Car insurance and sum insured

[ukrules]

I bought a new Toyota Vios last year, all in I paid approximately 610,000 Baht, there's no credit involved and it's registered in my name, not some finance company.

 

The insurance is now expiring, I've received nothing like any kind of renewal letter from the existing insurer which is Aioi. This is the insurance company which Toyota holds a significant shareholding in.

 

My car which has a list price of about 590,000 Baht when new

 

When looking for insurance today I contacted one of the direct insurers and they tell me the 'sum insured' will only be 350,000 which was increased to 396,000 when I pointed out that there's no possible way in the world for me to buy a one year old car the same as mine for 350,000. Apparently they make a 20% deduction for each year which still doesn't explain why the sum insured was reduced by 40%.

 

Does anyone know of an insurance company which will pay out something close to the full current used value of the car in question ? An amount which would allow me to purchase a used car similar to the one I currently have sitting in the driveway.

 

I've only done about 4000 km on the car since I purchased it 12 months ago.

 

I'd like to get the best cover possible with the maximum sum insured possible.

 

The actual policy price isn't that important to me, I'd rather have full coverage and pay more than have some cut down cheaper policy which provides less coverage. Should my car be destroyed I don't want to be paying several hundred thousand Baht if it can be avoided to replace it with something very similar to what I have already.

 

Edited June 26, 2014 by ukrules

[MJCM]

AFAIK the original price to which the car is insured is only 70% of the value.

Maybe a better informed member can comment?


Sent from my iPad so Please excuse any typos

[KittenKong]

The sum insured can vary wildly from one company to another.

When I changed insurer for the second year's cover on my new vehicle the insured value actually increased from the value covered by the original insurer when the vehicle was new. The premium I paid for the second year was less that that wanted by the original insurer to continue the existing cover and I got the full 20% NCD on changing.

 

Caveat emptor.

[ukrules]

The sum insured can vary wildly from one company to another.

When I changed insurer for the second year's cover on my new vehicle the insured value actually increased from the value covered by the original insurer when the vehicle was new. The premium I paid for the second year was less that that wanted by the original insurer to continue the existing cover and I got the full 20% NCD on changing.

 

Caveat emptor.

 

Yes, a 60% sum insured compared to the list price on a 1 year old car appears to be excessively low in my opinion.

 

I asked someone I know who has plenty of Thai friends who drive to find out which companies they use and would recommend in Thailand and they said MSIG Insurance, Falcon Insurance and Bangkok insurance are all good companies.

 

I guess I'll get quotes from them all and compare the coverage / policies before making my decision. Interestingly enough I had never heard of any of the above companies before asking about this.

Edited June 26, 2014 by ukrules

[smileplur]

Interestingly enough, my insurance covers 550,000 on my Honda City (2013).  I paid 599,000 for the car.  This is the second year of first class insurance on the car.  The first year was arranged through the finance company and Honda (Rama IV).  They insured us through Safety Insurance.  I can't recall how much the coverage was for.  This year, the second year, I was left to deal with finding insurance on my own.  Safety Insurance didn't contact me until the last possible minute.  By the time they contacted me, I had already sorted out insurance elsewhere, as I found it pretty unprofessional that they didn't want my business enough to bother contacting me about renewing the policy.

 

After extensive research and shopping around, I found that ... wait for it .... Bangkok AIOI Insurance was the best deal I could find. I paid just under 18,000 THB for the year.  That included the compulsory third party insurance (por ra bor).  As stated, my coverage is for 550,000 THB.  You might want to contact them.  If you haven't had to file a claim (at fault), you should get a no-claims bonus as well.

 

Good luck!

[NanLaew]

The OP can either shop around individually and waste time with companies (like Safety and his current carrier) with poor service or get a quote from the insurance broker that is a sponsor here. I also had no renewal notice from both our cars (different) insurers, so tasked the broker to do the legwork.They gave me 6 choices for each vehicle.

 

The OP is particularly interested in the sum insured and this is easy to compare as it will be in writing in the quotes. If the OP choses to shop online, pay attention to some of these really low, first-class online quotes as they tend to hide the insured value in their sales pitch and they could be going as low as 50% on the sum insured.

 

Good luck!

[tomwct]

The problem is the Glut of repossessed cars and trucks. Normally, the Thai Car market is constant,
but due to the Vote buying Scheme to give new car and truck owners a 100,000 THB rebate, people
thought they could buy a car or truck, get the rebate and then sell the vehicle. They found out they
could not, so many of thoses cars and trucks are now repossessed and being sold at auction, at very low prices. A friend of mine wants to trade in his truck on a new one and the dealer advised him to wait 3
more years for the market to recover from Car Rebate Scheme!

[firefox999uk]

About 3 years ago I bought for cash a new Honda City.

 

After 1 month we had a serious accident and the car was written off.

 

We only received back from insurance (1^st Class) 70% of the new car price

 

An expensive lesson learned…lost over 200,000 baht in 1 month

 

 

Have a Nice Day.

[ukrules]

About 3 years ago I bought for cash a new Honda City.

 

After 1 month we had a serious accident and the car was written off.

 

We only received back from insurance (1^st Class) 70% of the new car price

 

An expensive lesson learned…lost over 200,000 baht in 1 month

 

 

Have a Nice Day.

 

Indeed, I immdiately noticed this discrepancy with my recent quote. They gave me a sum insured of around 60% of the cars value.

 

I then proceeded to explain to the sales agent this was completely unacceptable to me, they she raised the sum insured by another 46,000 Baht which was still way under the sum insured I'm looking for.

 

So I will go elsewhere.

 

I want a higer level of insurance and am willing to pay a higher rate for my policy to get this. I don't need to reduce the policy fee to some negligible amount but I demand full cover and will settle for nothing less than the best possible deal even if it means I pay a premium for the policy.

 

Of course having the foresight to notice a rip off when I see it is helping me in this situation.

Edited June 27, 2014 by ukrules

[MYKTHEMIN]

Tesco Lotus have a good range of insurances for cars and pickups, talk to them and tell them how much you want to insure you vehicle for and pay accordingly, I did this on my last renewal for my Pajero they initially quoted 14000 for cover at only 650000 but it would me 900000 to replace with same so upped value to 900000 and paid 17000 so for the extra 250000 I wanted cost only 3000, well worth it in my opinion.

[KittenKong]

This year, the second year, I was left to deal with finding insurance on my own.  Safety Insurance didn't contact me until the last possible minute.  By the time they contacted me, I had already sorted out insurance elsewhere, as I found it pretty unprofessional that they didn't want my business enough to bother contacting me about renewing the policy.

Different company but similar experience. I was amazed that my original insurer (paid by the dealer) didn't contact me at all about renewal at the end of the first year's cover. It makes me wonder how competent they can be at handling claims etc.

[ukrules]

I now have several quotes of varying prices and sums insured.

 

I'll speak to Tesco and see what they say before making my decision.

 

A little note for any insurance underwriters reading this : The sum insured is what's going to swing it with me. If that's low then you can forget it. It's a buyers market.

Edited June 27, 2014 by ukrules

[NanLaew]

This year, the second year, I was left to deal with finding insurance on my own.  Safety Insurance didn't contact me until the last possible minute.  By the time they contacted me, I had already sorted out insurance elsewhere, as I found it pretty unprofessional that they didn't want my business enough to bother contacting me about renewing the policy.

Different company but similar experience. I was amazed that my original insurer (paid by the dealer) didn't contact me at all about renewal at the end of the first year's cover. It makes me wonder how competent they can be at handling claims etc.

Maybe it's something in the way that the 'free' (dealer provided) insurance is handled by the carrier and somehow the owner doesn't get placed on the renewal notification list?

In hindsight, AIG (free from Ford) did contact me for renewal but I never got the letter in time as someone stuck it in a drawer! But Ford did send a reminder (and still do) with insurance quotes through their in-house insurer. If I recall, they quoted 3 or 4 options and they were comparable to what I could find when shopping around but the options that the broker found were about 5% to 8% lower. The clincher on that was 1) the brokers recommendation for best service when you actually have a prang, fast response, agent on site, etc., and 2) their speed on handling any claims.

[BEVUP]

Well to my knowledge they all say 80 perc of value

 

Will also be looking for new inurer as you must be very wary of lack of repairs as i just found out

 

Company gave work shop but they only renewed the clip on parts of a slight front colission eg headlight, apron & bull bar

 

Can see panels moved due to gaps & dint in bonnet Work shop says no have machines to fix take Toyota - not says who pays

 

 

 

 

 

 

[JournalistsAreLiars]

Any update about this ? Thanks.

[richy2201]

To reiterate what some have said, go through a brokers.  I just purchased insurance for my pickup after my first year "free" expired.  My current insurance company that had been chosen for me when I bought the pickup quoted me 670,000 (I bought the pickup for over 900,000 a year ago and was only given 740,000 insured for the 1st year).  After getting numerous quotes from various individual companies and also brokers I 'tailored' my quote to include added extras (modified alloys/tyres and sports lid AND also specified that I can chose which (dealer) garage to go to in event of accident AND also raised the 3rd party sum insured).  Average quote price of this years insurance from other companies was around 16-18k noting that the coverage wasn't near what I what I am insured for with my new provider -  (AXA) at 20k - 830,000 insured with higher 3rd party coverage.  I should add that this was done through the sponsors here (AA insurance) and have been very helpful with sorting this out.

[thairastawoman]

Incredible that nobody knows that 100% coverage insruance exist in Thailand.

 

 

[stevenl]

Incredible that nobody knows that 100% coverage insruance exist in Thailand.

 

 

Yes, it does exist, a search here on the forum will give you more info. But you'll have to pay for it, and not all companies will offer this.

 

Also take into account that 100% now will be 100+% by the end of the insurance year, so companies are not fund of this.

[richy2201]

 

Incredible that nobody knows that 100% coverage insruance exist in Thailand.

 

 

Yes, it does exist, a search here on the forum will give you more info. But you'll have to pay for it, and not all companies will offer this.

 

Also take into account that 100% now will be 100+% by the end of the insurance year, so companies are not fund of this.

 

 

Agreed on both posts.  As mentioned, when I bought the car the insurance came with it and in hindsight I should have asked about this before handing over any money and would advise anybody buying new to negotiate a better insurance deal (as mentioned 100% is possible but it will cost extra).  Around 80% coverage seems to be the given for new vehicle.  To give an example, for the new insurance I got, it cost less than 1000baht to up the value approx 60,000 baht more than the original quote.  There is quite a difference in price though if you stipulate you want the dealer's garage. 

[Tywais]

 

Incredible that nobody knows that 100% coverage insruance exist in Thailand.

 

 

Yes, it does exist, a search here on the forum will give you more info. But you'll have to pay for it, and not all companies will offer this.

 

Also take into account that 100% now will be 100+% by the end of the insurance year, so companies are not fund of this.

 

 

The normal is usually 80% coverage but option to increase it for an additional premium.  In my case, I opted for 90% which gave me 100,000 Baht additional coverage for about an extra 2000 Baht on my premium.  Didn't ask the cost for 100% though but it was available.

[ukrules]

It's good news that 100% or thereabouts coverage is available unfortunately nobody names the companies apart from AXA who offer this.

 

Please make some recommendations, this would be very helpful.

[stevenl]

It's good news that 100% or thereabouts coverage is available unfortunately nobody names the companies apart from AXA who offer this.

 

Please make some recommendations, this would be very helpful.

I insure via a broker, AA Insurance, contact them and let them sort it out.

 

That would be my name :)

[piston broke]

as the vehicle gets older the sum insured is reduced by 20% pa (starting off at 80% of the new value when you first insurer it)..

 

After a few years, imho 1st class insurance doesn't seem to make sense.

[thairastawoman]

as the vehicle gets older the sum insured is reduced by 20% pa (starting off at 80% of the new value when you first insurer it)..

 

After a few years, imho 1st class insurance doesn't seem to make sense.

 

 

How much costs a 5 millions baht car after few years ?

[Tywais]

as the vehicle gets older the sum insured is reduced by 20% pa (starting off at 80% of the new value when you first insurer it)..

 

After a few years, imho 1st class insurance doesn't seem to make sense.

 

Not sure where you are getting your numbers but that would mean my nearly 5 year old car would be worth 0 in insurance coverage where in fact, based on my just received insurance renewal it is being covered for 60%.

[KittenKong]

Not sure where you are getting your numbers but that would mean my nearly 5 year old car would be worth 0 in insurance coverage where in fact, based on my just received insurance renewal it is being covered for 60%.

 
Seems quite high for an old(er) vehicle. Mine is just over 2 years old but my cover is not much higher than the percentage you mention.