Motor Vehicle No Claim Bonus,,,

[Thai Chi]

Can someone please explain how the No Claim Bonus (NCB) works here?

I have read on one insurance website that it is 10% after the first year ...20% the second year ...30% etc etc up to 5 years.

I believe some companies will accept your NCB from a previous insurer if you are changing companies (?)

The reason I am asking is that I have just received my 1st Class insurance renewal.

Last year I paid 18900 Baht.

NO claims.

This year I have been quoted 18650 Baht with the same company.

Assuming a minimum of a 10% NCB (the vehicle was insured prior to the current policy with another provider) I was hoping for a discount slightly more than 250 Baht.

What gives ?????

[Crossy]

Do you know the non-discount rate for your policy?

The 10% is 10% off the current price (never goes down of course).

[Thai Chi]

Do you know the non-discount rate for your policy?

The 10% is 10% off the current price (never goes down of course).

Crossy, I have NO idea what the non-discount rate even means, let alone how much it is?

Just went through the policy with the better half and neither of us could find it.

[Crossy]

Somewhere in the renewal documentation should be (ok might be, ours was on the renewal letter itself) the full price of the policy (before the NCD is applied), the rate of NCD and the discounted price that you pay.

[Ace of Pop]

The Thais i know don't bother about it, they say its to small , so they just have all the Bodywork and Widow Chips done yearly.

[KittenKong]

Somewhere in the renewal documentation should be (ok might be, ours was on the renewal letter itself) the full price of the policy (before the NCD is applied), the rate of NCD and the discounted price that you pay.

Not all renewal notices show this. Mine didnt. All it showed was the premium due. In order to switch to another insurer my broker had to actually call the previous insurer to get confirmation that I did qualify for my NCD.

[KittenKong]

The Thais i know don't bother about it, they say its to small , so they just have all the Bodywork and Widow Chips done yearly.

Which is why I got such a big discount on my premium for taking a voluntary 5000B excess.

My thanks to all those silly people.

[JesseFrank]

The Thais i know don't bother about it, they say its to small , so they just have all the Bodywork and Widow Chips done yearly.

Which is why I got such a big discount on my premium for taking a voluntary 5000B excess.

My thanks to all those silly people.

You could also have taken full excess, would have saved you the whole premium.

[Thai Chi]

The Thais i know don't bother about it, they say its to small , so they just have all the Bodywork and Widow Chips done yearly.

Got a mate who has gone this way,

Speaking to him yesterday and he said he is paying 15K Baht each year.

That price is acceptable but ......... its a 9 year old Chevrolet pickup.

I thought 1st class insurance was not available after 5 or 7 years (??????????)

[Thai Chi]

Somewhere in the renewal documentation should be (ok might be, ours was on the renewal letter itself) the full price of the policy (before the NCD is applied), the rate of NCD and the discounted price that you pay.

Not all renewal notices show this. Mine didnt. All it showed was the premium due. In order to switch to another insurer my broker had to actually call the previous insurer to get confirmation that I did qualify for my NCD.

We still cant find the NCB / NCD on our paperwork, so will be going to the office on Monday.

Big chance we may visit some other providers as well.

Thanks.

[Spoonman]

The Thais i know don't bother about it, they say its to small , so they just have all the Bodywork and Widow Chips done yearly.

Got a mate who has gone this way,

Speaking to him yesterday and he said he is paying 15K Baht each year.

That price is acceptable but ......... its a 9 year old Chevrolet pickup.

I thought 1st class insurance was not available after 5 or 7 years (??????????)

Ask you mate if he finds it acceptable after he damages someone elses property and they came after him with baseball bats to extract the money from him.

[Langsuan Man]

The no claim bonus is a scam, IMHO, they reduce the cost by the percentages cited but it has nothing to do with the no claims. It has to do with the decreased value of the car

[Thai Chi]

The Thais i know don't bother about it, they say its to small , so they just have all the Bodywork and Widow Chips done yearly.

Got a mate who has gone this way,

Speaking to him yesterday and he said he is paying 15K Baht each year.

That price is acceptable but ......... its a 9 year old Chevrolet pickup.

I thought 1st class insurance was not available after 5 or 7 years (??????????)

Ask you mate if he finds it acceptable after he damages someone elses property and they came after him with baseball bats to extract the money from him.

I am the first to admit that I am an insurance novice here.

I normally leave all of that kind of thing to the wife, but am now taking more of an interest.

I am having trouble correlating your answer to my above post.

Old mate pays 15K Baht per year for vehicle insurance, he has decided on no deductible, and gets the vehicle "cleaned up" each year.

If he damages someones property I believe he would be covered under the Liability for Property Damage clause of the policy.

What am I missing ???????

[Thai Chi]

The no claim bonus is a scam, IMHO, they reduce the cost by the percentages cited but it has nothing to do with the no claims. It has to do with the decreased value of the car

...... speaking of that, 1st year our vehicle was valued at 670,000 Baht

2nd year (current) 600,000 Baht. Renewal has it down to 560,000 Baht.

Getting some online quotes yesterday I noticed the companies that had what looked like good price (cheaper than others) quotes were only valuing the vehicle at 400,000 - 450,000 Baht !!!!!!!!!!

[Spoonman]

The Thais i know don't bother about it, they say its to small , so they just have all the Bodywork and Widow Chips done yearly.

Got a mate who has gone this way,

Speaking to him yesterday and he said he is paying 15K Baht each year.

That price is acceptable but ......... its a 9 year old Chevrolet pickup.

I thought 1st class insurance was not available after 5 or 7 years (??????????)

Ask you mate if he finds it acceptable after he damages someone elses property and they came after him with baseball bats to extract the money from him.

I am the first to admit that I am an insurance novice here.

I normally leave all of that kind of thing to the wife, but am now taking more of an interest.

I am having trouble correlating your answer to my above post.

Old mate pays 15K Baht per year for vehicle insurance, he has decided on no deductible, and gets the vehicle "cleaned up" each year.

If he damages someones property I believe he would be covered under the Liability for Property Damage clause of the policy.

What am I missing ???????

I read you post as saying he has chosen to have no insurance at all, hence my reply.

[KittenKong]

The Thais i know don't bother about it, they say its to small , so they just have all the Bodywork and Widow Chips done yearly.

Which is why I got such a big discount on my premium for taking a voluntary 5000B excess.

My thanks to all those silly people.

You could also have taken full excess, would have saved you the whole premium.

That would be equally silly, but of course plenty of drivers around the world do this too.

By taking 5000B voluntary excess I saved nearly 5000B on my premium, but I still have cover up to several million Baht for major risks which is exactly what I want from my insurance: to cover any large liabilities that might arise but not to cover minor ones. The same applies to health and buildings/contents insurance.

[KittenKong]

We still cant find the NCB / NCD on our paperwork, so will be going to the office on Monday.

Big chance we may visit some other providers as well.

You should always get other quotes at renewal time. It is common practice throughout the world for insurance companies to offer better rates to new customers than to existing ones.

[KittenKong]

...... speaking of that, 1st year our vehicle was valued at 670,000 Baht

2nd year (current) 600,000 Baht. Renewal has it down to 560,000 Baht.

Getting some online quotes yesterday I noticed the companies that had what looked like good price (cheaper than others) quotes were only valuing the vehicle at 400,000 - 450,000 Baht !!!!!!!!!!

Yes, you need to watch out for that scam also. By changing companies after my first (free) year of premium insurance given by the dealer I actually managed to increase the insured value of the vehicle for the second year to a figure that was somewhat higher than the one used by the original insurer for the vehicle when it was brand new. Go figure.

[stevenl]

The Thais i know don't bother about it, they say its to small , so they just have all the Bodywork and Widow Chips done yearly.

Which is why I got such a big discount on my premium for taking a voluntary 5000B excess.

My thanks to all those silly people.

You could also have taken full excess, would have saved you the whole premium.

That would be equally silly, but of course plenty of drivers around the world do this too.

By taking 5000B voluntary excess I saved nearly 5000B on my premium, but I still have cover up to several million Baht for major risks which is exactly what I want from my insurance: to cover any large liabilities that might arise but not to cover minor ones. The same applies to health and buildings/contents insurance.

Which is exactly how insurance is meant to be.

[AhFarangJa]

If you think you are being ripped off by insurance companies how about this....my insurance goes up by 10% per year ( with no claims at all), whilst the value of the vehicle drops by 10% per year....and there is not even a mention of getting NCB. Go figure that rip off!!

[Thai Chi]

I am still no wiser as to how the NCB works here as opposed to other countries.

However, I am about to re-insure the vehicle with the current insurance company.

Very long story short .......

I did a bit of shopping around and was getting some ridiculously HIGH quotes along with some ridiculously LOW quotes.

Went back to the current insurer and asked for another quote that included the NCB.

I am not sure how they calculated the NCB but it ended up being 35% ........ (or 7,463Baht. this figure was written on the quote)

The NCB did NOT make any great difference to the premium price.

I then asked about a 5000 Baht excess to be added. They (unlike some other insures I had seen) were quite happy to apply that.

The excess saved (?) me 4450 Baht on the premium.

So all sorted for another year.

Thanks for all the input

[hellstens]

Well we are tree in my family use the car, and I have first class insurance,

so I think I never ever gone have any NCB

Better to fix the car every year to look like new, much shaper for me ;-)

[NanLaew]

As mentioned, the Thai attitude is to use the insurance for annual ding removal and clean up and bugger any NCB. This concept differs wildly from the NCB concept in countries where fender-benders are less common and one would rather fork out for any minor repairs and preserve the insurance (and NCB) for serious prangs.

But it is still much better than 30-odd years ago when car insurance here was seen as 'paying for something that may never happen' and just wasn't done. Rather take the new car to the temple and get it blessed by monks and sprinkled with holy water. If there was a fender-bender after that, try and get the other driver to pay (or get the cops to get the other driver to pay).... then take it to a different temple for blessing as obviously that first monk wasn't very good.

Mandatory car insurance (CTPL) has made for a lighter work load (and lower revenue streams) for the cops.

[DGS1244]

Having worked in insurance in Thailand for many years, forget the no claims bonus, it is so small not worth having. If you make a number of claims then the cost of insurance will go up at discretion of the company and the value of the car for total loss goes down, really helpful. Thai companies have little in reserve for claims, it is best to stick to the Thai/internationals if you can, price wise not much different but a lot better personal cover in the event of injuries. Consider the government sets the rate not the companies, they also take a percentage of the premium, around 7%.

[JoePai]

Well we are tree in my family use the car, and I have first class insurance,

so I think I never ever gone have any NCB

Better to fix the car every year to look like new, much shaper for me ;-)

Good for you but it increases everyone else premiums

[Jonmarleesco]

I should have expected the renewal document to have quoted the gross premium, then the discount rate, then the net premium. Presumably, it doesn't?

[thailand49]

As far as I'm concern from my experience it is like a " bait and switch " get supposed to get a 10% if no claims but the next year your policy goes up anyways.your 10% is applied not much off in the end. I was accident free the first two years 3rd year some idiots followed too closed a small accident close to my insurance company was 16,000 baht.. the guy that hit me had no insurance so my policy covered the cost The next year rock hit windshield my wife handle the claim for whatever reason they would not cover it so next year I dropped the policy.

I see this type of sell on their medical insurance too!

[peterb17]

Must admit I too am totally mystified- the premium on my Mazda 2 never goes down - the price insured decreases- 600 000 to 500 000 this year- no claims % increases. Have never claimed a penny. Must toughen up a bit.

I think the problem is me! I need to shop around, and no longer just accept the premium offered by a certain foreign run alphabetic insurance broker.

[PETERTHEEATER]

My wife has an imported Suzi SX4 and the first year premium was around 26k but was free with the car as part of a promotion. Second year it was slightly reduced even though the insured value had gone down. Third year, I queried the premium which was still over 23k with the brokers and they pointed out it covered any driver. By putting my wife and self as the only drivers the premium dropped to just over 15k. Of course they require the named drivers to have current Thai Drivers License.

I have an 8 year old ( from new) Fortuner the premium of which has always been less than 18k so I asked

what discount I would get for named drivers and nearly fell over when I was told it had been two named drivers from new!

Both policies 1st Class.

[rotary]

The Thais i know don't bother about it, they say its to small , so they just have all the Bodywork and Widow Chips done yearly.

Got a mate who has gone this way,

Speaking to him yesterday and he said he is paying 15K Baht each year.

That price is acceptable but ......... its a 9 year old Chevrolet pickup.

I thought 1st class insurance was not available after 5 or 7 years (??????????)

I have a 11 year old pick and last several years paying B7500 for 1st class insurance but they only insure my pick up for about 1/2 the real value.