Sometimes it makes sense to shop for your car insurance

It is now coming up a year since I got my new car. As usual, a new car insurance (or renewal) will have to be purchased before the authority issues a new road tax for the car. But which insurer should one go to?
As expected, the current insurer sent me a reminder. Interestingly, the end-financier for the car also sent me an introduction to another insurer.

In Malaysia, the rate for car insurance is standard. What makes the difference in the service as well as the other add-ons that comes with it. In this case, the difference between the incumbent insurer and the new one is a whopping RM600! This prompted me to do my investigation further.

The first thing that I noticed is that the original insurer did not reduce the sum assured for the car. It assumes the value of the car is the same as what it was a year ago while the second one did its homework and only quoted what they deemed as the current value of the car now. The second thing that I noticed is that the second insurer has a lot of add-ons that does not seem to be cost effective for the buyer. The third and final thing that I noticed is that these two insurers did not offer the expected 10% discount. This could only imply that the purchase still went through an agent.

To give myself some certainty, I approached the insurer that I have been using for the last 10 years for a quote. Surprisingly, I was given a smaller quote due to the actual market value of the car. Moreover, the windscreen cover was also cheaper, also using the actual market price. Finally, an additional discount of 10% was given as I was considered a “walk-in” customer. All-in-all, the insurer that I finally signed up with was RM1,000 cheaper from the first insurer.

Moral of the story: do shop around even for car insurance. It does pay!