Understanding Grace Period in Two-wheeler Insurance Renewal

Like other mandatory things for riding a bike, like driving license, PUC etc., third-party insurance policy is also an obligatory requirement for you to ride your bike freely on the roads. Hence, it is necessary for bikers to keep track of the bike insurance expiry date. Most insurance companies remind the insurance policyholder by sending messages about the date of expiry so that they can renew the policy without delay. However, due to the hectic schedule many people might miss renewing their policy and lose the benefits of bike coverage.

What happens in such situations if you miss the renewal date? Do you lose your insurance entirely or do you have a second option to renew it? Yes, there is an option of grace period that can be availed by the two-wheeler owner to renew their policy after they miss the expiry date.

Let us discuss the term ‘grace period’ in bike insurance renewal for better understanding.

What is Grace Period in bike insurance renewal policy?

Grace period is the time allowed by insurance companies to renew an insurance policy in case the policy expires and the policyholder misses the chance to renew it on time.

So, now you know the grace period meaning. It is basically the second chance of additional time offered by insurers to the insured to pay the premium for their policy to avoid a lapse, and to continue earning the benefits of the policy.

Most bike insurance companies allow 30 days or more of grace period to the owner of the policy to avail the facility of renewing it if he/she misses the chance of renewing the policy due to any reason. As you already know, riding a bike without a third-party insurance is illegal in India, so riders can avail the facility of this additional grace time to renew a bike insurance policy and keep riding their bike without any hassle.

What happens if you don’t renew your two-wheeler insurance on time?

If you do not renew a bike insurance policy on time it will lapse. And if a policy lapses, the policyholder loses the NCB or no claim bonus benefits along with the expired policy. Hence, if your NCB has accumulated a 50% discount for not seeking claims for 5 successive years, you will lose that too. Further, when you buy a new policy later to cover the obligatory rule of having a third-party insurance, you might have to pay a hefty premium on the new policy.

Also, if you ride your bike without insurance, then you can get into legal hassles, including a penalty and imprisonment of over 3 months. Thus, all these issues might arise if you do not renew your two-wheeler insurance policy.

Importance of Grace Period in policy renewal

Grace period permits the insurance policy holder to save the hefty premium that they might have to pay in case of buying a new policy. This is because renewing the old policy within the grace period by paying a minimum fine would still allow the insurance policy owner to use the earlier insurance policy with the earlier premium rates, which is much less than paying for new premium.

Moreover, if you do not renew a vehicle for a long time, a significant gap might arise between the expiry of your bike insurance policy expiry and date of renewal. This might call for an inspection of the vehicle and lead to more issues in procuring a policy on your two-wheeler.

How to avoid lapses in your bike insurance renewal?

The best way to avoid lapse on your bike insurance renewal is by renewing the policy on time. Moreover, the process of online renewal makes it easy for policyholders to renew a bike insurance policy within minutes. In addition, the easy facility to track policy expiry date via SMS, email, or by calling at insurance company’s customer care number, or via online ways through Parivahan portal etc., further eases the tracking of policy renewal date for policy owners.

Besides, there is another way to avoid the hassle of policy lapse by purchasing insurance policies for long durations of 5 years or so. This way you can avoid the hassle of yearly renewal of policy as well as the use of grace period, and earn some discount by availing long duration bike insurance policies.

How to Renew your bike insurance policy?

As discussed above, most insurers remind the policy owner to renew their two-wheeler policy renewal on time by calling, messaging or e-mailing them about the expiry date. However, it is still possible that you might miss the expiry date due to your hectic schedule or any other emergency. So, if you miss the expiry date of your policy you can get in touch with the insurance company by making a call at the customer care number and ask for their help.  It is most likely that your insurer will allow you to avail the facility of two wheeler insurance renewal grace period by levying a certain penalty on you if you call them within a few days of the policy expiry.

Renewing a policy can be done via both online as well as offline mode. For offline renewal, you can visit a branch office of your insurer and get the process done. For online renewal, you can visit the insurer’s website and get the process done easily. However, in this case, having all the required documents handy is necessary to fill the details easily.

If you renew the policy after a long gap, your bike might have to go through an inspection process by the insurer before issuing the policy.