Car insurance in Thailand - is it the car or driver?

[isnakebite]

Hello and Merry Christmas.

Wondering if someone can clarify for me. Previously I contacted a legit Thai insurance company (I use them to get my wife Travel insurance) and enquired on the possibility for getting me insurance for driving the Thai family's car when I visited earlier in the year. I was advised it was different to the UK, driver's aren't insured in Thailand only the car. My wife made a payment for car insurance earlier this year, so I never bought any but I didn't need to as in the end I never drove the car.

Woke up this Christmas morning to the wife phoning to say my father in law was in a car accident, both driver's fine but the other driver is demanding a large sum of money, as led to believe father in law at fault. I explained about the car insurance, she phoned her father who claimed he didn't have any and now my wife is convinced we have to pay up (and quickly because the other driver isn't local and can't be paid in installments).

So I'm confused. Is it correct that only the car is insured? If yes, does the policy have to be updated everytime for new drivers?

Many thanks in advance.

Edited December 25, 2018 by isnakebite

[mahjongguy]

Class A insurance can be purchased for a specified driver or for all drivers. What she bought should be noted in the premium notice.

[Crossy]

As above the default is any-driver but premium reductions are available if you restrict drivers.

 

If you bought first or second class then the other vehicle should be covered.

 

How much did you shell out for the "insurance"?

 

EDIT With first-class you call the insurance company from the accident scene and they send a man who does all the dealing. Not sure if you can do the same with second class.

 

[Crossy]

I'm going to move this to the general Motoring forum which has more knowledgeable traffic.

 

EDIT I mean more traffic that's knowlegeable in this type of issue.

[stubuzz]

Usually the car is insured. However, it can be for named drivers only. Check your policy as already mentioned. Also don't pay unless the blame has been decided by the police as this will be an admission of guilt.

[jackdd]

15 hours ago, isnakebite said:

my wife is convinced we have to pay up (and quickly because the other driver isn't local and can't be paid in installments).

Sounds fishy, is she really your wife and how well do you know her?

 

The first thing you should do is relax and inspect all evidence. Just some property damage, so there is really no need to hurry much.

As others explained already, car insurance in Thailand is for a vehicle not for a person, named drivers are possible but uncommon.

 

So the car that the father in law drove is the car "Thai family's car" for which your wife bought insurance?

Are you sure she bought a "real" insurance and not just the compulsary one? How much did she pay for it? The compulsary Thai 3rd party insurance which you buy every year for a few hundred THB only covers medical costs, no property damages.

Have her take a picture of the insurance document that she got back then and post it here, remove the personal details.

[KittenKong]

15 hours ago, isnakebite said:

Woke up this Christmas morning to the wife phoning to say my father in law was in a car accident, both driver's fine but the other driver is demanding a large sum of money, as led to believe father in law at fault. I explained about the car insurance, she phoned her father who claimed he didn't have any and now my wife is convinced we have to pay up (and quickly because the other driver isn't local and can't be paid in installments).

Sounds like just one more Thai scam to me. The only real question is who is pulling it?

 

Is your car properly insured or not? If it is, just let the insurance company deal with everything. You have no reason to get involved at all.

 

If your car is not insured properly then you are stupid and probably b*ggered. Even so I wouldn't pay out a bean until it got to court as there is always someone here trying it on. Anything that involves making payments quickly here is more or less guaranteed to be a scam.

[KittenKong]

14 minutes ago, jackdd said:

As others explained already, car insurance in Thailand is for a vehicle not for a person, named drivers are possible but uncommon.

I have named driver only (me) cover on my vehicle as it reduces my premium significantly. However the way it works is that in practice anyone can drive the vehicle but if the driver isnt me then there is an extra 5000B excess applied to any claim. Suits me fine as I am the only person who has ever driven it since I bought it.

[JAS21]

31 minutes ago, KittenKong said:

I have named driver only (me) cover on my vehicle as it reduces my premium significantly. However the way it works is that in practice anyone can drive the vehicle but if the driver isnt me then there is an extra 5000B excess applied to any claim. Suits me fine as I am the only person who has ever driven it since I bought it.

We have the same as you...just the two of us insured and the 5000thb excess if anyone else drives and has an accident ... when we first did this the reduction was almost 5000thb but with no claims now the reduction is less

[KittenKong]

57 minutes ago, jackdd said:

Sounds fishy, is she really your wife and how well do you know her?

LOL.

[finnomick]

As an aside but still pertaining to car insurance, NCB ( no claims bonus ) isn't transferable in Thailand as it is in the UK. If you don't like your policy or the agents handling of said policy you go back to zero NCB if you change insurance company. I was caught last year when I paid for an optional extra to the tune of about 2000 baht. When I asked the agent what the optional extra was she told me it was for vehicle contents. It had never been offered to me as an optional extra. When I asked for a refund that particular agent was removed from dealing with me and low and behold the new agent said this optional extra was now included as part of the total premium, and no, I would not be able to get a refund. T.I.T. 

[KittenKong]

1 hour ago, finnomick said:

As an aside but still pertaining to car insurance, NCB ( no claims bonus ) isn't transferable in Thailand as it is in the UK. If you don't like your policy or the agents handling of said policy you go back to zero NCB if you change insurance company.

They applied my NCB when I switched companies here. It wasn't a huge percentage as it was for the second year after my first "free" year. But the new company did apply the full 10%, and the second year it went up to 20% etc.

[DJ54]

Car insured but sometimes insurance will deny claim.  Wife wrecked the car no other vehicle or person damage. Claim

denied she didn’t have a license. I was out of the country.

Repair was 130,00 baht

[Myran]

3 hours ago, DJ54 said:

Car insured but sometimes insurance will deny claim.  Wife wrecked the car no other vehicle or person damage. Claim

denied she didn’t have a license. I was out of the country.

Repair was 130,00 baht

Of course they're going to deny the claim if someone not qualified to drive the vehicle was driving it.

[Denim]

Also worth noting is that you cannot generally get fully comprehensive insurance for cars more than 10 years old. Only 3rd party insurance is possible .

[LukKrueng]

23 hours ago, KittenKong said:

Sounds like just one more Thai scam to me. The only real question is who is pulling it?

 

Is your car properly insured or not? If it is, just let the insurance company deal with everything. You have no reason to get involved at all.

 

If your car is not insured properly then you are stupid and probably b*ggered. Even so I wouldn't pay out a bean until it got to court as there is always someone here trying it on. Anything that involves making payments quickly here is more or less guaranteed to be a scam.

did you actually READ the op? says there it's NOT his car, but his parents in law (you know, parents of his wife?).

another point is that MOST accidents issues in Thailand are being solved by cash changing hands, with or without police involvement, and most unlikely to get to court.

[KittenKong]

1 hour ago, LukKrueng said:

did you actually READ the op? says there it's NOT his car, but his parents in law (you know, parents of his wife?).

What difference does it make whose car it is?

 

1 hour ago, LukKrueng said:

another point is that MOST accidents issues in Thailand are being solved by cash changing hands, with or without police involvement, and most unlikely to get to court.

Did I say otherwise? No. I said "let the insurance company handle it all". That includes any cash payments.

[LukKrueng]

20 hours ago, KittenKong said:

What difference does it make whose car it is?

 

Did I say otherwise? No. I said "let the insurance company handle it all". That includes any cash payments.

well, you called the op stupid for not insuring HIS car, but it's not his car....

and then you suggested he should take it to court (I assume you meant if the car wasn't insured, as then there is no insurance to handle it all....)

[Crossy]

The OP does read like he (or his wife) paid out for insurance on the vehicle in question (whether his or not) but the driver is claiming that he was uninsured.

 

So where did the insurance payment go and why, if it's not his car (or even if it is), would he be expected to pay for someone elses accident? Something's not adding up here.

 

Our OP seems to be MiA ????

 

[KittenKong]

1 hour ago, LukKrueng said:

well, you called the op stupid for not insuring HIS car, but it's not his car....

I did indeed say that if he had no insurance then I would consider him to be stupid. This of course was based on the assumption that he would only be posting about his own car and insurance and not someone else's. Though my comment would still apply to anyone whose car and insurance it was: not having full insurance is stupid.

 

1 hour ago, LukKrueng said:

and then you suggested he should take it to court (I assume you meant if the car wasn't insured, as then there is no insurance to handle it all....)

No, what I said was that personally in the situation described I would not pay out a bean to anyone until some case was filed in court as there are too many people trying it on here. And always assuming that the accident was not my fault.
Even once a case is filed one can settle before the hearing, and that is very common practice here.
But basically I would let my insurance handle it all. That's what it's for.

 

[isnakebite]

On 12/25/2018 at 10:37 AM, Crossy said:

As above the default is any-driver but premium reductions are available if you restrict drivers.

 

If you bought first or second class then the other vehicle should be covered.

 

How much did you shell out for the "insurance"?

 

EDIT With first-class you call the insurance company from the accident scene and they send a man who does all the dealing. Not sure if you can do the same with second class.

 

Thank you for the reply. I believe a payment of 7,000-8,000 baht was made for the insurance but I've never seen a copy of it so I don't know what class it was. Even if my wife did send it, I expect it would need to be transalted into English.

[isnakebite]

On 12/25/2018 at 2:50 PM, stubuzz said:

Usually the car is insured. However, it can be for named drivers only. Check your policy as already mentioned. Also don't pay unless the blame has been decided by the police as this will be an admission of guilt.

Thanks for replying, Unfortunately money has been paid, another member of the family has borrowed money to pay and is now pressuring my wife to pay her back. The father in law has omitted guilt. He was enroute to see his sister who had undergone an operation to remove cancer and hadn't been sleeping well, so I suspect this affected his judgement.

[isnakebite]

On 12/26/2018 at 1:38 AM, jackdd said:

Sounds fishy, is she really your wife and how well do you know her?

 

The first thing you should do is relax and inspect all evidence. Just some property damage, so there is really no need to hurry much.

As others explained already, car insurance in Thailand is for a vehicle not for a person, named drivers are possible but uncommon.

 

So the car that the father in law drove is the car "Thai family's car" for which your wife bought insurance?

Are you sure she bought a "real" insurance and not just the compulsary one? How much did she pay for it? The compulsary Thai 3rd party insurance which you buy every year for a few hundred THB only covers medical costs, no property damages.

Have her take a picture of the insurance document that she got back then and post it here, remove the personal details.

Thanks for replying, I appreciate the concern, yes she is my wife, same lady I met, married, signed documents and changed her surname.

I am relaxed but it is my wife who is stressed out by it all, I'm trying to get her to understand that this time was lucky, the value wasn't a lot but it could be worse and I obviously don't want the dad to think that everyone is going to bail him out if he is unfortunate to have further accidents.

Im led to believe it was a 7-8,000 baht payment and will try to get a copy of it.

[isnakebite]

On 12/26/2018 at 2:43 PM, Denim said:

Also worth noting is that you cannot generally get fully comprehensive insurance for cars more than 10 years old. Only 3rd party insurance is possible .

Thanks for replying. Noted.

[isnakebite]

20 hours ago, Crossy said:

The OP does read like he (or his wife) paid out for insurance on the vehicle in question (whether his or not) but the driver is claiming that he was uninsured.

 

So where did the insurance payment go and why, if it's not his car (or even if it is), would he be expected to pay for someone elses accident? Something's not adding up here.

 

Our OP seems to be MiA ????

 

Thanks for replying. Not MIA. Posting was Xmas and then spent 25th-28th visiting family, not had much time to access internet. Agree i don't know exactly which company the insurance payment went to, but I believe my wife paid it and as I have posted previously I will look to get a copy or photo of it.

 

I agree in the UK I wouldn't expect to pay for someone else's accident. I think it's a family thing. My wife  was always the main supporter of her family before she met me. I think others have therefore expected my wife to pay, even more so now she has a foreign husband.

 

Thanks to all the posts, my questioned was answered. I just need to find out what type of insurance she paid for.

 

[KittenKong]

20 hours ago, isnakebite said:

I believe a payment of 7,000-8,000 baht was made for the insurance but I've never seen a copy of it so I don't know what class it was. Even if my wife did send it, I expect it would need to be transalted into English.

My insurance certificate is in Thai and English. I think this is standard.

 

7-8000B seems very cheap for class 1 insurance. I pay just under 10,000B but it wasnt easy to get it down to that price, even though I do have 50% no claims and other optional reductions.

[digbeth]

On 12/26/2018 at 2:31 PM, finnomick said:

As an aside but still pertaining to car insurance, NCB ( no claims bonus ) isn't transferable in Thailand as it is in the UK. If you don't like your policy or the agents handling of said policy you go back to zero NCB if you change insurance company. I was caught last year when I paid for an optional extra to the tune of about 2000 baht. When I asked the agent what the optional extra was she told me it was for vehicle contents. It had never been offered to me as an optional extra. When I asked for a refund that particular agent was removed from dealing with me and low and behold the new agent said this optional extra was now included as part of the total premium, and no, I would not be able to get a refund. T.I.T. 

the no claims bonus 'discount' is not transferable but the new agents/company will price match your previous insurer's next year premium(that has had the no claims discounts applied)