Which insurance company is the most reliable?
25 April 2012 Reading: 10 min Views: 5 750
This is exactly the question car owners ask most often.
This is the question car owners ask most often.
Behind this question there is usually a desire to find out whether the insurance company is financially sound or not, how it is doing in general, whether there will be problems and red tape when the payout is made or everything will be resolved quickly, whether the amount paid will be enough to repair the car, and whether you will have to spend a long time defending your position and litigating in court. Let us talk about exactly that.
1. How can you find out whether an insurance company is financially sound or not?
If we look at this question in terms of which insurance company has enough money for payouts and which one is in poor financial condition, we can say that absolutely all insurance companies are reliable and all insurance companies have enough money for insurance payouts. The point is that insurance companies form insurance reserves for every contract they conclude. This is strictly monitored by a special body, the National Bank of Kazakhstan. An insurance company has no right to spend this money on other purposes, such as advertising, salaries, or the purchase of offices, furniture, equipment, etc. Therefore, the risk of a payout being refused because of an insurance company's financial insolvency is practically non-existent. Detailed information on the financial condition of insurance companies is published on the website of the Financial Supervision Committee.
If an insurance company does run into a financial crisis, an insurance payout guarantee fund is provided for such cases in compulsory classes of insurance. Today, 32 insurance companies are participants of JSC "Insurance Payout Guarantee Fund".
2. How quickly will an insurance company settle a payout?
On the one hand, there are established deadlines for payouts. If you receive
the money from the at-fault party's insurance company, the payout must be made within
7 working days (this issue is covered in more detail in "How to get a payout in 7 days".)
On the other hand, even BEFORE concluding an insurance contract, it is possible to give an expert opinion on how the insurance company will behave after a road accident. So, before buying an insurance policy, it is advisable to pay attention to the following:
1. the size of the insurance company
2. the insurance company's focus on working with individuals
3. the terms of the contract
Large and well-known companies usually inspire more trust among clients. If a company has managed to become one of the market leaders, it has stood the test of time. However, large companies often suffer from growing pains: they are slow-moving, cannot resolve disputes promptly, and require a complex approval procedure involving specialists and managers at various levels. Moreover, for a large company losing one client is not a disaster. It has many other clients. If you are dissatisfied with a large company's service, it will easily survive that without any serious financial consequences.
Small companies are much more flexible in this respect and more inclined to fight for each individual client and make compromises. But small companies do not have the experience of large companies behind them. So each type of company has its pros and cons. How do you choose the best option?
The key factor when choosing a company is not its size but its focus on working with a particular group of clients. If a company is interested in working with individuals, it will set up special units for this, train specialists, and refine its procedures for handling a large flow of people (so that everyone receives the necessary explanations, everyone gets enough attention, and everyone can count on a personal approach).
How can you check this?
Method 1. Simply call the insurance company (you can find a list of insurance companies on the website www.asab.kz )
It is important to note whether you were able to get through to the insurance company and how quickly you were connected with the right employee.
If the insurance company keeps redirecting you to different specialists because they cannot figure out who is responsible for this class of insurance, if the right employee is always busy and you are asked to call back later (instead of, for example, taking down your phone number and contacting you shortly), if you sense no interest on the other end of the line, it is probably better not to decide to work with this company for now.
Method 2. Ask "awkward" questions
When a policy is issued, clients are usually told only about the benefits, the advantages and how well everything will go. This is understandable, since the insurance company employee's job is to conclude a contract with you.
However, any contract always provides for limitations or exemption from payout if certain conditions are not met on your side. If you have not been told about this, it would not hurt to ask directly, so as to avoid disappointment when claiming a payout.
Ask them to explain to you:
- in which cases can a payout be refused? (let them name at least three limitations),
- where is this written in the terms of the policy or contract?
- what is important to do immediately after an accident so that there are no problems with the payout?
- within what time limit must an accident be reported?
- why are you not warned about this when the contract is concluded?
- why are you not given written reminders? (after all, at the moment of an accident it is easy to forget everything).
It is also advisable to read the policy terms carefully rather than simply signing wherever you are asked to.
Method 3. Visit the claims department
Here you can see how it all really works. You should be alarmed by:
queues (for example, one specialist is receiving clients while fifteen people are standing in line and have not even been offered a seat),
rude treatment of clients (professionals should be able to discuss even disputed situations calmly and without shouting),
various notices that restrict your rights. For example: "If the insurance payout is insufficient, you must sue the at-fault party", "Claims are accepted only until 14.00", "Inspections are carried out only on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays", etc.
If you find yourself in a claims department like this, there is no point asking about the insurance terms. Choose another company.
3. Which insurance companies most often cause problems?
Various ratings and professional classifications are traditionally used to identify market leaders and outsiders. Our country does not have such ratings yet. There are official statistics on complaints filed against insurance companies. This information is available on the website www.asab.kz.
However, when reviewing these statistics, the following should be taken into account:
1) no accurate conclusion about an insurance company's performance can be drawn
simply by counting the number of complaints. For example, if insurance company "AAA"
has 80 complaints and insurance company "BBB" has 115, this does not mean
that the latter performs worse than the former. Company "AAA" may have only
1,000 payout cases, while company "BBB" has 20,000. Therefore, you should consider
relative rather than absolute values, that is, not the number but the percentage
of dissatisfied clients out of the total number of claims. Unfortunately, the website www.asab.kz does not
contain such detailed information.
2) the established mentality of our citizens must also be taken into account.
When problems arise, most people try to find ways to reach the right people
rather than solve the problem through official channels.
In fact, there are far more complaints against insurance companies; dissatisfied clients simply do not report every
case to the FSC, and many simply do not know that
such a body exists.
For our part, we can say that litigation with insurance companies continues. Most complaints concern understatement of the amount of damage and unlawful refusal of insurance payouts. Claims are usually brought by injured parties who are dissatisfied with the service of the at-fault party's insurance company.
Many believe that amendments to the law on compulsory insurance should change the situation. Great hopes are placed on so-called "direct settlement". It works like this: you receive the money from your own insurance company, and it then deals with the at-fault party itself. The only "but": the at-fault party must provide your company with the original of their policy, otherwise there will be no payout.
On the one hand, direct settlement should simplify the payout procedure, but on the other hand, a not very positive trend has emerged: due to a significant increase in insurance prices (3-5 times), many drivers postpone buying a policy "until later" or refuse to buy insurance altogether.
So, let us briefly sum up.
All insurance companies are financially stable and reliable.
Amendments to the law on compulsory insurance should improve the situation in the insurance market; however, you cannot always be sure that the at-fault party will have an insurance policy and that no problems will arise with the payout. To avoid a situation where the at-fault party has no compulsory insurance policy, it is advisable to take out additional, so-called "two-way insurance" (for details, see "The at-fault party is not insured. What should I do?")
Frequently asked...
1. Why do insurance companies often assess damage poorly, yet face no consequences for it?
Previously, insurance companies could assess damage on their own. This led to many complaints and claims from clients. Now insurance companies are required to engage independent experts for valuation who hold the appropriate licence and have undergone special accreditation with the Financial Supervision Agency. Given these changes in legislation, we can hope for a reduction in the number of complaints related to inadequate damage assessment.
If the insurance company nevertheless calculates an amount that does not satisfy you, you will have to prove your case in court. If the case is resolved in your favour, the insurance company is obliged not only to pay the difference but also to reimburse in full your costs of additional expert examinations.
More detailed information can be found in "If the insurance company has calculated too little."
