<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR>Oct 30, 2009
MOTOR INSURANCE
</TR><!-- headline one : start --><TR>'Banned' after three claims
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><!-- show image if available --></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->I REFER to last Friday's report, 'Road tax offences creeping up again', which missed one reason motorists do not renew their insurance: Some, like me, cannot, although I tried.
My insurer, AIG, bounced back my renewal application, citing 'claim experience' as the reason for rejecting it. When asked, I was told that AIG would not renew policies on which two or more claims had been made and this was what was meant by the phrase.
I made three claims this year and this put me in that category. Worse followed. Subsequent applications to other insurers were rejected as well, and I now face the exasperating situation of being part of the statistic quoted in Sunday's report.
If the number of claims is a principal criterion in approving motor policies, why are insurers not upfront about it?
Should the industry not see it as its moral responsibility to be transparent and educate motorists on their rights and obligations, as well as the unintended consequences of claim issues?
Such education may in no small way help instil a culture of careful driving and even mitigate the excessive claims plaguing the industry.
In just two days and at one fell swoop, AIG wiped off my 25-year record of driving, because of one year in which three claims were made.
The days to my road tax renewal are numbered and increasingly I do not seem to see the light at the end of the tunnel, despite my appeal to all those prospects not to cast me out and prejudge me as a repeat offender.
What does the industry, and the Land Transport Authority, have to say?
Ong Choon Kee
MOTOR INSURANCE
</TR><!-- headline one : start --><TR>'Banned' after three claims
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><!-- show image if available --></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->I REFER to last Friday's report, 'Road tax offences creeping up again', which missed one reason motorists do not renew their insurance: Some, like me, cannot, although I tried.
My insurer, AIG, bounced back my renewal application, citing 'claim experience' as the reason for rejecting it. When asked, I was told that AIG would not renew policies on which two or more claims had been made and this was what was meant by the phrase.
I made three claims this year and this put me in that category. Worse followed. Subsequent applications to other insurers were rejected as well, and I now face the exasperating situation of being part of the statistic quoted in Sunday's report.
If the number of claims is a principal criterion in approving motor policies, why are insurers not upfront about it?
Should the industry not see it as its moral responsibility to be transparent and educate motorists on their rights and obligations, as well as the unintended consequences of claim issues?
Such education may in no small way help instil a culture of careful driving and even mitigate the excessive claims plaguing the industry.
In just two days and at one fell swoop, AIG wiped off my 25-year record of driving, because of one year in which three claims were made.
The days to my road tax renewal are numbered and increasingly I do not seem to see the light at the end of the tunnel, despite my appeal to all those prospects not to cast me out and prejudge me as a repeat offender.
What does the industry, and the Land Transport Authority, have to say?
Ong Choon Kee
