Sernac announces the main claims against automobile insurers

A constant concern for the car drivers is the security of your Vehicles . With the enormous number of thefts of cars both for parts and accessories and the car itself, people prefer to pay a monthly payment and be more secure in case they have to suffer an accident. theft or burglary .

Aware of this user need and the importance it has for people, the Sernac carried out a classification of complaints to make the functioning of the market transparent car insurance.

The study reached a series of conclusions, with the main reason for claims being the refusal to pay insured claims by insurance companies.

Regarding this situation, the national director of Sernac, Andrés Herrera, said that “currently the insurance market is very competitive and more and more consumers are accessing it, so it is relevant for insurance companies. raise their standards of quality of service to users, when they need it. They have all the facilities and do not encounter any obstacles or problems.

The authority added on this subject that insurance companies must provide consumers with all information on the relevant conditions of the policy so that there is no subsequent double reading and that they must always respect what was agreed.

Sernac reported that during the first half of 2023, it received 3,886 claims related to auto insurance.

The reasons for complaints are as follows:

Concerning insurance company claims, Sernac has established the following classification:

Out of the total complaints received, on average 50.35% were accepted by the property/casualty insurance/motor insurance companies, while 45.55% of the complaints were not accepted.

The rest of the cases correspond to other closures, among which the companies do not respond, the complaint does not correspond or there was not enough history for its processing.

The analysis provided by Sernac via its website also made it possible to establish a classification of claims, taking into account the size of each insurance company. To arrive at the results, the number of policyholders and claims per company was indicated.

According to this table from the service responsible for guaranteeing citizens’ rights, the best performing companies were:

• Real (4.6)
• National Consortium (8.2)
• Mapfre (10.1)
• Zurich Chile (11.4)
• HDI (12.5)

For their part, the least performing insurance companies are:

• Zenith (26.6 points)
• BCI General Insurance (21.2)
• National income (17.7)
• Surah (17.6)
• FID Chile (16.5)

The director of Sernac explained that Consumer Law (LPC) establishes that both consumers and businesses must respect what contracts say, in this case car insurance.

In the case of car insurance, the contract is the policy itself, a document that must contain the relevant conditions of the service, such as:

• The cost or premium.
• The deductible, that is, the amount of money that the policy does not cover and which depends on various factors, and which is the responsibility of the consumer.
• Coverage, that is to say the sums incurred in the event of losses contracted by the consumer.
• Restrictions or factors that are not covered by the contract.

Once the insurance is purchased, companies must send the policy to the consumer so that they are properly informed.

Unfortunately, many times, users do not receive the response expected from insurers and therefore turn to Sernac for help. In these automobile insurance cases, the service indicated that it has concluded three voluntary collective procedures with insurance companies (Liberty Compañía de Seguros Generales SA; Seguros Generales Suramericana SA; and BCI Seguros Generales SA) precisely due to the excessive delay in repair of the vehicle. vehicles involved in accidents with partial loss, covered by the respective policies.

These voluntary procedures resulted in agreements that benefited consumers to the tune of approximately $700 million.

This is not the only case. Currently, a class action against the company HDI Seguros SA after failing to reach a solution through extrajudicial efforts.

In addition to these actions, Sernac indicated that the Financial Markets Commission (CMF) maintains a web portal that reports average repair times workshops associated with accidents covered by insurers, allowing consumers to know and compare repair times by distinguishing by company, make and model of the vehicle and extent of damage, in addition to the repair workshops in force in each region of the country .

It should be noted that in the second half of 2022, the average time between the filing of the complaint and the provision of the vehicle by the insured reached 76 days, above the average of 70 days recorded in the first half of Last year. . .