First Class Car Insurance - Conditions

[moogradod]

We are buying a new car and would like that a First Class Insurance comes with it since we pay the full amount at delivery. But examples of conditions I have seen seem to be very questionable. Main driver will be my wife, Thai Passport, 39 years old, driving license less than 1 year, no claims to date. Coverage must be for any driver older than 30 years. What is your experience what may be regarded as decent. All must be paid regardless of who is at fault.

 

1. Collision and collision with another vehical: Full amount of the cars value incl. accessories (in our case about 2 MTHB, but another car involved may be more expensive)

2. FIre/Theft/Natural desaster incl. flood: same as above

3. Third party Liability for Property: 5 or 10 or 100 MTHB ?

4. Medical costs for all seated in the car or third party: Up to 1 or 5 MTHB (one quote spoke of 100'000, which is for sure not enough.

5. Bail bond: No idea, one quotation said 300'000, seems to be quite low

6. Compulsory insurance: included, covering

• Medical treatment max coverage THB 80'000 (by far too low I feel) How does this relate to point 4 above
• Compensation for dismemberment max coverage THB 300'000 (depends on Thai law, might be enough)
• Death or permanent disability max coverage THB 300'000 (seems very low to me)
• Daily allowance for hospital stay: 200 THB was proposed () Bangkok Hospital is in the range of 30 KTHB per day

7. Roadside Assistance: Full cover in case of emergency car towing, faulty battery or charge lost, replacement of car in case of accident, lost key etc.

8. Cost for lawyers / Court: This was not even listed. Do you need another insurance for that (like in Switzerland)

9. Repair must be possible at any garage

10. No excess or only reasonable excess in case that this will keep the premiums down

 

Only a decent insurance will make sense to me - especially if the car is brand new or the main driver has not had too much driving experience (as is both the case for us). I have more than 40 years driving experience without any accident, but the car is for my wife - everything should be in her name to avoid lenghty discussions if a claim should ever be made - which we do not hope.

 

[kannot]

2 minutes ago, moogradod said:

Repair must be possible at any garage

id  stick  to  main dealers of  your  choice

[The Fat Controller]

Is the insurance for the first year included in the price you are paying ?

 

If so, find the company and have a look at their website.

 

We were looking around and found ROOJAI, their website has a good description of what you get on each type of policy, worth a look.

[moogradod]

1 hour ago, The Fat Controller said:

Is the insurance for the first year included in the price you are paying ?

I will know tomorrow. But what good does it do if it is included but worthless ? I would then rather have a discount and look for a decent insurance myself. I made a calculation myself using Roojai - and yes they show quite transparently what they would offer, but this seems not to be enough I was thinking. But I may be wrong. This may be a pecularity of Thailand. I am used to insurance from Switzerland. My liabilty insurance for example pays up to 100 Million THB, and that is standard with low premiums. What can I do with 200 THB per day in hospital ?

[Sophon]

No need to waste time looking at the conditions for compulsory insurance. The compulsory insurance is a standard insurance with standard price and standard conditions. No matter which insurance company you choose, the compulsory insurance will be the same. As it's compulsory you will have to have it, but as you have found out the coverage is completely inadequate.

 

Find an insurance company offering first class insurance that meets your needs, and then buy the compulsory insurance from the same company.

 

Sophon

[wgdanson]

2 hours ago, The Fat Controller said:

Is the insurance for the first year included in the price you are paying ?

 

If so, find the company and have a look at their website.

 

We were looking around and found ROOJAI, their website has a good description of what you get on each type of policy, worth a look.

You get what you pay for, or don't pay for. ROOJAI or AXA? for example.

[stevenl]

Op, you clearly have no idea about Thai insurance.

 

Ask a broker.

[moogradod]

2 hours ago, stevenl said:

Op, you clearly have no idea about Thai insurance.

 

Ask a broker.

Agreed. I do not have a clue, thats why I have to ask. However I feel I am equipped with a bit of common sense. And Thailand or not: An insurance should make sense. This means it should pay for costs that occur for insured events in the country where it is concluded, so if a hospital stay is 100'000.-- , then it does not make sense to have a compensation of 10'000.--.

 

This is irrespective of the country. Furthermore it should be based on a validly signed insurance policy which lists all of the conditions. Not on an email, not on a "quotation" and not on verbal statements. I think this all is reasonable - even in Thailand.

 

In my case now the issue has dissolved itself, for the first class car insurance will be included in the purchasing price for the first year. After that or even during this period I might conclude another insurance if I want to and if something reaonable is available.

[moogradod]

Oh, and I forgot to add: I DID ask a broker. He came up with a quotation with premiums about 50% above of the insurance that I have now included and did even provide less coverage for that. So there is really a lot to learn - like: always compare.

[KittenKong]

22 hours ago, moogradod said:

And Thailand or not: An insurance should make sense. This means it should pay for costs that occur for insured events in the country where it is concluded, so if a hospital stay is 100'000.-- , then it does not make sense to have a compensation of 10'000.--.

Insurance cover in Thailand is generally much lower than anything you would expect in the west. In many serious cases it could be very inadequate. But of course you also have to compare the cost of the premiums: my car here costs me under 10,000B to insure, but in the west that could easily be double or more.

 

All companies I have looked at offer more or less the same level of cover for their "first class" packages, with mostly only quite small variations in the details. In fact one of the largest variations I came across was with the insured value of the vehicle itself. Some insurers considered my vehicle to be worth up to 15% more than others.

 

I would say that the most important question with any insurance in Thailand is: do they pay up if you have to claim?

[moogradod]

Thanks KittenKong. I am getting a picture of insurance in Thailand which I was really not aware of.

 

Seems to be resonable if not cheap but might be inadequate or even without much sense at all while it might be questionable if they would pay for a claim at all. Does not sound like much of an "insurance" in the sense of the word.

 

So you either have to get something "international" - if there is an insurance available or live with the very probable possibility that the insurance is wasted. Any mandatory insurance is more than questionable then.

 

And it amounts to (more than in any other country): Do not get involved in an accident, do not get sick, do not get burglared etc. It goes without saying that everybody tries to avoid this all anyway as much as possible but the financial consequences might be more severe here than somewhere else.

 

I hope at least the legal framework for the bit you get will work. I did apply for a household insurance once. But they did not want to issue a proper and valid insurance policy. Instead they asked me to pay based on a preliminary quotation by email. So my money went into security measures instead of an insurance.

 

On the other side, our rental of the condo is correct with all papers necessary, which was checked by one of my lawyers. So there is knowledge in Thailand what a valid contract is and I hope this does as well extend to the insurance industry here.

 

I am curious how this will develop with the "included" first class insurance of the car and if we receive a paper listing the conditions and if this paper is validly signed or accompanied by a legally valid something.

 

May we all never really need an insurance.

[nrasmussen]

As long as you make sure that it is 1st class insurance you should be fine. I have made three claims on mine without any problems whatsoever. Of course, as with any insurance, be sure to read the terms and conditions carefully.

[doggie1955]

On 1/30/2019 at 1:10 PM, nrasmussen said:

As long as you make sure that it is 1st class insurance you should be fine. I have made three claims on mine without any problems whatsoever. Of course, as with any insurance, be sure to read the terms and conditions carefully.

So what Co. are you using?

[nrasmussen]

So what Co. are you using?

"Safety Insurance Public Company Limited" (two claims) and "The Viriyah Insurance" (one claim).

[ben2talk]

ROFL trying to make sense of insurance.... My wife's car was wrecked whilst parked outside her office. Off for repair - 17 days. The insurance guy told her she'd get 600 per day for taxis and wot-not, so she found someone selling vouchers and we rented an eco car for around 600 per day.

 

During the last repair some 3 years ago we were lucky enough to borrow my brother's car (he'd just bought a Camry and not yet sold the old one) - but I mentioned then that if she's not at fault, then she should be covered for a courtesy car or expenses.

 

We can't manage with taxis because they're rarely available when she goes out to work early in the morning and she can never get one to leave her office (Ladkrabang industrial estate...). We got a reasonable deal with Avis and collected a slightly musty but functional Yaris.

 

Upon payout, she was informed the law only requires payment of 500 baht per day, and that cannot include 7 days of the week (Sunday is the one chosen to be omitted, the day we need more use of the car for swimming classes and sometimes for a casting job). She was given only 7500. Total paid out including extra insurance for a rental came to 15k.

 

When I told her she should take it up as a civil matter she got a bit snotty - and remembering the result of me once riding a GSX-R into the back end of a brand new honda civic (45k damages according to the insurance) I kind of nodded and let it go. The company couldn't do anything beyond send me a couple of stiff letters detailing my debt and also stating that court action would be taken. It never was and I just binned the letters as I couldn't read Thai.

 

On top of this, I was told that I must go on my scooter 16km to the office to collect the cheque because they won't send it and that her office has a similar policy - if you can't travel to collect a paper cheque then you can't get paid.

 

With temperatures over 41C today (clocked on my thermometer riding to Megabangna) I refused and told her to install Lineman and arrange her own postage.

[ben2talk]

On 1/30/2019 at 7:49 AM, KittenKong said:

I would say that the most important question with any insurance in Thailand is: do they pay up if you have to claim?

I had a CBR400RR written off by a taxi - a bike shop offered me 10k for the wreck, and the insurance company paid me 90k. I paid only 60k for it, and that enabled me to step up to a GSX-R750.

 

They do pay, very easily and very quickly, but not always in the way you expect (e.g. limited liability - if the accident isn't your fault, you're still not necessarily entitled to be fully recompensed). I made another reply here saying how we just paid 15k for car rentals but recovered only 7500 from Syn Mun Kong to cover 'taxis' - despite the taxi round trip to my wife's office alone costing 25% more than that.