Where to insure your car in SA
Having car insurance is a necessity in life, well, if own a car.
The insurance helps to cover you from theft, damages, and being in an accident.
It’s so important that you’re not allowed to drive a brand new car away from a dealership unless the car is already insured.
In South Africa, there’s a wide range of insurance companies to look at, from standard insurers to banks.
After looking, it can all become a confusing and muddlesome process. Not to mention the copious amounts of spam you may receive as well. You also don’t want to be lumped with cheap insurance that will never cover any sort of damage, or having to pay for a broken window out of pocket because the excess is too high.
Below is a list of insurance companies you can look at in South Africa when insuring your car. And, of course, make sure you consult a car book value calculator to weigh up the cost of insurance.
One of the most well-known insurance companies around, there’s no way you haven’t see any adverts for this company today alone. Its business model focuses on short-term insurance for vehicles, household contents, homeowners, and businesses.
According to the MiWay website, it is the “first truly online-enabled short-term insurer in South Africa,” which is able to “offer an end-to-end online quoting, buying and policy management facility”. It is owned by Santam.
A member of the Rand Merchant Investment Holdings (RMI) Group, Outsurance is another short-term insurance company, which also focuses on vehicle, home, life, business, and a few other insurance products.
What sets Outsurance apart from the competition is its OUTbonus scheme. By not claiming back for a certain number of years, the company rewards you with a cash-back bonus. Its website states that over R2.4-million in bonuses have been paid-out to date.
A privately owned company that was established in 2012, besides the standard short-term offerings like others on the list, it also allows consumers to insure their trailers and caravans.
One of the things that Kingprice is know for, besides their advertising, is lowering monthly car premiums as the value of the car depreciates.
Established as a financial service, the JSE-listed Santam has its finger in many pies. One of those is the insurance market, which caters to vehicles, building contents, and even watercrafts. According to the Santam website, it owns over 22% of the South African insurance market.
Much like Santam, Discovery is also a financial services group that is listed on the JSE. It specialises in short-term insurance, assets, savings, investments and more through various brands.
Besides offering home and vehicle insurance, where Discovery sets itself apart from the competition is its DQ-Track tracking system. The device is either available via smartphone app or installed into your car and includes a panic button, is able to give weather warnings, has an impact alert, and more.
Dialdirect offers a wide range of vehicle finance options, from the standard cars to motorcycles, and ever golf carts. Yup, you can now insure your golf cart. This is apart from business, home, and, of course, watercraft insurance as well.
If going through the motions of speaking to sales person after sales person and constantly repeating the details of your car is laborious, there are always sites like Hippo. The platform asks you to fill in a range of details and through its algorithm will list all of the vehicle insurance options for you, from cheapest to most expensive. It’s an easy way to do research without actually having to do research.
Much like Hippo, Compare Guru allows consumers to compare the prices of different vehicle insurance providers. While Hippo has a more in-depth questioning system, Compare Guru gives rougher results just based on your car and not you as a driver.
Compare Guru, like many others on this list, also caters towards household, medical, life, and even legal insurance.
You’re up for a daunting task when looking at insurance options, even if you go through a platform that consolidates quotes. Be prepared to negotiate as you can always bring down your monthly payments to more affordable rates.