How To Choose A Reliable Insurance Company
How do you go about choosing an insurance company to insure your motorvehicle? Do you solely rely on what your insurance agent tell you or do you do some homework to ensure that your choice of insurance company is the right one? There are tens of insurance companies currently operating in Malaysia and without a doubt, the motor market is highly competitive. Having worked in the motor claims department of a local insurer, having dealt with insurance claims as a lawyer and being a purchaser of a motor insurance policy myself, I would like to offer some 6 handy tips on how to choose the right insurance company for your motorvehicle.
Know Your Purpose
Besides the fact that you are required under the law to get a motor policy before your motorvehicle can be running on the road (subject to some exceptions), you must realize that the purposes for purchasing insurance is to protect and indemnify you when damage or loss arises. The aim of purchasing of an insurance policy is to obtain relief when an insured peril occurs. You want peace of mind to ensure that your insurance company will lessen your hardship when an accident or theft occurs.
Forget about the gifts
Some insurance companies offer attractive gifts if you sign up with them eg. umbrellas, mugs, diaries etc. These gifts should not cloud your judgment on which insurer to purchase your insurance policy from. Having a mug when you purchase a policy means nothing when you get terrible customer service when you submit your insurance claim. Gifts should be low on the priority when choosing a reliable insurance company to insure your motorvehicle.
Instalment-Free should be considered
Many car owners always get stressed up during insurance renewal time as they have to fork out a lump sum to pay for the insurance premium. Where the motorvehicle is of the higher c.c. category, the car owner would feel further pinch on the pocket with hefty road tax payable. If you can stretch your payment for premium by utilizing the instalment payment plan (interest free) offered by some credit card companies, why not? You get to spread your expenses over a period of time.
Forget about the advertisements
The yardstick for a good insurance company is not how popular it is perceived to be through advertising. Many of the better insurance companies that I know of (as far as claims service is concerned) hardly advertise in the media or at all. Word-of-mouth recommendation (through a satisfied claims experience) is far worth its salt compared to blatant commercial advertisement.
Ask the Experts
By experts, I am referring to workshop operators. They are the people who deal with insurers day in and day out. If they are not insurance agents themselves, they are more likely to present to you the reality of how difficult or easy it is to make an insurance claim from company A compared to company B. Apart from the red tape, they would be able to advise you how fast is the claims processing between the companies. Some companies are known to have an efficient claims processing department which gives the approvals for repairs within a reasonable period of time. You would want to choose these companies. Again, don’t rely solely on what the insurer promises but rather, listen to the workshop operators. The workshop operators would also know which companies approve the repairs reasonably so that the quality of repairs are not compromised. It is no secret that some companies give ridiculously low approval sums which are not adequate for the repair jobs needed.
Never listen wholly to your insurance agent
Your insurance agent has products to sell and naturally, he will try to push his products (and the companies he represent) rather than a rival’s product. His advice is likely to be biased to a certain extent. So, do verify his claims from alternative sources.
comments
2 Responses to “How To Choose A Reliable Insurance Company”
You got something to say?
So which are the “quality” insurance companies that you think are good?
eddie : Send me an email and I’ll let you know “off-air”