Posts Tagged ‘insurance’

Check out this innovative river crossing by our friends from SA Adventure!

The SA Adventure Land Rover ‘Juho’ Crossing the Rovuma River between Tanzania and Mozambique via Fishing Boat Ferry, on the Northward Bound Tanzania Expedition.

I’ve got some great news for our Cross Country Policyholders!  You can now reduce your excess on your 4×4 Insurance with Cross Country.

Paying an excess has always been one of the major issues people have with insurance.  I can understand the frustration.

When you have had an accident, or you have lost your 4×4 to theft (a.k.a. wealth redistribution), you have already suffered a loss.  Now, you have to pay a huge excess too!

Lets take a stolen Double Cab for example, valued at R279’000. Generally, your theft excess is 10% of the claim… so you’re in for R27’900 excess. Ouch.

Fortunately, you can change that now!  By adding the XS Sure option to your Cross Country policy, you can remove the Basic excess, Theft excess, as well as the Vehicle Rollover excess and Water Damage excess. This option covers up to R40’000 for those excesses, with only a flat R1’000 excess payable.

It makes sense to me… and I bet it does for you too.

To add this option to your existing Cross Country policy, simply email us and we will contact you to explain the product in detail and to confirm the additional premium.

If you don’t already have a 4×4 Insurance policy with us, click here to complete your details online, and we will provide you with the biggest range of 4×4 Insurance quotes in South Africa.

As with all policies, terms and conditions apply.
XS Sure does not cover additional / cumulative excesses and voluntary excesses

Related articles

• Excess explained: compulsory vs. voluntary (blogs.confused.com)

How many times have you heard of someone complaining that their vehicle was written off and they were paid out much less by their insurance company, than what the vehicle was insured for?

Vehicle depreciation is a fact that we cannot dispute, but can you imagine stopping the depreciation of your 4×4 or SUV on your 4×4 insurance? It’s about to become a reality!

Let’s take a simple example:

• Our client insures her Nissan Xtrail for it’s retail value of R268’000.
• 2 years go by, and her Xtrail is written off after a nasty accident.
• Her insurer settles the claim based on the current retail value at the time of the claim, which is R212’000.
• So she get’s paid out R212’000, less her excess.
• Depreciation in value = R56’000

Now, let’s look at another example:

• Our same client insures her Nissan Xtrail for it’s retail value of R268’000. But this time she chose the Inception Value Policy*.
• 2 years go by, and her Xtrail is written off after a nasty accident.
• Because our client chose the the Inception Value Policy, her insured value remains R268’000 – the retail value of the Xtrail at the start of the policy.
• So, she get’s paid out R268’000, less her excess.
• Depreciation in value = R Nil

By selecting the Inception Value Policy, you can virtually stop the depreciation of your 4×4 or SUV, so that if you have a major claim, like a write-off, you are able to replace your 4×4 or SUV much easier.

We are proud to be promoting this new, innovative product** from 1 July 2011.

To get a quote on your 4×4 insurance, please click here to complete your details online.

Notes

* Inception Value Policy Terms and Conditions apply.
** Policy underwritten by Cross Country insurance Consultants, on behalf of Hollard Insurance.
The above example is for illustration purposes only.
Cover is always subject to the applicable policy wording.

Related articles

• Luxury vehicles ‘depreciate more’ (autonetinsurance.co.uk)
• My insurer won’t pay what my car’s worth following a write-off. (blogs.confused.com)

Choosing the right insurance for your 4×4 is not as simple as those adverts on the radio & TV claim.

When you use your 4×4 off-road, you need to take into account a whole lot of issues that ‘normal’ insurance doesn’t cater for.

That’s where we come in: We help you to choose the right cover for your 4×4, trailer, caravan, boat etc.

We do the hard work for you by getting quotes from our 4×4 insurance partners who specialise in this field, and only offering you cover that is suited to your needs.

Get a quote today and compare our benefits and premiums  – you will be pleasantly surprised!

I’m sure you’ve read reports about the increasing numbers of stolen 4×4′s, particularly the Toyota Fortuner as well as Toyota Hiluxes.  

Just recently, here at 4×4-insurance.co.za we posted a warning about these 4×4 thefts and suggested some practical ways in which owners of the affected vehicles could reduce the risk of becoming another 4×4 theft statistic.

For South African 4×4 owners, the future may seem a little brighter now as new technology to recover stolen cars makes its way into the market.

Microdots, which are smaller than 1mm, are laser-printed dots that are superimposed across the body of the car and contain vital vehicle information that can be used to determine if a vehicle is stolen or not.

We support the Business Against Crime South Africa (BACSA) initiative to get the microdot technology rolled out across the country in an attempt to curb the alarming number of hijackings and vehicle thefts.  insurance premiums are likely to decrease if we are able to reduce the number of thefts and hijackings of 4×4′s in South Africa.

Theft of vehicles is big business in South Africa.  Statistics reveal more than 90 000 vehicles worth more than R9-billion are stolen every year.

BCSA’s Microdot project manager, Fouche Burger, told SA-The Good News that the crime-fighting organization is waiting for the government to approve the legislation authorising the use of Microdots by every vehicle manufacturer.

Burger says it won’t be long before police will start using the technology to identify stolen vehicles at road blocks. The microdots are too small to see with the naked eye, and can be identified by police when examining stolen cars using magnifying glasses and specialised equipment to see the microdots.  And the South African Police Service (SAPS) has announced that Microdots will shortly be compulsory for all new vehicles registered.

Already being used

As of 31 May 2009 over 370 000 vehicles in the country where microdotted by the following companies: Nissan, BMW, Avis Rent-a-Car, Toyota (on the Quantum minibus), SAPS, SAVRALA and Vesa, Burger revealed.

How does it work?

The process involves the application of approximately 10 000 tiny polyester or metal dots, each less than 1 mm in diameter and each containing the vehicle’s identification number (VIN) or a unique vehicle PIN etched onto it by a laser-etching process, as repeated lines of text.

The microdots are applied to 88 different locations on a vehicle. Discovering and removing all of them is practically impossible and any attempt to remove them results in the car’s body being severely damaged.

It also helps that the technology used to identify microdots is cheap and easily available, said Deborah Hunt, Media Liaison at BACSA. “Police can use a low-tech magnifying glass, which is cost effective”.

International statistics indicate that Microdot technology leads to a decrease of between 50 and 60 percent in the number of stolen and hijacked vehicles and an improvement of more than 55 percent in recoveries.

It is common knowledge that many of the stolen and hijacked 4×4′s are dismantled in chop shops and the parts sold as second-hand.  Microdots can be used in recovering components sold as used parts and this will certainly be a deterrent for hijackings and motor vehicle theft.

Related articles:

• Off-Color Cars Offer Effective Theft Prevention [Theft] (lifehacker.com)
• Why Car Thieves Are Male (freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com)