Every car in Singapore must be covered by an insurance policy. In addition, the vehicle’s road tax cannot be renewed without valid insurance coverage for the taxable period. The information below is meant to be a general guide to vehicle insurance in Singapore. For more details, we suggest you visit The General Insurance Association of Singapore’s website at www.gia.org.sg and search under the section for consumers.

In general, there are three types of policies:

3rd party (usually the cheapest) – which covers liabilities for damage, death and/or injury to 3rd parties only.

3rd party, Fire & Theft – which, in addition to 3rd party cover, also covers accidental loss and damage by fire/theft for your vehicle.

Comprehensive (usually the most expensive) – which generally provides the widest cover including accidental damage your vehicle, personal accident insurance, etc.

Each insurance company has different terms and conditions attached to their policies. There are also differences in what is covered, excess amounts (some companies allow you to lower your excess amount by increasing your premium – they call this “buying down”), claims procedures, repair procedures etc.

We STRONGLY advise that all car owners carefully evaluate the terms and conditions associated with their insurance policies. In addition, when one’s insurance policy is up for renewal, it is advisable to spend a little bit of time to look for alternative quotes. FussFree Auto will be happy to point you in the right direction to help you source for these alternative quotes.
Tips:

• When buying a new car, check to see if you are allowed to buy your own insurance. Some dealers do allow this although many do not because of the incentives they receive when you buy a policy through them.
• If only a limited number of drivers will ever use the vehicle, check with your insurers to see if you can bring down your policy by naming individual drivers on the policy.
• If the excess offered to you seems high, check with your insurance company to see if you can “buy down” your excess by increasing your premium. Alternatively, you may wish to attempt to lower your premium by increasing the excess amount (at your own risk of course!).
• When buying an insurance policy, be sure to check out any limitations, terms and conditions, etc, before signing on the dotted line. Read the fine print!

Note: Some insurance companies have introduced a bidding system whereby workshops “bid” to repair vehicles involved in accidents. The lowest bidder (and not necessarily the best workshop) usually gets the job. If you have such a policy, please be aware that you may have limited control, if any at all, when it comes to selecting a workshop to carry out the repairs.