down what happened as soon as you can and use that as a reference to make the written insurance claim.
  
• If the claim refers to a criminal matter – for example theft from a vehicle or of the car itself, make sure the crime is reported to the police. Get the incident number from the police: your car insurance company will want to know in the event of any subsequent prosecutions.
  
• Always ask the our Claims Department to tell you exactly what you are required to do and what evidence will be needed to support your claim.
  
• Be consistent: it may look awkward if you want to change your story later on.
  
• Keep safe all documents that are relevant to the claim, and make sure the staff of the Claims Department can get in touch with you when necessary.
  
• Keep all receipts and photocopy any correspondence linked with your car insurance claim. If you make or receive any phone calls, keep written records of those calls and make sure you get the name of the person you spoke to.
  
• Don`t take your car in for repairs and hope it will be paid for. Our Claims Department will organise the repair of your vehicle.
  
• Our Claims staff will arrange with your insurer to have the nessacary costs covered in the event of a non fault accident. Until then, any repair costs are your responsibility. So get concrete confirmation about the state of your insurance claim before proceeding with your car repairs.

One Call Insurance Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority, registered in England No. 302961 For general insurance business. Registered Office: One Call Insurance 88-90 St. Sepulchre Gate Doncaster DN1 1SD Tel: 01302 554015