How We Paid RM1.9k Instead of RM2.5k for Our Car Insurance [SPONSORED]

When the time came to renew our car insurance, we got a quotation from our existing provider: RM2.5k. 

For funsies, we (as in, my husband and I) did our research and cost comparison from most of the car insurance comparison portals out there, and managed to purchase the exact same coverage for just RM1.9k. 

We basically got the protection we wanted for RM600 or 24% less! 

So when Tune Protect asked if I could cover their car insurance product, I thought, What a happy coincidence – that’s exactly the product we purchased! Let me break down exactly what made us choose Tune Protect’s Motor Easy Car Insurance 🙂

First: Car Insurance Basics

Before we start, I just need to share the MANY factors that affect the price of your car insurance:

They are:

• Type of cover – Third party cover is usually the cheapest, and Comprehensive Cover is the most expensive. You can only get additional coverage, like flood coverage with Comprehensive Cover
• Value of your car – The higher the value, the more expensive the cover. A good rule of thumb is to follow market value
• The type of your car – the higher the theft ratings of your car, or the higher its general accident statistics, the higher the premium will be
• Your risk behaviour – depends on the driver’s age, gender, occupation, residence, claim history, and the frequency of car use
• No Claim Discount – you get discounts for NOT claiming car insurance, ranging from 25-55%. The longer you go without claiming, the higher the discount

Like other protection products, you don’t want the cheapest (not enough coverage) nor the most expensive (paying for coverages you don’t need). You want to get coverage for what you think is important. 

For us, we really just want these four things in our car insurance:

1. Comprehensive Cover (includes third party cover, fire and theft AND compensation for the vehicle for accidental collisions), and 
2. Special Perils (covers damage to the car due to occurrence of natural calamities, like flood, landslide, typhoon, etc), and
3. Windscreen coverage (read further below to learn how to avoid being overcharged!), and
4. Passenger liability

There are many other add-on coverages you can take, with added cost. Here are some optional add-on coverages that we DIDN’T take*, and why:

• Personal Accident cover – because we have our own insurance
• Coverage against damage to the car due to strikes, riot and civil commotion – we thought this is statistically unlikely
• Inconvenience allowance – if we can’t use the car, there’s always Grab or Socar
• And more, depending on the insurer (Tune Protect’s Motor Easy Car Insurance even offers Spray Paint cover but we thought we could live with an ugly car, as long as it works 🙂

*Note: These are our preferences. You can get them if they’re important to you. Simply select/deselect the ones you want/don’t want

By knowing what coverages we want, it makes car insurance shopping much easier – we could compare quotations on an apples-to-apples basis. 

This is how we ended up with Tune Protect’s Motor Easy Car Insurance – the quotation was just RM1.9k instead of RM2.5k from our existing car insurance provider, for the exact same coverage. 

Four reasons contributed to the lower price:

Reason #1: Affordable Special Perils as a Core Benefit

It’s really common to get quoted really cheap car insurance and then finding out it is only Third party cover, not Comprehensive Cover. Again, you need Comprehensive Cover in order to purchase Special Perils – the coverage against flood damage.

(You can get Third party cover if you’re on a tight budget and just want to get your car insurance renewal done, but getting Special Perils specifically for the flood coverage is non-negotiable for us)

When we checked, many car insurance quotations got significantly more expensive when you add on Special Perils. But it was a good price over at Tune Protect – the Tune Protect’s Motor Easy Car Insurance specifically has affordable Special Perils as one of their core benefits. 

Reason #2: 10% Discount for buying car insurance directly 

Another reason we paid RM600 less on our car insurance is because we got it directly from the Tune Protect website. Because of this, we got a 10% off discount 🙂

This isn’t a huge revelation or anything – no intermediaries means less markups. Intermediaries can be agents or even car insurance comparison websites. Our previous car insurance provider was the car dealer, who understandably would include their commissions in their quotation. 

Reason #3 – Promotions!

Always check if Tune Protect has ongoing promotions before you purchase car insurance – who knows you get to save some more!

Lucky for you readers, currently the So Early Arh?! campaign is running until 30 June 2023! We missed this one, but if we had taken advantage of it, we would have gotten RM150 in e-wallet credit!

You don’t even have to do anything extra – just purchase Tune Protect’s Motor Easy Car Insurance with at least RM800 in premium. For more info, check the T&C here.

Reason #4: We didn’t overpay for windshield protection

Here’s a tip for everyone wanting to get windshield protection in your car insurance – you should check how much it would cost to replace your car windscreen, and only cover that amount, not more. This will save you money. 

For example, one of the car insurance quotations we got said that our car windshield coverage is RM2000. But upon checking, it would only cost RM1500 to do the replacement, including labour/installation fee and quality solar tint film. 

If it only costs RM1500, why should we pay RM2000 for windshield coverage? Why would we want to pay coverage for the extra RM500, correct or not?

Here’s how to check your car windscreen cost:

• Step 1: Go to the Windscreen Insurance Price List
• Step 2: Select your Car Model and see how much it would cost to replace your car windscreen
• Step 3: Only cover that amount, not more

Unlike other platforms, Tune Protect’s Motor Easy Car Insurance makes it really easy to edit your car windscreen coverage during the purchase process – simply input the amount you want.

(For the other car insurance quotations we got, we had to request to decrease (or increase) windshield coverage manually.)

Bonus Reason #5: Up to 20% Refund for driving less

This particular reason won’t appeal to heavy drivers, but it does for light drivers like us. My husband and I don’t really use the car much: we work from home often. Our families are nearby, too. 

We won’t go out of the way to drive less than 6000km/8000km per annum, but if we somehow did that, Tune Protect’s Motor Easy Car Insurance would refund us 15-20% of our car insurance cost. 

Get Instant Quotation from Tune Protect Motor Easy Car Insurance

If you’re planning to renew your car insurance, it’s worth getting a quotation from them. Super easy process, too – simply go to Tune Protect’s Motor Easy Car Insurance and input your vehicle registration number, place of use and NRIC. 

We absolutely loved that we saved money with this product, and hope you will too with the tips I outlined above (don’t forget the windshield cover tip!). 

In any case, make it a habit to do cost comparisons for financial products and don’t just renew car insurance with your existing provider without checking what you’re paying for. A few hundred is a LOT to overpay in this economy.

All the best and happy driving!