Auto Insurance?

[ricardo]

I also did the three-year plan. Saves time and hassle.

[Roger Van Zant]

I drive a Suzuki Jimny. I have a blue license. I pay about 4350 yen per month for the 無制限 option towards other peoples' life and property.
My car is 14 years old, so I only have it covered for, I think, 50,000 yen.
I go through JA. I think I am at rank 8 on the Japanese scale of 0 - 20, 20 being the best driver you can be, and 0 being uninsurable.

[Tanuki]

Plenty of good advice here. Especially this one :

Definitely get unlimited cover for the other party. The minimal cost versus the life-changing consequences of a high cost claim make this a no-brainer in my opinion: insurance exists to cover the costs that would damage you

Personally, I wouldn't chase the cheapest insurance on the Internet. You get what you pay for, and if something hits you on the road, you'll have to deal with a call center operator.
In my experience, if you're insured through a car dealer or an insurance agent, and then something bad happens, you'll be assisted by somebody you know. I think it's invaluable.

To put in another way, car dealers and insurance agents know all the tricks on how to deal with insurance companies.
They do it all year long, they have the experience.
If you purchase insurance on the Internet and something bad happens, you'll be alone when dealing with the insurance company. Just my humble opinion.

[DragonAsh]

I bought our car insurance online. It was dead easy. Looked at kakaku.com, read up on some of options and sites, then decided on MS&AD, and the rest took all of 10 minutes. It was definitely faster than faffing around at the dealer, and significantly cheaper. Y19,000 a year. They send a postcard every year when it renews. Simples.

The site was in Japanese tho, don't know if MS&AD has an English site.

[TBS]

Heads up for anyone coming up to renew their auto insurance. I found this website useful for understanding the optional extras on the contracts here: https://www.insweb.co.jp/car/

In particular:

- The difference between personal accident insurance (人身傷害保険) and passenger accident insurance (搭乗者傷害保険). TLDR the former also covers passengers, and the latter is probably unnecessary now.
- This article on what the lawyer add-on (弁護士費用特約) covers. TLDR it is just accidents where you have zero responsibility. These will be rare for most car accidents due to the way the police divide the responsibility (80/20, 60/40 etc.) between the parties even if you basically did nothing wrong. They would probably only award zero responsibility if your car wasn't moving at the time.
- What the above market price repair cost insurance (対物超過修理費用特約) is.

Wish I had known about this website sooner - I'll be saving 3 man on my next renewal, partially due to removing the poor value add-ons.

[pfdsa]

Heads up for anyone coming up to renew their auto insurance. I found this website useful for understanding the optional extras on the contracts here: https://www.insweb.co.jp/car/

In particular:

- The difference between personal accident insurance (人身傷害保険) and passenger accident insurance (搭乗者傷害保険). TLDR the former also covers passengers, and the latter is probably unnecessary now.
- This article on what the lawyer add-on (弁護士費用特約) covers. TLDR it is just accidents where you have zero responsibility. These will be rare for most car accidents due to the way the police divide the responsibility (80/20, 60/40 etc.) between the parties even if you basically did nothing wrong. They would probably only award zero responsibility if your car wasn't moving at the time.
- What the above market price repair cost insurance (対物超過修理費用特約) is.

Wish I had known about this website sooner - I'll be saving 3 man on my next renewal, partially due to removing the poor value add-ons.

Thank you for this.
That`s valuable information. Had no idea about that "small" detail on the lawyer add-on...Guess I will properly check my contract to see if there is anything else that I should be aware off.

[TBS]

Thank you for this.
That`s valuable information. Had no idea about that "small" detail on the lawyer add-on...Guess I will properly check my contract to see if there is anything else that I should be aware off.

Thanks

AXA say the lawyer add-on can also be used for some other zero responsibility accidents, e.g. if you are out walking and hit by a bicycle, or bitten by a dog ( ) and the owners don't pay up your medical fees.

But yes, that "small" detail shocked me too.

[TJKansai]

Here is a data point.

My son just got his license, and our yearly bill will go from 50,000 (35 and up) to 80,000 (21 and up). Should drop back down after a couple years though.

Adding a scooter will mean an additional 10,000/yr.

My wife and I were resistant to paying the 250,000 for driving school, but he managed to sweet-talk her mother into paying for it. Hopefully, once he is a decent driver, he can return the favor by driving his grandparents around as they enter their eighties.

[TJKansai]

Thank you for this.
That`s valuable information. Had no idea about that "small" detail on the lawyer add-on...Guess I will properly check my contract to see if there is anything else that I should be aware off.

Thanks

AXA say the lawyer add-on can also be used for some other zero responsibility accidents, e.g. if you are out walking and hit by a bicycle, or bitten by a dog ( ) and the owners don't pay up your medical fees.

But yes, that "small" detail shocked me too.

We are using the lawyer add-on benefit now in order to negotiate with the insurance company of the guy who hit my son (who was on a bicycle and had 0 responsibility).