Having adequate insurance for the replacement or repair of your car if you are in an accident is wise, but what if you are responsible for damage to someone else’s car or, worse still, you cause someone injury?
Are you thinking, no, not me, I’m the most cautious driver in the world. Suddenly, you’re distracted by a text message or the juice you’re drinking spills on your new shirt. Bang! You hit the car in front of you because you took your eyes off the road for two seconds.
What now? The damage to your car is pretty bad (but thankfully you have insurance so that’s ok) but the damage to the car you hit is seriously bad … and the driver’s asking for your third-party insurance details.
The driver is also clutching his arm and wiping a bit of blood from his forehead.
Oh no! What now? What is third-party insurance?
Standing on the side of the highway in this situation is not the ideal time to realise you should’ve taken out third-party insurance after all.
So, what is third-party insurance?
This type of insurance covers you only against third-party claims if your car is involved in an accident in South Africa and you’re legally liable for damage to another person’s car.
Third-party insurance doesn’t cover your car for loss or damage.
Hollard’s third-party insurance includes reasonable legal costs, cover if someone else drives your car and cover if you drive a car that doesn’t belong to you.
Are some of these scenarios ringing a bell? Remember when you loaned so-and-so your car recently and they knocked the neighbour’s child off their bike? Or, the day you had to borrow your dad’s car because yours wouldn’t start and you were involved in a bumper bashing.
You’re still struggling to pay those debts off and you were very lucky your neighbour’s child wasn’t hurt or the damages claim could have been ten times higher than simply replacing the bike.
You could scratch someone’s car door with yours in the parking area at work or hit a cyclist while driving home … the bottom line is that without the right liability insurance, a third-party claim can ruin you financially.
In the words of Dan Simmons: “Accidents are like death. Waiting for us everywhere. Inevitable. Unavoidable. Plan as we might, they defy our planning.”
That’s a fact. Accidents happen, to even the most cautious of drivers.
And, unless you’ve won the Lotto, if you are the cause of an accident in which someone’s property is damaged or they’re injured, you’re going to have a hard time paying for it without the proper insurance.
Protect your financial future and yourself from the unexpected with a quality third-party insurance policy. Remember to always read the fine print so that you know exactly what you’re covered for.
Get the right third-party cover from the experts at Hollard. We can help you plan for the unexpected.
