No Car Insurance Is A Crime

By Author: Andries Malan
Total Articles: 15
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In this day and age, there are many things that occupy our minds. We have lots of commitments, especially financially, to things such as bonds, cars, clothing accounts, credit cards, school fees - the list goes on and on. People tend to feel overwhelmed, and with the rising price of living with regards to inflation and interest rates, sometimes it feels necessary to cut costs wherever possible.

Unfortunately, most of the time people find things such as insurance, be it motor, household, or life insurance, a "luxury."
Imagine struggling to make ends meet - with regards to paying off a bond (if you're not renting), buying food, school fees and even the price of petrol would you stop to think about adding yet another bill to the pile at the end of the month for something that may never happen?

Logically speaking, there is no guarantee that your house will be robbed, or that you will have a car accident.

Now, here is a point I want to bring to attention, one which many people may not consider. When one thinks of car insurance, they think of having a car accident. They think of needing money should they ...
... be involved in a motor vehicle accident, be it their fault or someone else's. Relatively speaking, this is probably the most likely reason for needing car insurance. But picture this - you have your brand new car; you've worked hard to save to be able to afford to have it, or perhaps you've had your car for years; regardless, it is your most precious possession, and something which is absolutely necessary for getting from A to B. Now imagine you walk out of the grocery store, or into any parking lot where you have obliviously parked your car. You walk around and around in circles, so sure that you parked right there, but yet, you can't find your car. A sense of panic begins to rise into you as you realize your treasured motor vehicle is nowhere to be found. It has been stolen.

Irrespective of needing car insurance for motor vehicle accidents there is another reason one would need it. Crime. One of the biggest threats to South African society there is. Nowadays there is frighteningly large amount of people walking into parking lots, who are being hit with that sinking feeling of realization that their car has been stolen. If that happens and you do not have car insurance, what then? How would you afford to buy a new car without the deposit of selling the old one?

In addition to that aspect of crime being a threat to your motor vehicle, you have to consider the amount of motor vehicle parts that are stolen consistently.

It takes someone twenty minutes to steal the tires off your vehicle. Five minutes for the hubcaps and round about the same amount of time to steal your car radio. These are seemingly "small" things to steal in relation to your car but the cost is still going to be painfully high, especially if you do not have the spare money with which to pay.

And yet, people continue to carry on with the daily activities of their lives, feeling that car insurance is a "luxury" because they may or may not have a car accident. This seems to be a chance they are willing to take. Regrettably, the odds of loss in that respect are far higher - seeing as one could be out of pocket with regards to their motor vehicles in a number of ways; be it an accident, the theft of the motor vehicle, stealing of property related to the motor vehicle, and even, chillingly, hijacking.
In South Africa, 12 825 motor vehicles were hijacked in the time frame of March 2005 - March 2006.

12 825 in one year. Suddenly, the odds of losing your car seem much, much higher. To add even more horror to this statistic I will add an important detail - these are only the hijackings that have been reported amongst insured people. The true number is far more elevated than 12 825.

In conclusion, the mindset should be changed to that of a sense of urgency, rather than that of an "unnecessary extra monthly expense."

Motor vehicles are valuable assets, very useful and very lucrative. It is time to realize that it is not only the good and honest people who identify this.
Andries Malan is the owner of http://www.quantisure.co.za, a website that offers comparitive quotes for the cost conscious cheap insurance quote shopper in South Africa.