CAR insurers raised premiums a few months ago. They justified it with a sad story of how our bad driving and fraudulent claims caused them to incur underwriting losses.

TEXT/GRAPHICS: Larry Haverkamp and Maroo

They had no choice but to raise our premiums or go broke. Of course, more expensive car insurance is better than none at all, so there you have it. We are better off paying higher premiums.

There is another side to this story but it probably doesn't matter. Regardless of the justification, we are paying more premiums.

They are up as much as 34 per cent over the past 12months. That is on top of a 21 per cent increase lastyear.

Now for the good news. By shopping around, you will not only get the best deal for yourself. You will also reward good car insurers and punish bad ones.

That is the nature of competition and it's a beautiful thing. The good survive, the bad fail and only superior products remain.

For it to work, however, consumers need complete information.

That is where the Consumer Association of Singapore (Case) and its car insurance survey comes in. It shows which are good deals, which are bad and - careful now - which are not as good as they appear.

Case sent out mystery shoppers who asked car insurers to provide quotes for new insurance buyers based on six profiles that include experienced versus inexperienced drivers, young versus old and married versus single.

The survey included the top three car insurers: AIG, AXA and NTUC Income. AIG and NTUC Income each have about 25 per cent of the market while AXA has 15 per cent.

Together, they account for two-thirds of the car insurance sold in Singapore. Thirty or so smaller players sell the remaining one-third. The survey didn't cover them but many offer good deals and you should check them out too.

The Case survey uncovered three tips to save you money:

In one instance - involving a small insurer - the most expensive car insurance cost 92 per cent more than the cheapest.

It shows there are good buys out there and you shouldn't take whatever deal your insurance company throws at you.

I conducted an unscientific survey among 10 colleagues.

Nine of them simply paid the automatic renewal notice they received in the mail. Some didn't even notice their premiums had increased.

Only one of them got annoyed, found a lower rate and switched companies.

NTUC Income has long offered the lowest premiums. It still does when you include an unusually large excess - $2,100 - which only NTUC Income offers.

'Excess' is also called 'deductible' and refers to the first amount of the insurance claim that the policyholder must bear. If you have $500 excess and the cost of repairs is $3,000, then you would pay the first $500 and the insurance company pays the next $2,500.

The excess for the six driver profiles in the survey ranged from $0 to $600 for AIG and AXA.

NTUC Income has a different system and offers five excess levels with corresponding premiums. Lower premiums mean higher excess.

For its standard $600 excess, NTUC Income offers competitive premiums but they are no longer the lowest in town.

A new company has taken pole position in the race to be the low-cost car insurer.

The smallest of the big three car insurers - AXA - is the new king of the road.

For each driver profile, its premiums are at or near the lowest. Its own damage excess averaged $250, which was the lowest in the survey.

To get its best rates, you must use AXA's approved workshops but this is no problem for most since it is the insurance company that pays for repairs.  Back to Columnists