No-Claim Discount (NCD) for Car Insurance Policies


Car Insurance Singapore

A No-Claim Discount (NCD) entitles you to a lower car insurance premium. The maximum NCD you can have is 50% and the lowest is 0%. Thus the discount you get depends on how high your NCD is. This is one of the ways you are rewarded for being a safe driver.

If you have not made any insurance claim in the past 1 year, your NCD will increase by 10%. The 2 tables below illustrate this:

For Private Cars:

Period Without Claims NCD on Renewal
1 year 10%
2 years 20%
3 years 30%
4 years 40%
5 years or more 50%

For Commercial Vehicles and Motorcycles:

Period Without Claims NCD on Renewal
1 year 10%
2 years 15%
3 years or more 20%

With the above in mind, it does not necessarily mean you will lose your NCD if you make an insurance claim.

In Singapore, insurers depend on a benchmark known as the Barometer of Liability Agreement (BOLA) to determine what your responsibility is for each accident you get into. As long as it is less than 20%, your NCD will not be affected.

Otherwise your NCD may drop by 30%, as illustrated in the table below:

Current NCD NCD on Renewal
50% becomes 20%
40% becomes 10%
30% or less becomes 0%

There is a common misunderstanding about No-Claims Discount you must know about. People are often confused whether their NCD applies to them or their vehicle.

Technically, your NCD applies to you. This means whether you switch to another insurer or buy another vehicle, your NCD remains with you. Nevertheless if you own a second car, the NCD for that vehicle will have to start from 0%.

In other words, your NCD can be transferred from one insurer to another and from one car to another. But it cannot be transferred from one person to another.

(NCD also cannot be transferred from one vehicle class to another. For example, you cannot transfer your Motorcycle’s 20% NCD to your Car or vice versa.)

If you are concerned about losing your NCD in case of an accident, you can buy an NCD protector.  Most insurers only allow you to buy this rider if your NCD is at 50%. With this, even if you make an insurance claim, your NCD will not drop.

However you have to bear in mind that your NCD protector cannot be transferred from one insurer to another. This means if you want to retain your NCD at 50% after an accident, you have to renew with your existing insurer.

Finally, if you don’t own a car (or vehicle) for more than 12 months, you will lose your NCD. For example, if you sold off your car and went overseas, then bought a car again after more than 12 months, your NCD will start from 0% again.

If your car insurance renewal is near, you may find a great insurer by getting car insurance quotes from as many as 12 different car insurers. Simply take 2 minutes to fill up the form at www.motorinsurancesingapore.com and the best 3 quotes will be sent to you.

Renewing Your NTUC Car Insurance Policy


Car Insurance Singapore

If you have bought an NTUC car insurance before, you’ll probably know how to renew your motor insurance with NTUC Income. The process is easy and hassle free.

About one month before your car insurance expires, the insurer will send you a renewal notice. You can simply follow their step-by-step instruction to renew and pay for your car insurance.

This renewal notice serves as a reminder to renew your car insurance and your road tax. You may have to send your car for inspection before you can renew your road tax though. Inside this document, your car insurance renewal premium and the excess are stated.

Other than that, the insurance start date is also mentioned. In order to avoid problems renewing your road tax down the road, it is advisable to align your car insurance start date to your road tax start date.

To do this, you can simply request to extend your insurance policy or cut it short. It’ll be helpful if you can let the customer service officer know your intention to align your car insurance date with the road tax date.

After considering NTUC’s offer, you can choose to insure your car again with NTUC or source for quotes elsewhere.

In general, if the car insurance premium is less than the previous year, motorists wouldn’t mind renewing with their existing insurer. Otherwise they will readily find several other car insurance quotes from elsewhere to compare.

Why Do Customers Want to Renew Their Car Insurance With NTUC?

There are a few advantages to renewing your car insurance with NTUC. First, for being a repeat customer, you can enjoy a better rate.

Also, NTUC Income has improved their customer service by a great deal in the past 1-2 years. Therefore complaints you may have heard about are mostly a thing of the past.

Recently NTUC Income also organized an Orange Force Accident Response Team to assist customers in case they meet with an accident.

They can be called upon in a moment’s notice and they are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. On top of that, they will offer assistance regardless of where you are in Singapore.

The Orange Force Team moves about in a special 3-wheeled bike. Therefore even traffic congestion will not impede their quick response.

Having said this, we must also remember that NTUC car insurance is not perfect. Just like any insurance company, there will be times when customers are not happy with them for one reason or another.

Nevertheless it is important to understand that NTUC’s customer service officers are willing to solve those problems when they arise.

Apart from renewing your car insurance with NTUC Income, you can also protect your vehicle with other reputable insurers like Chartis Insurance, AXA Insurance, India International, etc.

To get quotes from these companies and more, click on www.motorinsurancesingapore.com and request for them.

Should You Buy NTUC Car Insurance or Chartis Car Insurance?


Car 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