Did you realize that you can save up to 35% on your car insurance premium in Singapore if you install a device in your car that monitors your driving performance and mileage? In the last few years, more and more insurers worldwide have been experimenting with telematics, electronic devices that can estimate how safe of a driver you are by tracking factors such as speed, braking, acceleration and cornering. What does this mean for you? Essentially, some insurers have special car insurance packages that will allow you to earn huge discounts simply for using their telematics systems and driving in a certain manner. Let’s go through some of the options currently available on the market so you can see how these new systems can benefit you.
Be rewarded for driving safely
Insurers are beginning to find ways to harness technology’s power to obtain more accurate data about their customers’ driving habits. And if you’re a safe and careful driver, you also stand to benefit greatly from these advances. Telematics devices installed in your car, often partnered with a mobile app, can track factors such as speed, braking, acceleration and cornering to evaluate how safe of a driver you are. AIG’s On The Go and NTUC Income’s Drive Master plan are two examples of car insurance plans currently available in Singapore that allow you to save up to 15% or 20% respectively on your premium simply for driving safely.
Generally, to participate in these programs, you need to download the mobile app that accompanies your particular telematics system. Your app will record your driving performance on a number of different variables, and you’ll be scored out of 100 on how safe your driving is judged to be over time. Depending on how high of a score you get, you can earn 2% to 20% discounts on your premium.
Be rewarded for driving less
Telematics devices can also be used to help you save big on your car insurance by acting as accurate, objective mileage trackers. For example, with NTUC Income’s FlexiMileage plan, you can earn up to a 35% discount on your car insurance premium by driving under 9,000 kms per year after installing NTUC’s telematics device in your car. But wait – aren’t there other car insurance plans out there that offer you discounts for driving less that don’t require you to install something in your car? Most, if not all, insurers will discount your premium significantly if you agree to drive under the Off-Peak scheme by not driving your car during peak hours. And DirectAsia, another Singapore insurer, has a low-mileage car insurance plan that also offers you discounts for driving under 8,000 kms a year. So why go to the trouble to install a new device?
Simply put, you can currently get better savings and more flexibility out of a plan that uses a telematics device to track your mileage. Whereas DirectAsia’s non-telematics-using low-mileage plan lets drivers save between 10 and 15% on their premium for driving under 8,000 kms a year, NTUC’s FlexiMileage plan lets you save 20% for driving 5,000 to 9,000 kms a year and 35% for driving under 5,000 kms a year. And in contrast to off-peak car insurance plans, which offer great savings as well, a telematics plan doesn’t restrict your driving to only off-peak hours. For the biggest savings possible, you should keep in mind that you can actually participate in NTUC’S FlexiMileage plan with an off-peak car as well, earning discounts both for driving off-peak and for driving under 9,000 kms a year.
Parting Thoughts
Telematics is still a relative newcomer to Singapore, so not all insurers have yet begun to take advantage of the technology to offer drivers ways to earn discounts on their car insurance premiums. Furthermore, when shopping for car insurance, you should always do plenty of research to ensure you’re getting the best deal possible. Just because an insurer offers discounted premiums through a telematics scheme doesn’t necessarily mean their plan will be better or cheaper than a competing insurer’s plan that doesn’t have a telematics system in place. Nevertheless, telematics offers an innovative new way for drivers to save a significant amount of money on their car insurance, and it will be interesting to see how this technology may be able to help us optimise our personal finances.
The article How Telematics Can Help You Save Up to 35% on Your Car Insurance originally appeared on ValuePenguin.
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