Car Insurance + Windscreen coverage

• 

  CheapAzChips on 21/09/2022 - 21:30

  Yep:

  AA

  AMI

  Most insurers either include cover with comprehensive policies or allow you to add it as an optional extra. The thing you're looking for is generally called "Glass cover".

• 

  Alan6984 on 21/09/2022 - 22:32

  Just to note - In about forty years of driving, I have never, not once, claimed on windscreen cover. About ten years ago, I decided to just take it off our policies, and 'self insure' for it. There will be people you know, or who post here (including me perhaps!) who will be outliers, but if my screen cracked tomorrow, I still would not pay to cover it. I can't be sure, but I don't know anyone else who has ever mentioned claiming on it, but I am sure there will be some, and people will post here telling you they have / do regularly. Maybe it matters where you live too - I have always been a city boy.

  More generally, I see no point in paying for insurance for something that I can easily afford to cover myself. I also increase our excesses to $2,000 since the saving in premiums has always been significant, when compared to having an excess of, say, $250 or $500. I should probably increase that to $5,000 now I think about it.

  The insurance companies know the odds - they make a profit, so it makes sense not to pay the premiums for things that you can cover yourself, as you will always 'expect' to 'lose'.

  What I can't afford, is going into the back of an old dunger that happens to be worth $100,000, so I need to be covered for the $95,000 that I can't afford to pay out, nor for the cost to replace my own vehicle if it were written off, so I do have comprehensive cover.

  Everyone is in a different position, so there is no single right answer in terms of the coverage or excesses, but as I say above, there is no point in paying over the odds (premiums) for something I can cover myself. If it made me feel better, I'd open a separate bank account, and put the savings from not taking windscreen cover, or increasing my excess, in there, and use it to cover any costs I do happen to incur.

  When assessing what you can afford, it is not just the dollars, but the degree to which you derive a feeling of safety and security from having insurance, and other intangible benefits too. If you are extremely risk-averse, maybe you have insurance up to (and over!) your neck, even if, from a purely financial / rational perspective, it doesn't make sense.

  Of course, my windscreen will go tomorrow now I have said this :-)

  Alan.

  • 

    bigcheese on 21/09/2022 - 22:38

    That’s impressive.
    When I started reading your comment you had been driving for 35 years and had changed to 40 years by the time I finished.
    I must be a slow reader - although it was a long comment.

    • 

      Alan6984 on 21/09/2022 - 22:45

      I continually find that I need to adjust my 'time-frames'.

      I might have a tendency to say, 'ten years', then think about it, and realise its been fifteen or twenty.

      Or maybe my memory is failing me, and

• 

  timmywinny on 21/09/2022 - 22:42

  Mas is great. Claimed on windsreen a few times, good for chips too

• 

  ace310 on 22/09/2022 - 08:53

  AMI covers glass coverage with bit extra I think. But I have claimed windscreen twice with them. both times got a flying stone from the car ahead and within hours, windscreen was gone. Both times on the way to rotorua/taupo. Bugger.

  But it was easy to claim and no access.

• 

  icecold on 22/09/2022 - 09:25

  I just had my windscreen replaced under AA comprehensive policy.
  No issues with the claim, sent to a repairer who quoted and was approved overnight, repair carried out same week.

• 

  aih-lun on 22/09/2022 - 11:58

  Glass cover is an optional extra that you can select for a policy with majority of the insurance companies.
  Glass cover, covers all windows not just the windscreen.

  I have Glass cover with AMI and it is an extra $60 per year, for me that's worth the cost to give me piece of mind to not needing to pay excess when I need to claim for broken glass.

  I know people who have bought the Glass Cover and then increase their excess from $500 to $1000, knowing that they do not need to anything for damage to Glass.
  Only excess on expensive repairs of write off.