Sign up with GoogleA few tips for those considering changing insurers, based on personal experience:
1) One particular insurer who also offers medical aid, investments and banking products usually wants you to install some kind of tracking device for you to reap the full "benefits" of their products; the better you supposedly drive, the more you're rewarded. This insurer says that if the vehicle is a sports car of some kind, the "limits" regarding "harsh" acceleration, braking and cornering are adjusted to suit the vehicle. Why would you want to have any kind of limits placed on your fun with your new sports car, just for the sake of a few points and "rewards"? Remember that you're paying for the rewards and not fully enjoying your car as a result.
2) This same insurer vehemently denies in its brochure that it will ever use the data it obtains regarding your driving (which is essentially location-tracking data) to reject your insurance claim. What this insurer does not say, however, is that it won't use that driving data to increase your premiums, claim-free or not...
3) Installing a hard-wired tracking device in a vehicle has the potential to void your vehicle's warranty. The internet is littered with examples, particularly South African-based ones, of how carmakers blame the tracking device installer and vice versa when the device messes with a vehicle's electronic/electric systems, with the owner left out in the cold with an enormous repair bill at the end of the day. I took delivery of my previous (new) car with a tracking device already having been installed by the dealer even though I never asked for it. I recorded that fact in writing and the dealer acknowledged it. Had the tracker ever caused havoc with my car, that email would've been my fallback position.
4) Linked to point 3 above, rather ask your insurer if they offer a tracker waiver. My previous car's tracking device cost me around R220 a month. My new car, which is more expensive than the previous one, does not have a tracking device and I pay R130 a month for the tracker waiver.
5) If you're a professional (an attorney, accountant, auditor, etc - as long as you have a four-year degree to your name), use a professionals-only insurer. The premiums will be unbeatably lower than any other run-of-the-mill insurer, including the insurer mentioned in points 1 and 2 above, brokered or not. In fact, my current policy with a professionals-only insurer specifies a general excess of nil...
I hope this is helpful.
1) One particular insurer who also offers medical aid, investments and banking products usually wants you to install some kind of tracking device for you to reap the full "benefits" of their products; the better you supposedly drive, the more you're rewarded. This insurer says that if the vehicle is a sports car of some kind, the "limits" regarding "harsh" acceleration, braking and cornering are adjusted to suit the vehicle. Why would you want to have any kind of limits placed on your fun with your new sports car, just for the sake of a few points and "rewards"? Remember that you're paying for the rewards and not fully enjoying your car as a result.
2) This same insurer vehemently denies in its brochure that it will ever use the data it obtains regarding your driving (which is essentially location-tracking data) to reject your insurance claim. What this insurer does not say, however, is that it won't use that driving data to increase your premiums, claim-free or not...
3) Installing a hard-wired tracking device in a vehicle has the potential to void your vehicle's warranty. The internet is littered with examples, particularly South African-based ones, of how carmakers blame the tracking device installer and vice versa when the device messes with a vehicle's electronic/electric systems, with the owner left out in the cold with an enormous repair bill at the end of the day. I took delivery of my previous (new) car with a tracking device already having been installed by the dealer even though I never asked for it. I recorded that fact in writing and the dealer acknowledged it. Had the tracker ever caused havoc with my car, that email would've been my fallback position.
4) Linked to point 3 above, rather ask your insurer if they offer a tracker waiver. My previous car's tracking device cost me around R220 a month. My new car, which is more expensive than the previous one, does not have a tracking device and I pay R130 a month for the tracker waiver.
5) If you're a professional (an attorney, accountant, auditor, etc - as long as you have a four-year degree to your name), use a professionals-only insurer. The premiums will be unbeatably lower than any other run-of-the-mill insurer, including the insurer mentioned in points 1 and 2 above, brokered or not. In fact, my current policy with a professionals-only insurer specifies a general excess of nil...
I hope this is helpful.
