Car Insurance Thailand

And here’s on how to claim insurance in Thailand.

First of all there are three types of insurance. They term it Level 1,2 and 3. Level 1 is cover mountain cover sea. Level 2 is cover third party and only a small amount on your own car, does not cover fire or thief. Level 3 is purely third party and your car is your own business. There is now a Level 3+ that has a bit of covering your own car as well. Level 3 (referencing a 5 year old Euro car)… about SGD$300. Level 2 about SGD$400 and Level 1 about anything from SGD$800 to SGD$1200. Old cars more then 10 years old can never get Level 1.

So… normally, Thais wait until their insurance almost expires before they go and claim, even for nothing. Then after they claim, they simply switch companies to avoid high premiums on the second year. It is not like in Singapore where all insurance companies are linked telepathically and your premiums only increase as you claim. Thais.. never seem to treasure NCBs. They always will definitely claim for something every year… and here’s the how to.

First.. be very polite and need to speak Thai. Then drive to designated garage of insurance company. For scratches and handiwork of assholes parked next to you leaving behind door dents, pay SGD$80 extra and tell them you ran into multiple poles or protruding structures that you can’t remember. The extra payment is necessary where a third party is not available for the insurance company to witness and blame. This also applies to hit and run accidents where you are unable to remember the license plate number of the whisky motorbikes that victimize you.

For things missing, such as lower lids, fog lights, skirting broken or whatever at the bottom of you car, say you drive into flood and knock into unidentified floating objects such as dead cats or dogs. Of course, they will ask you when it happened and do pick a day that has heavy downpour.

Dents in your rims due to stupidity (such as lending your car to women), or transmission issues due to wear and tear, you can try to cook up a story that you avoided a buffalo crossing the road and swerve into a pit in the middle of a dark moonless night 10,000 miles away from Bangkok in the jungles. But they will investigate, so your story must be solid and you did have to do your own homework first.

Every year… you will get a renewed car. This is how Thais do it. Some of the stories are authored with the help of the nice lady in the garage. I will have a looking-new Volvo next week with a fresh paint job. Oh yeahhh baby. And I will never lend my car to women.