Car Insurance: All Or Named Drivers

[kimamey]

I'm buying a new Honda Jazz and I'm looking at alternatives to the insurance provided by the dealer which as far as I can tell is done through Safety Insuranceand costs 25000 baht. I've looked at their website as several have suggested they are good but their site definitely isn't. They have an English language option which changes only the menu and nothing much else.

Thanachart is another which has been suggested but is only in Thai so it means getting insurance based on a translation from my gf who admits she doesn't know much about car insurance and my experience is with the UK. The best option at the moment seems to be Axa or AA brokers.

I need insurance to cover myself and gf plus her sister and husband as they've been letting us use their car so I thought it's only fair if they need ours. I understand Thai insurance normally covers the car and anyone who drives it but I don't intend that everyone in Thailand will be driving so named drivers might seem the way to go. My gf seems to think that the first year with a new car has to be any driver or at least that's what I think she means but does anyone out there know more about this.

Edited June 14, 2012 by kimamey

[Tywais]

My gf seems to think that the first year with a new car has to be any driver or at least that's what I think she means but does anyone out there know more about this.

I bought a new car recently and decided to go for named only, in this case only myself as my wife has her own car and wanted to keep the cost down. May depend on the insurance company, but in my case named only wasn't an issue. BTW, I have Viriyah Insurance and they have an English language site.

[transam]

Yep, any driver if free insurance with your purchase, but after that when you renew you can insure yourself and one named driver at a good reduction in premium, but it seems your extended crew will be racing it..

AA is a good insurance source.

[JohnC]

I use Thaisri and found them to be reasonable, http://www.thaisri.com/product_detail.php?content=MTYy. I go through my broker in P attaya, if you want details pm me .

[kimamey]

Thanks for the input guys. I'll probably try AA first and go from there.

[Kered]

I use Viriyah and receive a 15 % discount for two named drivers before the no claim discount is calculated. If it is a new vehicle you can normally negotiate a discount instead of free insurance and then you are free to arrange your own as you wish.

[Theboy]

Yep always a discounts for named drivers but I think only up to a max of 2 drivers - seconded use AA brokers in Pattaya

[kimamey]

Well I've tried Thanachart and AA brokers who have both given lower quotes. AA said they could lower this premium for guaranteed contract repair. I've no idea what that is. Maybe someone out there does for future reference.

My gf suggested Tesco Lotus which I hadn't considered although I know Tesco does it in the UK. They came up with 5 from 4 companies. Sin Mun Kong had 2 one of which didn't really have enough cover although they would all allow repair at the dealers. The others were similar in most ways although one had 300,000 bail bond instead of 200,000. One had 200,000 for medical rather than 100,000 and that one also had 5 million for 3rd party property instead of 2.5 million.

The prices seem a bit cheap though although my gf says they are well know companies in fact Sin Mun Kong has a desk at the Honda dealers where I'm getting the car and so deals with them a lot. Obviously a check on the internet gives the usual results from awful to unbeatable. One said Bangkok Insurance is very good but expensive. I'll put the prices below so you can judge.

I'm assuming all these are plus the compulsory insurance.

Sin Mun Kong 8,853

LMG 15,255

Bangkok Ins 14,342

Akane 11,602

The name Akane is a bit of a guess as it's my gf's phonetic translation.

All these are good but 8,853 does seem very cheap although the cover is slightly better in most cases.

Has anyone had any experience of these companies?

The Tesco site is a bit of a pain as it's badly done. One thing that did confuse me is the choice of model. Ours will be the SV of which the site had 3 including this one that I chose as closest HONDA JAZZ 4dr SV i-VTEC (AT) 5sp FWD 1.5i

I'm guessing that 5sp means 5speed transmission which it is. One had 7sp. Do they do a 7 speed auto? Never heard of one. One had (AS) at the end. Can't work out what that means. I think it's cheaper because when I tried it it wouldn't accept the 715,000 price. said it was too high. Just out of interest does anyone know what it means.

[FRM-BKK]

Hi All,

I have experience with Bangkok Insurance for my Honda Jazz. I bought the car new in 2007 and have been with Bangkok insurance ever since.

In 2010 a Thai lady drove into the back of me... oh dear.... I was not happy. Anyway, the insurance boy came out on his motorbike, everything sorted within 10 minutes.

Two days later I received a letter from Bangkok Insurance authorizing me to take the car to any Honda approved bodywork-shop. I just took it to Honda Rama 4, where I had bought the car and had it serviced on a regular basis.

The repairs were done in 3 days; good job, signed the papers, never had to pay out any money.

In my last renewal, I too was given the choice of named drivers or any driver. The difference in price was only 1000 Baht more for any driver, which is what I opted for.

I also have experience with Safety Insurance Public Company Limited (Formerly NZI), although this experience is with their Home/Personal Property Insurance and not car insurance.

In January of this year I had my bag stolen in Swensen in CP Tower in Silom Road. I was out with two of my relatives, who came to Bangkok for a holiday.

Because of that, I also had in my bag my Nikon D80. Anyway, the bag, containing the camera was stolen in an unguarded moment.

As soon as I had the police report, I contacted Safety Insurance Public Company. The first thing they asked me for was whether I had a receipt for the camera?

Totally surprised I said that all that had been done already as and when I had it added to the policy several years ago. They said that they would e-mail to me once they had received my police report. They wanted me to scan and transmit it via e-mail. Which is what I did.

From there on, they were totally useless, totally passive and never communicated with me. I had to chase everything, all the way. I was being my own broker.

Finally they came up with an offer for the camera, which was insured on the New for Old policy for 49,500 Baht, with an excess of 7,000 Baht. They offered me 30,500 Baht. I refused to accept, but they said that that was the value at which you could get that particular camera. I asked where? and I will get it !! Of course they couldn't !! I also asked them why they were charging me premium for an insured value of 49,500 and yet when it comes to a claim, the value is reduced to 38,000 Baht. I added that in my opinion the replacement Nikon would have to be the D7000, available at 44,900 Baht.

They relented and paid out 37,900 Baht.

Throughout the 8 weeks this took to sort out, they were totally useless and again passive; no help whatsoever, despite their empty promises in the policy.

When they were NZI they were far more friendly and efficient. Although I never made a claim when they were in charge. Since they have merged, NZI has taken the commercial side of the business and SIPCL has taken over the domestic side; what a disaster !!! never again !

My apologies for going off topic a bit, but I thought members would like to hear about experience in actual claims.

I am now looking for an alternative company to cover my condo, the contents and some individual items. Any suggestions would be welcome.

Frm-Bkk.

[kimamey]

I don't suppose anyone is still reading this but I was without internet for a bit and then just forgot.

The reason for the low prices in my earlier post is because the site hadn't been updated and was for 1 year old cars. At least I think that's it. My gf phoned and that's what iI think she meant.

I got insurance from Syn Mun Kong for just under 18,000 baht for any driver. One wanted to charge more for 2 named drivers than any driver which seems just wierd.

I may wll look at Bangkok Insuance next time as they seem to have good feedback.

Anyway if any of you who posted answers are looking thanks again.