Singaporean Entrepreneurs

The last time I was in a car accident it was a fender bender with a huge jolt. The person at fault was the guy behind me who was driving a car that needed new brakes. He basically slammed into my van as he screeched down the road. Passersby saw him trying desperately to stop and stop he did, with my help.

In that case, as in 2 other previous cases, it was always the other party at fault so I never had to worry about insurance. Last year though, I was in another accident where I was clearly at fault and boy I had no idea what was in store for me when it came to paying automobile insurance premiums this year.

I had been getting 50% discounts due to not having made any claims for seven years running so I knew it would go up, but not by as much as it did. This is when I started hunting for insurers again and found that it is not for the faint of heart.

First, I was amazed by the number of car insurers there are in Singapore. For such a tiny country, we have a lot of insurance agencies.

Second, as is standard in the insurance industry, there is in fact “no standard”. In other words, they all have such varying terms and conditions that it is impossible to compare policies at a glance. It requires a lot of knowledge, time, and effort to pore through those documents.

Third, the price differences can not only range greatly, there are also various freebies to entice you to join a particular agency, from petrol vouchers to free car wash, oil change and even bonus accident coverage. Of course, nothing is really free, so the more attached freebies, the harder it is to tell what has been shaved off.

Anyway, I gave up after a few weeks of looking through several insurance companies and just asked a friend to find the best one for me. Who needs the internet for research when you’ve got friends?