Cheap Car Insurance

[Peterculter]

I have a 2011 Mazda 2 every Year till now I have insured with an Online Broker!! I do not use the car very much in fact it has done less than 19,000 Kilometres from new! Does anyone have an idea where I can find some cheap insurance. Obviously in Thailand there is no " No Claim Discount" or an agreed mileage Policy. I got the Compulsory cover when I Taxed what I really want is a policy that covers my damage but perhaps more importantly third party damage, my thinking is in the eventuality I hit an expensive Mercedes and it is deemed to be my fault with no cover I would be stuffed!!!

[petermik]

Roojai.....

[colinneil]

We changed to Roojai this year, 12.000 baht less than we were paying before.

[AndyAndyAndy]

After research I went with Roojai.

 

Tip how to save money, choose maximal deductible (the amount that must be paid out of pocket by you before the insurance company pays a claim). I maxed out my own damage at 20 000 Bath and third party damage at about 25 000 Baht. Thank's to this my first class insurance went from calculated ~12 000 Baht/year to about ~4 000 Baht/year.

 

Thinking behind this is that I don't really care about causing small damages. Like 10k - 20k. I will pay it out of my pocket no problem. But I want be covered if I total somebody elses 2 million new Mercedes or Porsche. Or if injury is involved. That's when I want insurance to kick in.

[4MyEgo]

Go with the bigger insurers, ones you know will payout, the reason I say this is because a mate of mine got rear ended by a truck, the truck driver was high on yaba and fell asleep at the wheel, so the trucks insurance company wouldn't pay up, and his car was a ride off, believe it or not he only got 60% of what the car was insured for, i.e. his insurer only paid him 60%, but not before months of negotiations with the cops being the negotiators.

 

AA Insurance Brokers do a good job finding us reputable insurers for all of our insurances, cheap insurance is not necessarily a good way to go in my opinion as you might just find they won't pay out of you have a prang, but each to their own. 

[NanLaew]

3 minutes ago, 4MyEgo said:

Go with the bigger insurers, ones you know will payout, the reason I say this is because a mate of mine got rear ended by a truck, the truck driver was high on yaba and fell asleep at the wheel, so the trucks insurance company wouldn't pay up, and his car was a ride off, believe it or not he only got 60% of what the car was insured for, i.e. his insurer only paid him 60%, but not before months of negotiations with the cops being the negotiators.

 

AA Insurance Brokers do a good job finding us reputable insurers for all of our insurances, cheap insurance is not necessarily a good way to go in my opinion as you might just find they won't pay out of you have a prang, but each to their own. 

Your mate's problem wasn't with his insurance company per se, it was his insurance company's problems with the truck company and their insurer.

 

The replacement or residual value that the insurer will pay for fire, theft and write off is clearly stated in the insurance quote that the OP will get online direct with an insurance company, through a broker or from a conventional, walk-in insurance company or insurance brokers office. If one expects or requires 100% replacement value, expect very high premiums but I doubt any insurance company will even bother to offer that. AFAIK, 60% is a normal payout and typically it will reduce annually as the car gets older. The only time I successfully negotiated the same replacement value as the previous year on the same vehicle, my premium went up. The following year, none of the insurance companies that quoted would agree to it.

 

FWIW, roojai which is my current insurer, are not cheap because they have bad service or don't deliver on promises. They save money by brokering 100% online, no offices and office staff and the savings are passed to the customer. I haven't seen any reports of poor service from roojai beyond what you mention when the other vehicle is either uninsured or their insurer drags their feet if it's been voided due to DUI/DWI.

[worgeordie]

Instead of cheap insurance...you should be looking

for a company who is reliable and actually pays out.

regards worgeordie

[4MyEgo]

13 minutes ago, NanLaew said:

Your mate's problem wasn't with his insurance company per se, it was his insurance company's problems with the truck company and their insurer.

 

The replacement or residual value that the insurer will pay for fire, theft and write off is clearly stated in the insurance quote that the OP will get online direct with an insurance company, through a broker or from a conventional, walk-in insurance company or insurance brokers office. If one expects or requires 100% replacement value, expect very high premiums but I doubt any insurance company will even bother to offer that. AFAIK, 60% is a normal payout and typically it will reduce annually as the car gets older. The only time I successfully negotiated the same replacement value as the previous year on the same vehicle, my premium went up. The following year, none of the insurance companies that quoted would agree to it.

 

FWIW, roojai which is my current insurer, are not cheap because they have bad service or don't deliver on promises. They save money by brokering 100% online, no offices and office staff and the savings are passed to the customer. I haven't seen any reports of poor service from roojai beyond what you mention when the other vehicle is either uninsured or their insurer drags their feet if it's been voided due to DUI/DWI.

Just to clarify something from the start, never said anything about Roojai.

 

As for my mates policy, he was insured for 600,000 baht, he received 60% of that, go figure, he had no money to go out and buy another car, he waited for months to get reimbursed with the insurer he was with, he took a loss of 40% of the 600,000 baht he was insured for so he could buy another car.

 

I told him to take it to court, which the insurer said it would take years, he opted to take the money on offer to get another car which he needed, I would have taken it to court and also went to the media for what it might be worth.

[Don Mega]

Just now, 4MyEgo said:

Just to clarify something from the start, never said anything about Roojai.

 

As for my mates policy, he was insured for 600,000 baht, he received 60% of that, go figure, he had no money to go out and buy another car, he waited for months to get reimbursed with the insurer he was with, he took a loss of 40% of the 600,000 baht he was insured for so he could buy another car.

 

I told him to take it to court, which the insurer said it would take years, he opted to take the money on offer to get another car which he needed, I would have taken it to court and also went to the media for what it might be worth.

What did the fine print of the policy say ?

[4MyEgo]

6 minutes ago, Don Mega said:

What did the fine print of the policy say ?

As it was in Thai, I couldn't translate it, however when one sees the amount as 600,000 baht as the sum insured, and your mate confirms that is what he is covered for, that should be enough.

 

I think the insurer bent him over so to speak, and he knows it too.

 

I go through a broker and am insured with AXA, haven't had an issue, a small claim here or there with me having to pay the first 5,000 baht of the 20,000 baht claim.

 

The insurance costs me about 15,000 baht a year for a 2016 model Ranger, cheap enough and it's insured for 500,000 baht.

[Greenside]

You should be able to get a no claims discount as well as a discount for having a (working) dash cam fitted.  Pretty standard from all insurers.

[NanLaew]

2 hours ago, Peterculter said:

Obviously in Thailand there is no " No Claim Discount" ...

Yes there is. After about 9 years, my transferable 'no claims bonus' is now a whopping 50%.

[NanLaew]

1 hour ago, 4MyEgo said:

Just to clarify something from the start, never said anything about Roojai.

 

As for my mates policy, he was insured for 600,000 baht, he received 60% of that, go figure, he had no money to go out and buy another car, he waited for months to get reimbursed with the insurer he was with, he took a loss of 40% of the 600,000 baht he was insured for so he could buy another car.

 

I told him to take it to court, which the insurer said it would take years, he opted to take the money on offer to get another car which he needed, I would have taken it to court and also went to the media for what it might be worth.

My 'FWIW' wasn't directed to any comment that you didn't make about roojai. Others have alluded to "cheap being bad" and roojai are arguably the cheapest show in town at the moment. Just trying to dispel a notion and I am sorry if it appeared I was placing words in your mouth or misquoting your opinion.

 

FWIW (and this does relate to one of your comments). I had about 10 years of excellent insurance that was brokered by AA Insurance (using AXA) and recommend them to anyone who's gun shy on internet-based brokers.

 

That was a very poor outcome and instead of going to court which can easily be batted away with the 'takes years' argument, your mate should have taken it up with the Thai Insurance ombudsman. I have heard that they are very good at holding insurance companies feet to the fire and sometimes just their being brought into the discussion has made previously recalcitrant insurers roll over.

 

[NanLaew]

1 hour ago, Greenside said:

You should be able to get a no claims discount as well as a discount for having a (working) dash cam fitted.  Pretty standard from all insurers.

Yes, I was getting a dash cam discount before when with AXA and subsequently (and currently) with roojai. From memory I  think it's ~8% ?

[4MyEgo]

23 minutes ago, NanLaew said:

My 'FWIW' wasn't directed to any comment that you didn't make about roojai. Others have alluded to "cheap being bad" and roojai are arguably the cheapest show in town at the moment. Just trying to dispel a notion and I am sorry if it appeared I was placing words in your mouth or misquoting your opinion.

 

FWIW (and this does relate to one of your comments). I had about 10 years of excellent insurance that was brokered by AA Insurance (using AXA) and recommend them to anyone who's gun shy on internet-based brokers.

 

That was a very poor outcome and instead of going to court which can easily be batted away with the 'takes years' argument, your mate should have taken it up with the Thai Insurance ombudsman. I have heard that they are very good at holding insurance companies feet to the fire and sometimes just their being brought into the discussion has made previously recalcitrant insurers roll over.

 

Not an issue at all, I just wanted to clarify as reading things can sometimes can be taken both ways.

 

You know how it is with friends, you can lead them to water, but can't force them to drink it, strangest thing is, I was told by another friend that he reinsured with the same mob as soon as he purchased the other car, go figure, beyond help !

 

Good to know that they have an Ombudsman though.