Do you know that your motor insurance also provides you with personal accident benefits? The insurer will pay you a lump sum of money for accidental death or bodily injuries if the accident is in direct connection with your vehicle or while traveling in or mounting/dismounting from your private motor car.

Generally the compensation amount is as follows although it may vary with different insurers:

a) “Death” – S$20,000
b) “Total and irrecoverable loss of sight in both eyes” – S$20,000
c) “Total loss by physical severance at or above the wrist or ankle of both hands or both feet or one hand together with one foot” – S$20,000
d) “Total loss by physical severance at or above the wrist or ankle of one hand or one foot together with the total and irrecoverable loss of all sight in one eye” – S$20,000
e) “Total and irrecoverable loss of all sight in one eye” – S$10,000
f) “Total loss by physical severance at or above the wrist or ankle of one hand or one foot” – S$10,000

Note that you’ll be compensated under only ONE of the above categories. The claim is usually limited to ONE accident during the (one-year) period of insurance you have with your insurer.

On top of the above coverage, passengers of your vehicle are also covered up to half of the amount for each category stated above.

As with all other insurance coverage, the insurer will not pay under certain circumstances. These include intentional, self-inflicted injury, suicide (even attempted suicide), physical (or mental) defect/infirmity, and drunk driving or driving under the influence of drugs.

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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.