The top 9 things you need to know about excess payments.
- The excess amount is the first amount payable by you when your claim is settled or paid out.
- It serves to motivate you to be more responsible, to take better care of your valuables and to prevent small, petty claims.
- Your excess payment will need to be paid directly to the service provider.
- If your claim is settled in cash, your insurance company will deduct the excess from the final payout amount.
- If the accident was not your fault, you’ll still need to pay an excess, but the legal team will try to recover the cost from the guilty party.
- A voluntary excess means that you’re paying a higher excess to enjoy a lower monthly insurance premium.
- Many insurers will charge you a proportionate excess (i.e you pay a set percentage of the final claim amount).
- Some insurers charge different excesses, depending on the nature of your claim (i.e. car theft vs. car accident).
- Some insurers will charge you an additional excess amount (on top of your usual excess) simply because you had no previous insurance or because you claimed during your first three months of cover.
You may be paying proportionate excess.
You may be asked to pay a proportionate excess. This means that you’ll be liable to pay a set percentage of the actual claim amount. Depending on where you’re insured, this can mean anything between 5-10% of the total damages.
For example: If your car gets stolen and the value of your car was set at R110 000 with a proportionate excess set at 10%, you’ll need to pay an excess of R11 000.
Other insurers often charge additional excesses.
If you’re not insured with us, you may need to pay your insurer an additional excess (on top of your usual excess) in case:
- the driver has a license other than code 08 / B / EB
- the driver has no previous insurance
- the driver only has a learner’s license
- you claim during your first three months of cover
- you claim for the same type of incident in the same 12-month period
- you obtained your driver’s license less than two years ago
- the incident driver is not the regular driver
- there’s no third party involved
- if you’re under a specified age
- if the regular driver is female and the incident driver is not
- if the accident occurs outside of South African borders
- if the event occurs between midnight and 5 o’clock the next morning.
For example: If you are insured and someone other than the regular driver drives the insured vehicle and gets into an accident, you may pay an additional excess.
Your excess amount may even depend on the nature of your claim
Chances are that your excess amount will vary depending on the nature of your claim. So, if you were involved in an accident, your excess will be different than if your car was stolen. Also, you may be paying a different excess, simply because your vehicle was damaged or stolen and not kept in your locked garage.
Frequently asked questions.
What is an excess waiver or excess buster?
This is where a client pays an additional amount on top of his/her premium every month so that if they ever need to claim, they won’t have to pay an excess.
If I’m insured and my vehicle is written off, what is the excess payable?
You still only pay the fixed excess amount.
I want to claim on my windscreen only, do I pay the vehicle excess?
No, you won’t need to pay the vehicle excess. In this case, you would only need to pay for the windscreen damages which mean that you can pay the (much lower) windscreen excess.
My car was broken into and I need to claim on my windscreen and for the damages to the car. Which excess applies? Do I have to pay two excesses?
You’ll only ever need to pay one excess amount. Usually the higher of the two amounts apply – in this case, this would be the vehicle excess.