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Sompo Car Insurance: Budget Option For Luxury Car Drivers

Sompo's car insurance is a great option for drivers who value affordability over maximising coverage

Sompo Car Insurance: Budget Option For Luxury Car Drivers

Sompo's car insurance is a great option for drivers who value affordability over maximising coverage

4.0/5.0

ValueChampion Rating ValueChampion Icon

Third Party Damage
Workshop Type
Coverage for Loss/Damage to Vehicle

Pros

  • Offers emergency response team
  • Plans cost below average for luxury car drivers
  • Free NCD protector (30% NCD and higher)
  • Competitively priced

Cons

  • Focus and Gold plan customers limited to Sompo's workshops
  • Below average medical coverage
  • No personal accident coverage for passengers

Table of Contents

Luxury car owners looking for a low cost plan may find Sompo ExcelDrive's attractive prices and solid coverage an enticing option. However, due to its static coverage amounts and uncompetitive premiums for owners of mid-priced sedans and SUVs, it may not benefit drivers looking for high coverage or budget-friendly plans.

Sompo Insurance Quick Facts
Insurer Rating (S&P): A

What You Need to Know About Sompo ExcelDrive Car Insurance

For luxury car drivers or single male drivers who care more about saving money than maximising benefits, Sompo's ExcelDrive can be a good choice to consider. Its three plans, the Focus, Gold and Prestige, consistently rank as one of the most affordable policies when insuring cars like BMWs, Mercedes and Audis. Additionally, Sompo offers a number of ways to decrease your premium even further. This includes a 5% offense free discount, free NCD protection if your NCD is 30% and above for Gold and Prestige plans (other insurers usually charge extra), loyalty discounts and multiple car discounts.

This graph shows the cheapest car insurance premiums in Singapore for a male driver of a mid-sized sedan

ExcelDrive's overall coverage is not the most comprehensive, nor is it designed to cater to niche drivers. However, its emergency response service (MARS), waiver of standard excess, loss of use, repair warranty and personal accident coverage can appeal to drivers who want a plan designed to offer convenience for accident or damage related events. Additionally, Sompo covers a variety of events including damage or loss due to flood, natural disasters, typhoons and civil disobedience (riots/strikes). Towing costs are also reimbursed up to S$300 if you file an "own damage" claim after an accident. Lastly, there are options to purchase additional car accessories and personal accident coverage and an excess buy-up option where you can adjust your premium by changing your standard excess.

What is the cost?

For single males looking for a budget car insurance plan, Sompo's ExcelDrive Focus plan can be appealing with its 10-15% below average premiums. Its coverage compares favorably to other cheap plans that may strike out benefits in important areas to keep their prices low. However, the cost for female, married or young drivers under 30 is fairly uncompetitive, with premiums for those demographics hovering around the average or costing up to 10% above average.

If you own a luxury vehicle and are looking for a low-cost option among top-tier car insurance plans, Sompo's Gold and Prestige plans may be appealing. The Gold and Prestige plans cost 15% and 5% below average, respectively, even when including budget-tier plans in the calculation. On the other hand, the Gold and Prestige plans are not as competitive for drivers with mid-priced sedans or SUVs will find their premiums to cost between 5-20% above average.

Sompo's TPFT and TPO cost around 10% below the industry average for TPO and TPFT plans, so they can be a good option for cost-conscious drivers who have old cars that are not insurable under comprehensive policies. However, if you are looking to sacrifice coverage for the sake of a cheap policy, the TPO or TPFT plans will not be a good option. In fact, if your car is fully financed and you have a 50% NCD, you would actually be better off with Sompo's Focus plan as it is cheaper than the TPO and TPFT plans by around 25%.

What are the benefits?

For prices that are below average, Sompo's ExcelDrive Focus benefits include medical, towing, personal accident coverage and emergency assistance. The Focus plan also lets you waive your standard excess up to 50% or S$600 (whichever is lower) for one accident repair done at their preferred workshop. However, the Focus plan does cut out coverage for certain smaller benefits including loss of use and NCD protection.

Sompo's ExcelDrive Gold and Prestige plans add a free NCD protector if you have at least 30% NCD already, a loss of use benefit for S$100 per day for up to 10 days (highest on the market), and a waiver of up to S$1,000 of your standard excess on the first accident repair in the policy year. The main difference between the Gold and Prestige plans is that the Prestige plan lets you choose any workshop for repairs, making it a good option for those with luxury cars or have specialty car parts.

FeaturesLimit
Standard ExcessS$300-900
Accidental Loss/DamageMarket Value
3rd Party Liability (Death)Unlimited
3rd Party Liability (Damage)S$5 Mn
Medical ExpensesS$500
Death & Personal Accident (Driver)S$20,000
Death & Personal Accident (Named Driver)S$10,000
TowingS$500
WindscreenUnlimited w/ Sompo Workshop (S$100 Excess)
Roadside AssistanceYes
Young Driver Excess (25 and under)S$1,500

Though the Gold and Prestige plans may appeal as a low-cost option for luxury car owners or drivers willing to pay for safe-driving related discounts, we would not recommend these plans to those who are willing to pay more for higher coverage amounts. This is because medical, personal accident, towing and loss of use coverages don't increase from the Gold to the Prestige plan.

Sompo's Third Party Only and Third Party Fire & Theft plans cover only what is legally required: Third-party liability coverage and fire/theft coverage for TPFT plans. While this is common with most insurers, there are other options that provide additional benefits like towing or emergency assistance.

Where Does Sompo ExcelDrive Fall Short?

Sompo falls short in several areas. Its medical expenses benefit of S$500 is low compared to many other car insurance plans—even very cheap ones. Furthermore, Sompo's personal accident cover extends only to the policyholder and named drivers, and does not include coverage for passengers in your car. Thus, if you have a family or frequently carry passengers in your vehicle, this could be a significant drawback. If you want a policy that focuses on medical and accident protection, you can consider taking a look at a policy from an insurer like FWD or HL Assurance. Lastly, premiums for demographics like single women, married persons and young drivers are less competitive, so people looking for a low-cost plan that doesn't sacrifice coverage will find better options with insurers like Aviva or FWD.

How Sompo Fares Against the Competition

So how does Sompo's ExcelDrive compare against other popular car insurance offerings? Based on the premiums we saw, if you are a female or married driver (regardless of gender), and are looking for a budget-friendly plan, you may consider FWD, which includes a plethora of benefits in its base plans for premiums that are 24% cheaper. On the other hand, if you are willing to spend more to max out your coverage, or you want an affordable top-tier car insurance policy, insurers like Aviva could be more fitting.

BenefitsSompoFWDAviva
Accidental Loss/DamageMarket ValueMarket ValueMarket Value
3rd Party Liability (Death)UnlimitedUnlimitedUnlimited
3rd Party Liability (Damage)S$5 MnS$5 MnS$5 Mn
Medical ExpensesS$500S$500-S$5,000
Death & Personal Accident (Driver)S$20,000S$30K-S$75KUp to S$100K
Death & Personal Accident (Named Driver)S$10,000S$10K-S$25KS$100K (extra cost)
TowingS$500S$300Unlimited
Windscreen ReplacementUnlimited^Unlimited^Unlimited^
Roadside AssistanceYesYesYes (Lite plan exc.)
Daily Transport (Total limit)N/AS$240-S$800S$S$800 (Prestige only)
^ Unlimited if using insurer's approved workshops

Customisations & Other Options

Sompo ExcelDrive offers an excess buy up option where you can choose to increase your excess in exchange for lower premiums. The options are to buy down your excess up to S$200 for a lower excess but higher premium, or buy up your excess up to S$400 if you want a higher excess but lower premium. It's worth noting that Sompo's lowest excess option is around S$400 lower than other similarly priced insurers, which can be a good option for people who prefer paying higher premiums for lower out-of-pocket costs.

Sompo Car Insurance Exclusions

You should always learn what is considered an exclusion to your car insurance policy if you want to avoid getting your claims denied. When it comes to Sompo's car insurance, you won't be covered for damage that arises from depreciation, wear and tear, mechanical or electrical breakdowns or failures. You also won't be covered if you are driving without a license, under the influence of drugs or alcohol and if you fail to keep your car in roadworthy condition. Other general exclusions include:

  • Damage or loss due to detention, confiscation of car
  • Damage due to strike, riot, war, terrorism
  • Any liability that occurs because of an agreement that was made that otherwise would not exist
  • Any accident or loss that arises while the vehicle is in an airport
  • Any damage or loss arising from driving outside the geographically covered area
  • Damage that arises from now complying with requirement of authorities
  • Loss or damage to software

Sompo ExcelDrive Claims & Contact Information

To file a claim successfully with Sompo, you must report the incident within 24 hours, even if there was no damage or you are not making a claim under your own policy. The type of claim you file depends on how you submit it: Third Party or Own Damage (accident or damage) claims are to be filed at an ExcelDrive workshop and loss of use or windscreen claims can be filed by mail or by email (provided below). Similar to other insurers, if you are late in reporting an accident you will receive a 10% penalty on your NCD.

Contact Information
Car Accident and Emergency Breakdown Assistance+65 6226 3323
Customer Service Hotline+65 6461 6555
Claims Email (for windscreen claims)[email protected]
Claims InformationClaim Forms
Mailing Address05-01/06 Land Tower, Raffles Place, Singapore Land Tower, Singapore 048623

Is Sompo ExcelDrive Right For You?

If you are a male driver looking to insure a luxury car for a good price, then Sompo's car insurance could be a good option. However, the higher prices for female drivers and drivers of mid-priced sedans or SUVs means that Sompo may not be the best option for cost-conscious consumers. That said, the lower excess and the safe driving discounts may be a good choice for people who prefer to pay lower out-of-pocket costs and get rewarded for safe driving. Will this Sompo's car insurance match your needs? If you want to compare this plan to others on the market, check out our guide to the best car insurance plans in Singapore.

Methodology

Our reviews are based on a thorough analysis of all the car insurance plans available to purchase online. We created a baseline profile, which was a married 45-year-old male driving a new Toyota Corolla Altis 1.6 with 5 years of experience and a 50% NCD. To find the average pricing for the average sedan and SUV, we averaged the policy premiums for 4 most popular sedan models (Honda Civic, Mazda 3, Hyundai Elantra and Toyota Corolla Altis), 3 most popular SUV models (Nissan Qashqai, Honda HR-V and Toyota Harrier) and 3 most popular luxury models (BMW 530, Mercedes E200 and Audi A6) on the Singapore market. We also collected the same quotes for female drivers. To find out how competitive the prices were, we compared ase plans without any add-ons. This is because each insurer provides different benefits and there is not enough data to assume that the average driver chooses particular benefits.

For the benefits, we looked at how many benefits are included in the base plan as well as how much the extra add-ons would cost to add. We also looked at the type of benefits offered to find out which driver profile would benefit the most from which plan. Lastly, for claims, we looked to see whether emergency assistance was offered, whether you can file the claim online and other customer service conditions.

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Anastassia Evlanova

Anastassia is a Senior Research Analyst at ValueChampion Singapore, evaluating insurance products for consumers based on quantitative and qualitative financial analysis. She holds degrees in Economics and International Business Management and her prior working experience includes work in the capital markets sector. Her analyses surrounding insurance, healthcare, international affairs and personal finance has been featured on AsiaOne, Business Insider, DW, Vice, Her World, Asia Insurance Review, the Australian Institute of International Affairs and more.

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