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.

The proposal form needs to be submitted and sent (along with the quotation) to the insurer in order for them to underwrite your motor car insurance policy. The underwriter relies on the information given by the car owner to assess the risk undertaken by the insurance company.

Therefore it is important that car owners provide accurate and relevant details as required by the proposal form, to the best of your knowledge.

The following information is usually requested in the proposal form:

- Name & Address Of Car Owner
- Type Of Business Or Trade (If Applicable)
- Driving Experience Of All Drivers, Insured & Named Drivers
- Claims Experience & NCD (aka. NCB) Entitlement Amount
- Type Of Cover (Comprehensive, 3rd Party, Etc.)
- Vehicle Usage
- Whether Your Car Has Been Modified
- Vehicle’s Make & Model, Seating Capacity, Market Value & Year Of Manufacture
- Vehicle Registration Number, Date Of Registration, Engine Number & Chassis Number
- Finance Company (or Hire Purchase Company), if Applicable
- Some Details Of Vehicle’s Accessories

Soon after submission, the Certificate of Insurance or Cover Note can be released to the car owner.

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Excess is included in a private motor insurance to deter motorists from making small claims. Excess is the initial amount of any claim that the auto insurer will not pay. In other words, the car owner has to bear this cost.

For example, if the cost of your claims amount to $2,000 and the deductible is $600, you’ll have to bear $600 while the rest can be claimed from the insurer. An illustration is drawn for you below:

If the total amount (for repairs, damages, etc) is less than the excess ($600), nothing is payable by the insurer.

But…why do the insurers want to impose such an idea on motor car insurance? Because…

- The insurers hopes that the drivers will take more care and responsibility as the driver still has to pay for damages not exceeding the excess amount.

- Claim payouts (by the insurers) are reduced by the excess amount, the risk/liability of the insurer is also reduced. This also lowers the insurance premiums.

- There are fixed costs incurred to service each claim, it doesn’t make sense (economically) for the insurers to attend to each and every small claim.

- For customers with bad claims experience (profiled as high risk for the insurers), higher excess can be imposed to allow their car insurance to remain in force. This also keeps their premiums within financial reach.

You can certainly request for excess to be removed or reduced in some cases. But since the insurers are taking on extra risk, your premiums will go up by quite an amount. For drivers under 21 (or 23) years old, such excess cannot be removed.