Motor Insurance Singapore

You will surely have heard of NTUC motor insurance or Chartis car insurance from the first day you bought your car. However, amateurs and seasoned drivers alike are often confused as to which car insurance is better.

This article sheds some light on the good, bad and ugly sides of each insurer.

NTUC Income, is a co-operative insurance society formed in 1970. It carries a wide range of personal and general insurance products that cater to the needs of many Singaporeans. Chartis was formally known as AIG. It has over 90 years of experience in customer service with a global reach in more than 160 countries and jurisdictions. These 2 companies are major players and has one of the largest market share in terms of car insurance in Singapore.

Whether you sign up for Chartis or NTUC, you will be sure to enjoy good stability that you won’t with insurers that are setup only a few years ago.

Car Insurance Plans

For comprehensive car insurance, both Chartis and NTUC offer Authorized Workshop as well as Any Workshop scheme. Other than comprehensive coverage, both companies have Third Party Fire and Theft as well as Third Party Only insurance. Compared to smaller companies, the range of products offered cater to many different drivers’ needs. Also, they are willing to underwrite some sports and high-performance cars, setting themselves apart from smaller players in the market.

Network of Affiliated Workshops

If you want to go for an Authorised Workshop plan, you can compare their network of authorized workshops by clicking on the links below.

For NTUC:  NTUC-AuthorisedWorkshops.pdf

For Chartis:  Chartis-AutoplanWorkshop.pdf

Distributor Workshop Scheme

Under Chartis Authorised Workshop Plan, if your car is under 3 years of age and is still under warranty, you can bring it back to your car dealer’s authorized workshop for accident repair. This, however, does not apply to parallel import cars. NTUC, on the other hand, does not have this benefit. Under their Authorised Workshop Plan, you have to bring your car to any of their authorized workshops whether or not your car is still under warranty.

Loss of Use Benefit (Courtesy Car or Reimbursement)

Chartis has a very interesting way to set your heart at ease if your car requires more time for repair. They send you a replacement car to you. What convenience. Like many insurers, there is a limit to this benefit…you can use their car for up to 10 days.

For NTUC, this benefit is also available if you are willing to pay an additional premium of $100 (+ GST) to upgrade your policy from the Classic Plan to the Classic PLUS plan.

With NTUC Classic Plus plan, you can get a transport allowance of up to 7 days if your repair exceeds 3 days. However this does not apply for windscreen repairs/replacements, theft, total loss claims, or delays due to spare parts unavailability.

NCD Protector

Both insurers (NTUC and Chartis) offers NCD protection for 50% NCD holders. This additional benefit is priced at 10% of your car insurance premiums.

This benefit has its pros and cons, like any other features. If you protect your NCD, you can still retain it even after you claim from the insurance company. However the NCD protection can only be applied to your existing insurer. This means if you want to switch to another insurer, they will calculate the premiums with the reduced (lower) NCD.

Waiver of Excess

Chartis rewards policy holders with a Waiver of Excess benefit. If your NCD is at 50%, you enjoy $600 waiver of excess. If your NCD is below 40% and below, you can enjoy $300 waiver of excess. Nevertheless this does not apply to buy up excess, if any.

For NTUC, this benefit is also applicable with an additional premium of $100 (+ GST). Similar to the loss of use benefit, you enjoy a Waiver of Excess when you insure your car under the Classic PLUS plan rather than the Classic Plan.

Windscreen Repair

You can repair or replace your windscreen in case it is damaged. This feature is included into your policy free. There is an excess of $100 (+ GST) for both NTUC and Chartis before the insurance payout, though.

Personal Accident

Your car insurance covers your personal accident costs too. This is provided the injury is sustained during the course of a car accident. NTUC insures $20,000 for personal accident while Chartis insures $50,000.

Towing

After an accident, you can choose to tow your car back to the workshop. There are good reasons why you may need this feature. First, your car may be badly damaged and could be dangerous to handle. Secondly, you may be in a state of shock. Under such circumstances, it is not advisable to handle any machinery, including a car.

NTUC provides free towing up to $200. This is more than sufficient to get your car from one point to another. Chartis offers the same. On top of that, under Chartis, you can call for their towing assistance even for mechanical breakdowns.

Medical Benefits

Many car insurance policies offer medical benefits along with a plethora of other benefits. For both NTUC and Chartis, they pay up to $300 for medical claims incurred as a result of a car accident.

Payment Method

Big insurance companies make it easy for you to pay. They accept Cash, Cheque or Credit Card. On top of this, you can opt for either 6-month or 12-month installment plan under credit cards issued by banks such as DBS, POSB or UOB.

To conclude, it may seem like one car insurance policy has more benefits than the other. In actual fact, you have to know how much each insurer is charging you before you can come to a useful conclusion when deciding which insurance policy to take up. This is true for any insurer in the market.

If you want to get as many as 12 car insurance quotes from every established and reputable insurance company in Singapore (and compare their benefits), use the tool at www.motorinsurancesingapore.com

NTUC car insurance is from NTUC Income, one of the biggest insurance companies in Singapore. Drivers will almost always hear about NTUC insurance from the first day they own a car. This is because of their huge market share in car insurance as well as other life and general insurance products.

Here are some car insurance plans you can find at NTUC Income:

1. Classic Plan

NTUC’s classic plan is one of the most popular in the market. It compensates you for loss or damage due to fire or theft. On top of this, you can cover the repair or replacement cost of your windscreen at any NTUC Income’s appointed windscreen workshop.

This policy restricts your repairs to NTUC Income’s Quality Workshops. Nevertheless with this arrangement, your car insurance can be more competitive than the Premium Plan.

For medical expenses, you can claim up to $300. NTUC offers personal accident benefits of $20,000. As with most car insurance policies, towing service is provided up to $200. This is sufficient for almost every towing job.

Finally, the Classic Plan compensates any death or injury to third party and also damages to any third party property.

2. Premium plan

The Premium Plan differs from the Classic Plan such that you can go to any workshop for accident repair.  All other benefits remain the same as the Classic Plan.

3. Classic Plus and Premium Plus Plans

The Classic Plus and Premium Plus Plans are upgrades from the Classic and Premium Plans. With additional premium, you can claim daily transport allowance should your car take more than 3 days to repair. Nevertheless you can only claim up to 7 days. So you have to decide if this feature is suitable for you…or not.

4. Third Party fire and theft

The third party fire and theft (TPFT) policy only covers for loss or damage by fire or theft. All other third party compensation remains the same as a comprehensive coverage.

5. Third Party Only

A third party only (TPO) insurance is quite similar to the third party fire and theft coverage. However a TPO policy does not cover any loss or damages by fire or theft.

It is not difficult to get the right car insurance for your vehicle since there are so many plans available. Many drivers opt for the classic plan since it is both affordable and comprehensive. For others who want additional benefits and protection, they can go for the Premium Plan or even the Premium Plus plan.

Chartis AutoPlan car insurance differs from the Chartis AutoPlus scheme in a few major ways. Even though it is more expensive than AutoPlus, the AutoPlan car insurance offers you, the car owner, added flexibility and convenience.

In order to decide which plan to take up, you’ll have to look at the main differences between these plans. Then get a feel on which one suits your needs best.

Here, I’ve highlighted some differences you may consider important:

• Choice of Workshop

Both Chartis AutoPlan and Chartis AutoPlus insurance give you Comprehensive Coverage over your car. The key benefit of choosing AutoPlan allows you to visit any workshop for accident repair while AutoPlus does not.

This can be important for some drivers for 2 reasons.

First, you may want to visit your regular mechanic for both maintenance and repair. After all, it’s always good to know where to go and who to call when something happens. Nevertheless for car owners who are not as close to their mechanics, this may not be a significant benefit.

Secondly, your car may still be under warranty. If any hard-to-find car part is damaged, your distributor’s workshop may be able to find them faster. This is because they are likely to have a bigger inventory when compared to other workshops that do not specialize in any brands.

Fortunately, whether you opt for AutoPlus or AutoPlan, you can go back to your car agent’s affiliated workshop for repairs.

• Personal Accident Coverage

With Chartis AutoPlan, you are paid $20,000 on top of other personal accident or life insurance plans you have, in case of death or permanent disability due to an accident while traveling in your car. What this means is you will never be overpaying for your personal accident coverage. You can claim from your car insurance plan as well as any other personal accident plans you buy.

(Contrast this to Chartis AutoPlus that offers $50,000 personal accident coverage.)

When you buy Chartis car insurance, be it AutoPlus or AutoPlan, there are different benefits you can enjoy.

For example, they have a complementary New-for-Old Replacement benefit. In case your car is damaged (beyond economical repair) and has to be scraped, Chartis will pay you the full purchase price to buy a brand new car of the same model. This is provided your vehicle is less than 12 months old from the initial registration with LTA. In other words, you get a new car for free.

Also, Chartis provides up to S$800 insurance for your car key. In the event of theft, robbery or break-in, Chartis will compensate you for the cost of replacing your vehicle lock and car key. If you need to engage a locksmith or towing services company because you left your keys locked in your car, Chartis covers this too. The only cost you have to pay is $50 for excess.