Add-ons (Optional covers) for your car insurance

You need an Own Damage or comprehensive plan first

Optional covers attach to the own-damage side of a policy, which is the side that pays for your own car. So before you can take any of them, you need either a comprehensive plan, or a standalone Own Damage plan sitting alongside your Third-Party cover.

You cannot add optional covers to a Third-Party plan

A Third-Party plan pays only for the injury or damage you cause to other people. It holds nothing for your own car, so there is no own-damage side for an optional cover to attach to, and no insurer can sell you one on its own.

If Third-Party cover is all you hold today, moving to a comprehensive plan at your next renewal is what opens up every cover on this page.

They raise your premium, and usually save you more than they cost

Each cover you take adds a little to what you pay each year. What you are buying is a smaller bill on the day something goes wrong. A single repair can leave you paying several times the yearly premium of the cover that would have absorbed it, and over the years you own the car, the covers that suit it generally cost less than the claims they take care of.

That is the test worth applying to each one: Not whether it sounds useful, but whether the cost it removes for your car, in your city, is larger than the cost it adds.

Kiwi's take If you take only 3, take Kiwi Insurance Super NCB, Zero Depreciation cover, and Engine Secure cover. Kiwi Insurance Super NCB is the one that keeps paying you back every year you do not claim, and protects the discount on the year you do. Zero Depreciation cover removes the single largest deduction from a repair payout, which is why it matters most while parts are new. Engine Secure cover exists because water damage to the engine is both the most expensive repair on this page and the one a standard plan does not cover. Add Return to Invoice cover on a car under 3 years, and Consumables cover if you already hold Zero Depreciation cover.

Premium ranges are indicative for a mid-size car in a Zone A city. Your actual premium depends on your car's IDV, age, and insurer. Prices vary between insurers.

Kiwi Insurance Super NCB sits outside this table because it is worth taking at any car age. It discounts your premium rather than raising a payout, so it does not lose value as the IDV falls.

Step 3 is the one that matters. A standard plan does not pay the whole repair bill: It deducts an amount for the age of every part it replaces, leaves consumables off the list entirely, and refuses some causes of damage outright. Each cover you hold removes one of those deductions before the amount reaches you.

Two things sit outside that. Your deductible is fixed by IRDAI and stays yours to pay whatever covers you hold. And your No Claim Bonus is decided at the renewal after the claim, not at the claim itself, which is where Kiwi Insurance Super NCB does its work.

What each cover saves you, in real terms

Take a ₹50,000 repair after an accident on a 3-year-old car, with and without Zero Depreciation cover.

Amounts shown are an illustrative example. What you actually pay depends on your car, the damage, and the plan you hold.

Engine Secure cover

A flooded engine on a mid-size car typically costs ₹30,000 to ₹80,000 to repair. A standard plan excludes this entirely. Engine Secure cover pays for it in full, minus your deductible. On a car parked in a monsoon-prone city, one flood season can recover the cost of the cover many times over.

Return to Invoice cover

If a 2-year-old car costing ₹8 lakhs on the road is stolen, the IDV might pay only ₹6.5 lakhs after depreciation. Return to Invoice cover pays the full ₹8 lakhs including registration and road tax. The gap it closes is between what the car cost you and what the policy would otherwise pay.

Kiwi Insurance Super NCB

On a ₹15,000 own-damage premium with a 50% No Claim Bonus, one claim resets a standard bonus to zero, costing ₹7,500 in lost discount at the next renewal. With Kiwi Insurance Super NCB, a claim drops the bonus one level rather than to zero. The saving in discount at the next renewal alone is often more than the cost of the cover.

What happens to it when you claim

With a standard No Claim Bonus, a single claim takes the discount back to zero at your next renewal, whatever it had reached. Five claim-free years of discount can disappear over one repair, which is why so many owners quietly pay for small damage themselves rather than raise a claim they are entitled to.

On a ₹20,000 own-damage premium, a 50% No Claim Bonus is worth ₹10,000 a year. On a standard plan, one claim takes all of it.

How Kiwi Insurance Super NCB changes that

Kiwi Insurance Super NCB is our flagship optional cover, and it does 2 things a standard bonus cannot. It keeps building past 50%, all the way to 90%, and when you do claim it steps down only one level rather than resetting to zero. That is up to 40% more discount than a standard bonus, and it means you can use the policy you paid for without losing years of discount to do it.

The bonus is tied to the policy year, so renew before expiry to keep it intact.

Each cover is written to remove one specific deduction or one specific exclusion. Zero Depreciation cover removes the deduction for the age of replaced parts. Engine Secure cover removes the exclusion on water damage to the engine. Return to Invoice cover lifts a total-loss payout from the IDV up to the invoice price. Outside the gap it was written for, a cover does nothing at all.

Three limits follow from that, and they are worth knowing plainly. An optional cover does not clear away the exclusions written into your policy, so anything your policy rules out and no cover names stays ruled out. Most covers lift what the base plan already pays. A few, like Engine Secure cover, add protection for risks the base plan excludes entirely. And it does not make a claim payable: If the claim itself is not admissible, there is nothing for the cover to increase. Optional covers also do not pay for damage that existed before the cover began. If a crack in the windscreen predates the policy, a windscreen cover cannot pay for it. The insurer can ask for a pre-inspection if there is any doubt.

So the right way to choose is one gap at a time. Look at your car's age, where it is parked, and the roads it spends its time on, then take the covers that match. A long list of covers on a car that does not need them costs you every year and returns nothing.

Things to know before you add optional covers to your policy

• They attach only at purchase or renewal. A cover cannot be added part way through a policy year, so if you skip one now you cannot add it after a dent next month
• They do not remove your deductible. The fixed part of every claim stays yours to pay, however many covers you hold
• They do not lift a payout above the IDV, with Return to Invoice cover the single exception
• They do not cover normal age-related damage, or mechanical and electrical breakdown, which are treated as running costs rather than damage
• They do not remove your policy's exclusions. Each cover lifts only the one exclusion it names, such as water damage to the engine. Everything else your policy excludes stays excluded
• They do not rescue an invalid claim. Driving without a valid licence or under the influence voids the claim, and no cover changes that
• Most carry their own limits, such as about 2 claims a year on Zero Depreciation cover, so check what applies to yours

Adding a cover at renewal

Renewal runs the same 6 steps, with 2 differences. Your car is a year older, so the covers that earn their premium may have changed, and your No Claim Bonus is already built up and carries into the new premium. Renew before the policy expires and you keep both the cover and the bonus without a break.

For a full list of standard endorsements, see the IMT endorsements guide →

Renewing from another insurer? Your optional covers do not carry across automatically. Choose them again on the new policy, and bring your No Claim Bonus certificate so the discount you have earned comes with you.

The 2 you are most likely to need extend cover to a fitted CNG or LPG kit, and to electrical and electronic accessories such as a music system or a dashcam, which a standard plan would not fully pay for.

If you fit a CNG kit after buying the car, tell your insurer and add the endorsement. Without it, a claim involving the kit can be declined, and the change is inexpensive next to that risk.

The difference in one line. An optional cover is a named product you add to the policy. An endorsement is a standard change to the wording of the policy you already hold. Both close a gap for a small premium.

And what comes with every plan, at no extra cost

These are not optional covers and there is nothing to add. They are part of how a Kiwi claim works.