What you don’t know about car insurance could save you in the long run
To understand everything there is to know about car insurance, you have to go into the underbelly of the industry itself and back again. Or, you can just read about the most common car insurance questions right here.
We went around and checked with the car insurance fundis in South Africa to get you some clarity on the most common car insurance questions that have plagued us… Like whether you should adjust your excess to change your premium, if you’re covered for an accident involving your car while your cousin was driving, and how your premium is calculated.
1. What happens if your car’s involved in an accident and you weren’t the driver?
While claims are dealt with on an individual basis, you should be covered if someone else was driving your car at the time of the accident. For this to be legit, it’s important that you’ve correctly disclosed the regular driver of the car to your insurer and critical that the other driver didn’t break any of the rules stated in your insurance policy. For instance, the other driver must have a valid driver’s licence and can’t have been drunk or drugged up at the time of the accident.
You should also know that, depending on who the driver is, there might be a higher excess for you to pay. A good example is if the other driver is your younger cousin. As a driver under the age of 25, you may have to pay a higher excess than if you were the driver.
2. How are your premiums calculated?
Everyone pays a premium that’s unique to who they are and the car they drive. That’s why you’re asked so many questions during the quote process. This info is used to build your profile and then some fancy mathematics is used to calculate your risk. Between the brainiacs and the fancy software, a premium is worked out to cover this risk. And that’s the amount that you’ll pay.
Info that’s used to calculate a premium specific to you:
- Info about your car, including the make, model, year, and colour.
- How much it’ll cost to repair or replace your specific car.
- Whether you use your car for business or pleasure.
- Info about you, like how long you’ve been driving, how old you are, where you live, and where you keep your car at night and in the day.
- Who the regular driver will be (as in, who drives the car most often).
- Your claims history, including when you last claimed (even if it wasn’t your fault that you had to claim).
3. What’s the deal with choosing your own excess?
Some insurers, like King Price, will give you the chance to reduce your monthly premium by choosing a higher excess. It works like a seesaw… A higher excess will reduce your premium, while a lower excess will increase your premium.
The fact that you can influence your premium by changing your excess is a big deal. It gives you more freedom and flexibility. What you need to be wary of is choosing too high an excess in favour of a cheaper premium. Because you’ll have to pay this excess amount if you claim.
4. Should you choose personal or business use?
Most of us use our cars to get to and from work, which is why some people get confused and think they need to select business use when they cover their cars. That’s wrong. You can totally choose personal use if you use your car to get to work and for social or private purposes.
Now, if you plan on using your car to conduct business, like if you’re a consultant who travels to meet with clients, then you need to choose business use. There are insurers in South Africa who even offer limited business use so that you can accurately insure your car. King Price, for instance, lets you select this use-type if you only use your car for business purposes once or twice a month for meetings, in addition to driving to work.
5. Should an insurer’s service reputation make a difference?
Yes. After all, you’re not just paying to have the costs of something going wrong with your car covered. You’re also paying to have it handled on your behalf, which means that the people dealing with the incident for you should be on the ball, polite, and informative. This is a big part of the service an insurer offers you and needs to be factored into your search for quality cover.
You can easily find out what an insurer’s service is like by talking to friends and family to see if they’ve experienced the company before, and by going online to read reviews. There are even industry awards for service that you can search for online to see who has been recognised for treating customers well.
Take King Price, for instance. This quirky, innovative company talks a lot about how they’ll treat you like royalty every step of the way and they have awards to show that this isn’t just words. They’ve even put their royal values out there for everyone to see, and they expect the whole company to adhere to these standards… So that you’ll have a good customer experience no matter who you deal with.
If you want to get cover for the first time or are considering changing your insurance to King Price, click here for a quote, call their sales team on 0860 50 50 50, or send an email to king@kingprice.co.za
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