Car insurance question

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gonbechan
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Re: Car insurance question

Post by gonbechan »

First thing you need to do is call another insurance company (or two) and get a quote for a comparable cover plan (as close to what you have now)
Here is Kakaku.com kuchikomi ranking http://hoken.kakaku.com/insurance/kurum ... 6_ppc.html
Tokyo Kaijo is the JA of car insurance, most people use them because, well, most people use them.
In recent years, people have been moving away from them.

Second thing you need to do is call your guy and ask him how much points you have.
Basically in Japan insurance companies rate you on 1~20.
Several things effect your rating and payment.
1. your age and sex
2. the make and model of car you drive.
**rating for this is done on the amount of accidents that occur with that particular model, so for example a honda accord or a toyoto corolla would have higher premiums than lets say a nissan stagea only because the former 2 are way more common than the latter, whereas a nissan silvia, skyline or a lancer evolution automatically will cost more than any of those, because they are generally only driven by drift and speed freaks.
3. your licence colour and how many years you have been driving. Gold gives the best points.
4. having claimed on insurance or not
5. how many years you have been with them
6. how many people are insured to drive the car and their age and sex if limited.
7. how much you are insured for.

the rest is magic and random.

Once he tells you, or doesn't tell you your ranking, let him know you have gotten quotes from two other companies (trust me, they will be cheaper) and are now thinking of changing over. Things will happen.
Just remain very calm when you talk to him. If he gives you an answer you don't like, just remain silent. If he asks you if you are still there, just say hai.

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Zasso Nouka
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Re: Car insurance question

Post by Zasso Nouka »

Did your wife indicate what direction the changes would be in ? Would be nice if it wasn't always insisted that the blame be partially shared when an accident is obviously the fault on one party.

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gonbechan
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Re: Car insurance question

Post by gonbechan »

One thing about Japanese insurance companies, when it comes to payout for injury, they really do not quibble at all.

Years ago I was rear ended at a toll booth by a twat in a rental car. I was stopped in stationary traffic jam at the booth and the guy hit me full speed from the rear, his car actually going under mine and lifting the rear wheels right up.
I had pretty bad back injury and of course whiplash. Accident 100% fault of other car.

I went to emergency hospital and then later to my local doctor who had me come in for therapy 3x a week. He also recommended daily therapy at the seikotsuin to try and realign my back and for acupuncture. I went daily for about 3 months. It became obvious that nothing was ever going to be the same and the doctor spoke to the insurance company. I was offered to either have them continue paying for a while more or take a largish meiwakukin settlement.

I know that in a more litigious country I could have gotten quite a bit more dosh, but considering that I did not even have to have any contact with the insurance company besides accept money from them, and the fact that I had a previous back injury that added to the injury from the accident, I thought it all went pretty smoothly.

Claiming for the car was another story, but was helped by the fact that they had to pay for a rental car for me while they dithered on about how much they would pay, in the end they gave in because the rental fee was fast outstripping the difference they were arguing over.

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Re: Car insurance question

Post by Zasso Nouka »

It does seem very unfair insisting that both parties share some of the blame when clearly one party contributed nothing to the accident and the other party was wholly to blame. We had someone go into the front of us while we were stationary at some traffic lights because she was too busy doing something with her mobile and when the police turned up they insisted that it was 20% our fault. Didn't help that the older policeman said to my wife it probably wouldn't have happened if our car had been driven by a man instead of her :eek:

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Re: Car insurance question

Post by akikana »

Slightly off car insurance but still on topic with Japanese insurance companies. I worked a few years ago in Thailand helping out with flood relief efforts for the firm I was employed with. We had a number of high profile Japanese companies with flooded factories that needed our help. We reviewed their insurance documents and found out if they had coverage and how best to claim - in some cases they even would have coverage to pay employees at a slightly reduced rate just to keep them employed whilst flood water damage was being repaired. A few of these companies refused to claim as the insurance company they were dealing with was part of the same conglomorate...happy to pay premia but not happy to claim.

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