Car1.hk interviews Kwiksure

The biggest difference is that Kwiksure is a broker instead of an agent. Although brokers and agents both serve as an insurance intermediary, insurance brokers work in the interests of their clients. As a broker, we will compare different products among different insurers based on factors such as drivers’ age, driving experience, car make, and price to find the plan that best matches our clients' needs.

In terms of “ultra-low premiums,” currently there are around 80-100 insurers providing motor insurance, among which we have maintained close relationships with 60-70. Therefore, we can compare prices for our clients in one go and find out the insurer with the lowest premiums, which saves our clients a great deal of time.

As for “convenient application process,” we have a lot of new channels that allow clients to purchase insurance. For example, they can now complete the entire purchasing process via WhatsApp or email. Furthermore, many of our frontline salespersons have over ten years of motor sales experience and know the ins and outs of insurance terms and conditions. They can explain policy details in plain language and avoid obscure jargons.

When purchasing insurance, many clients only focus on low premiums without noticing the importance of disaster protection. More “affordable” insurance policies may exclude natural disasters such as typhoon and flooding. However, clients may not realize it until they submit claims. This is because insurers usually won’t voluntarily mention these exclusions when they sell a policy. This is where the importance of intermediary kicks in. As an insurance broker, we will fully explain to our clients why this policy has a lower premium, such as high excess, more exclusions, or no coverage on weekends. Most importantly, clients should understand the scope of coverage of the insurance policy they have purchased.

If there is a third party involved, no matter whether there’s anyone injured, we would advise our clients to call the police and refrain from resolving the incident by themselves. Even if you think you should take full responsibility, for example when you hit another car from behind, to protect your own interests, you should not admit liability to the police or other drivers. The point is whether the insurer will cover or not is a decision based on relevant insurance documents. Many people subjectively think that they are to blame, so they make compensation to others and then lodge claims to insurers. Under this circumstance, the insurer is not going to reimburse.

In other words, what you should do is to wait until the police arrive, who will ask whether you would like to settle the incident privately. If you are willing to accept the compensation from the other party, and you are confident you won’t lodge claims to the insurer, you can directly resolve the case with the other driver. However, you should record on paper both drivers’ names, driving licenses, I.D. card no., time, place, the incident details, and the settlement amount. You should also specify in the letter that the other party will not pursue the matter further in the future. Templates of this kind of settlement letter can be found easily online.

In other cases, if you are not sure whether you can accept this compensation amount, or you think the amount is too high, you only have to say that your insurer will follow the case for you. Besides, if there’s anyone injured or allegedly injured, the compensation amount in future can stack up significantly and become unthinkable, so it is crucial that you leave it to the hands of your insurer.

Motor insurance is relatively simple and is an ‘all-risk’ insurance, which means that the insurer will cover everything except for the exclusions specified in the policy. Typically, insurance policies will specify their exception items explicitly, such as driving without a license, drink and drive, car racing, and driving for hire. In these situations, the insurer will not compensate if there’s an accident.

Let’s say you are carrying your colleague home after work, which is, of course, fine in nature. But should you seek fare from him, it will become “driving for hire.” And the insurer can reject your claims if there’s an accident.