I was googling my name and keywords related to this website, when I stumbled upon this post.

http://tankinlian.blogspot.com/2005/11/we-give-26-discount-for-off-peak-car.html

It is a post from the blog of former NTUC Income CEO, Mr Tan Kin Lian. He was responding to a Straits Times Letter that I wrote in.

I was disturbed that I recently (then) purchased an Off Peak car (restricted hours usage for our foreign friends) and I was shopping around for insurance quotes but none of the major firms offered a discount for Off Peak Cars.

It simply did not make sense to me in actuarial sense (the maths that the insurance companies use to decide risk), since Off Peak Cars “spend less time on the road, (thus statistically) contribute to less accidents”

It amazed me and set the industry standard when MR Tan Kin Lian responded by reducing premiums 26% in a very competitive car insurance market. From that point on, many other firms followed suit, though not with such deep discounts.

We, as consumers, do have the ability to co-erce big companies to shift pricing structures when clearly there is a mis-match in pricing and consumer demands. Major corporations are in the business of making money and if there is an unnoticed gap brought up to their attention, they would generally want to have first mover advantage into that area.

Of course, not all companies would treasure customers and react so well- yet many do. Use capitalism, and privatisation to your advantage, ask for lower prices and take your money to the product that meets your needs.

Know specifically what you are paying for, then you can directly ask it from your service provider, because they are every busy on a daily basis as well. If you ask them to give a general discount. They have to spend time analysing how they can give you a discount. Directly tell them what to discount, and if they can, most graciously will.

Here’s an excerpt of the reply:

Editor
Forum page
Straits Times

Insurance premiums for off-peak cars are too high. Time to lower them

I refer to the letter written by Mr Winston Ng, “Insurance premiums for off-peak cars are too high…” (St Times Online, 19 Nov 2005).

Mr Ng felt that insurance premiums for off-peak are cars too high. He said that these cars spend less time on the road, contribute to less accidents and should enjoy a lower rate of premium.

We agree. In fact, NTUC Income now offers a discount of 26% to off-peak car owners.

NTUC Income insures nearly 40% of all cars in Singapore. We are able to use our large base of insured vehicles to calculate a fair premium rate for each category of risks, based on their actual claim experience. Our discount for off-peak cars is based on the actual claim experience for this category.

NTUC Income now insures 5,300 off-peak cars. This represents about 50% of the 11,000 off-peak cars in Singapore.

We are able to offer competitive premium rates because of our pro-active management of claims and satisfactory service. Generally, our premiums are about 10% lower than the market. The additional discount of 26% for off-peak cars make us even more attractive to this class of owners.

Tan Kin Lian
Chief Executive Officer
NTUC Income