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5 Essential Tips for Driving Safely with Children

5 Essential Tips for Driving Safely with Children

Sep 10, 2019 | Blog, King Price

Keep your little 1s safe on the road.

 

March madness means different things to different people. To us in sunny South Africa, it refers to the increase in accidents on our roads over the March and April holidays. This is meant to be a glorious time with friends and family before launching back into school and work, but can often end in tragedy and financial hardship.

To change this and make it safer for you and your family to travel, we’ve researched the best tips for driving with children in the car.

Tip #1: Obey the car seat rules and regulations.

International research shows that the use of a properly fastened car or booster seat significantly reduces the chance of death or serious injury in crashes. In South Africa, new legislation was added to the National Road Traffic Act in 2015, stating that all children who are 3 years old and younger must be strapped into a car seat when travelling in a car.

Unfortunately, not many have heeded this legal requirement, with less than 7% of children in cars using car seats.

As parents, caregivers, and responsible adults, we need to step up, buckle up, and protect our children in the car. There’s no reason good enough, not even… “I’m only driving a short distance” or “I’m going to be driving overnight so the roads will be quieter.”

Tip #2: The best car seat to use.

Not only is the use of a car or booster seat a legal requirement, but it just makes sense. To help you find the best seat for your children, we’ve narrowed down which seats are suitable for the different age, height, and weight ranges.

There are 3 main types of car seats:

  1. Infant car seats: Rear-facing seats suitable for newborns up to 10 or 15 kilos, or up to 70 or 80cms, depending on the brand. These seats usually have a handle for easy carrying.
  2. Convertible car seats: Larger and heavier, these seats are known as 3-in-1 or all-in-1 models because they are rear-facing at first for newborns and can be turned forwards for toddlers up to 130cms in height or up to 18 or 36kilos, and lastly, can be converted into a booster seat for children weighing up to 45kilos. These ranges depend on the brand.
  3. Booster seats: These seats use the car’s seat belts to secure the seat and child, and are designed for children ages 4+, who weigh at least 18kilos (depending on the brand).

Helpful hints:

  • Check that the car seat has a certification sticker displayed somewhere on the seat, showing the important numbers and codes, including the required ECE and the regulation number, R44-04.
  • You can save more by buying a convertible car seat and use it at the newborn stage and then when your child grows up and becomes a toddler.
  • It can also be cheaper to buy a travel system, which is when you get the infant seat and pram sold together.

Tip #3: Correctly positioning everyone and everything in the car.

We all know by now that car seats and booster seats are placed in the backseat. But what about your older kids? The general guide here is that if your child is under 12 years old or under the weight and height of the average for a 12-year-old, they should also ride in the backseat. Not only can this age be extremely vulnerable in the front seat, but they can also be fidgety and distracting to the driver.

You should also consider where items are placed in your car. You don’t want to place a heavy or easily moveable item (even if it’s light) directly behind where your children are sitting. If you brake hard, these objects could fall onto them. If you have no alternative, then consider using cargo anchors to secure these items.

Tip #4: Insurance that includes emergency roadside assistance.

An accident, no matter how small, can have serious emotional, physical, and financial consequences. Having the right insurance in place will help you deal with the situation. What can really help you in these moments is access to a roadside assistance service that you don’t have to pay for.

King Price Insurance, for instance, includes a roadside assist service with their comprehensive car insurance. This service will tow your car to an approved destination if you’ve broken down or been in an accident and can’t drive. Through their roadside assist service, King Price will also send help if you’ve had a mechanical or electrical breakdown, flat tyre, flat battery, or if you’ve run out of fuel. They’ll even pay for accommodation for the night if you’ve broken down more than 100kms from home.

If you don’t currently have car insurance or if your current policy doesn’t offer this service, it’s worth getting a quote from King Price. Not only do they include roadside assist with their comprehensive cover, but your premiums will also decrease every month in line with the depreciating value of your car.

You can get a quote online, call their sales team on 0860 50 50 50, or send them an email using [email protected]

 

Always insure your car for its retail value

Always insure your car for its retail value

Jul 2, 2019 | Blog, King Price

Always insure your car for its retail value
 
When you insure your car, you can choose how much you want to insure it for. We don’t mean that you can choose the exact value. Like, you can’t go and choose to insure your 2009 Hyundai i10 for R180,000. Rather, you’re given 3 types of values for your car and you can choose between them. These 3 options include the market value, the trade value, and the retail value. Usually, you’ll read up on this info and be told what each is and then you get to decide which 1 is better for you. That can be useful… But knowing what the words mean isn’t always the most helpful guidance you can receive.
We’re going another way with this. We’re going to unpack what retail value means and then tell you why we think it’s a good value to choose when insuring your car.
 
What retail value is
An easy way to remember what retail value means is to think about ‘sales’. Because the retail value is the price that your car can go on sale for. Or if that’s too complicated and you don’t need a story to remember what this means, then basically, the retail value is the average amount that a dealer would sell your car for if it is stolen or written off in an accident.
The retail value of a car is generally higher than the market value, which takes into account factors like mileage, your car’s condition, service history, and accident reports. This results in a value that you could likely sell your car for if you were to do it privately.
 
Why retail value is good
Even though the retail value of a car is generally higher than the market value, it isn’t (as some people might think) a way to make you richer after an accident. You see, car insurance is intended to indemnify you, which is to bring you back to the same financial position you were in before the accident or theft.
And you usually can’t do that when you choose market value.
When it comes to retail value, your car will be insured for its full retail value at the time of the incident. So you’ll receive a pay-out equal to the amount that your car is worth when it was stolen or written off. Not the value it had when you originally bought it. So if you claim for your car, you’ll get the best pay-out if you insured your car for the retail value.
Some insurers will only insure your car for its full retail value, like King Price, because they so thoroughly believe that it is the fairest value to offer consumers. And because they’re big believers in keeping things fair, they don’t just look at the true value of your car when it comes to its insurable value. They also look at its value over time and how this impacts your car insurance premium.
To this end, King Price automatically calculates your car’s depreciating retail value and passes these savings onto YOU every month. This way, your car is still insured for the best possible value, at a super cheap premium that will decrease monthly. And why on earth should you pay the same premium every month for a car that only ever loses value?
If you want to save money on your insurance without having to lift a finger or do the calculations yourself, then get a King Price car insurance quote today.
Third Party Liability

Third Party Liability

May 26, 2019 | Blog, King Price

The deal with third party liability

Third party liability is a common name for the type of car insurance you can get to make sure that you’re not on the hook for third party costs in the event of an accident. If you break it down, ‘liability’ means ‘responsibility’, so if you’re liable then you’re officially and legally responsible. ‘Third party’ refers to the other person involved in the situation, like if you drive into someone else’s car then that person is the third party.
When people talk about car insurance, they generally want to convince you that comprehensive is the best option. And there’s merit to that argument. But that’s not what we want to talk about. We want to chat about third party costs and how this insurance could be the answer for you.

 

Third party costs

The reality is that accidents do happen. So, if you get into a car accident with another person, and it’s your fault, then you’ll be liable for the cost of repairing their car. These expenses could end up running into the tens of thousands. And that’s on top of whatever you need to deal with when it comes to fixing your own car.

 

Think about it…

Imagine that you drive what you consider to be a beautiful car. Beautiful because you own it, it’s yours, you look after it, and have we mentioned that it’s yours? Oh we did? Now imagine that you drive into the back of the latest Toyota Fortuner.
Take a second to consider just how much it would cost to repair even the most minor of scratches, let alone structural damage to the bumper of this kind of car. You’re possibly looking at R70,000 (maybe even more) because cars aren’t what they used to be and parts are increasingly more expensive. Anything that needs to be replaced needs to be ordered, there are labour costs involved, and even a spot of respraying to make sure it all matches up again.
It’s ridiculous how much it can cost to repair even the smallest of issues with cars nowadays, not to mention something more serious.

 

Third party liability saves the day

What this type of car insurance does is make sure that you’re not personally going to have to pay for any damage that you cause to someone else’s car. Given the costs involved, it’s completely worth it to take out third party liability cover.

 

How to get this cover

Comprehensive car insurance typically includes cover for third party costs, but if you can’t afford this option and your car is paid off and less valuable, then there’s a way to protect yourself from third party liability. Most (if not all) insurers also offer ‘third party, fire and theft car insurance’ and ‘third party only car insurance’. The first option covers third party costs and damage to your car by fire and the theft of your car. It costs less than comprehensive cover but won’t cover damage to your car if you get into an accident. This isn’t bad at all, especially considering how affordable it is.
But the cheapest way to cover third party costs, however, is to take out third party only car insurance. What you need to know is that the person whose property is being covered is NOT you. It’s only the third party involved, where you’re liable for the damage. In this case, a little cover is still way better than none at all!
You might not think that you’re super adventurous, but the fact is that we all take risks every day. Even making toast or getting out of bed can be risky. There’s no telling when an accident can happen, or who, or how many people might be involved. So make sure to cover third party car liability and prevent any unnecessary financial trauma from ruining your future.Click here to get a commitment-free quote in just 2 minutes or you can call 0860 50 50 50 to get in touch.

We found the cheapest insurance in South Africa

We found the cheapest insurance in South Africa

Mar 26, 2019 | Blog, King Price

We found the cheapest insurance in South Africa

Everyone is on about finding the absolute cheapest insurance around… But this can often be a bit more difficult than we think because so much goes into creating a person’s monthly premium. Your age, where you live, how long you’ve been driving for, how many accidents you’ve had, how often you go out with the valuables you want to cover, etc. There are just so many details that help an insurance company calculate an accurate premium to insure your possessions. Of course, we can’t avoid the fact that some (not all) companies still want their pound of flesh, so there’s that, too.

How do you find the cheapest insurance around, then? Well, the obvious answer is to compare quotes and then choose based on the lowest price for the best value. And that’s the best advice you can ever receive. But for right now, before you head out on the hunt, we can point you in the direction of the actual cheapest insurance we’ve ever seen: R1 insurance.

That’s right. R1 insurance. You know how the oldies are always moaning about how ‘back in the day’, you could go to the movies for 17c, buy a coke for 5c, or pay a R15 deposit on a car? Well, this should make them pretty happy. And you, naturally, because everyone wants to pay the cheapest price.

What is R1 insurance?

You’re probably thinking, what’s the catch? There doesn’t seem to be a ‘catch’ so to speak, because this is an add-on product. This means that you take out the bigger insurance policy and add cover for just R1 per month. After that, it’s pretty straightforward.

The insurer in question is King Price, and the bigger insurance policy is comprehensive car insurance, and the R1 cover is for expensive valuables that you tend to take out with you, like your hearing aid, shiny new bicycle, or prized golf clubs.

Why does it exist?

These are some pretty specific items that are listed, however they’ve been intentionally selected from a range of items that you might not always think to insure. While it makes sense to consider cover for your laptop or cellphone, we don’t always remember to cover a hearing aid or bicycle. How often have you heard of your friend/uncle/sister/colleague’s bicycle being nicked?

It’s for that reason that the royal insurer decided to help people out by offering the cheapest possible cover for items that might not be obvious to insure, and yet are really costly and inconvenient to repair and replace.

Is their car insurance worth the R1 offer?

Look, this is totally your call. King Price’s comprehensive car insurance does come with all the bells and whistles, they’ve been in the business for a number of years and they’re reinsured by Munich RE (which is a big deal in the industry). Let’s not forget that they also decrease your comprehensive car insurance premium every month, in line with the depreciating value of your car.

When you weigh all these benefits up against how much your premium would cost if you were to insure your bicycle/golf clubs as a separate portable possessions policy, to your (non-decreasing) car insurance from another insurer, it makes sense to get a commitment-free quote, to see how you (and your budget) could benefit from the king’s royal touch.

The difference between mechanics and panel beaters

The difference between mechanics and panel beaters

Jan 30, 2019 | Blog, King Price

Car mechanics vs. panel beaters

The difference and why it matters

The process of having your car fixed is rarely (or should we say ‘never’) an enjoyable experience, even if you have car insurance to cover all the costs. At most, it can be satisfying to know your car’s getting some TLC and will be returned in tip-top shape. But that’s not quite the same as ‘enjoyable’. So long as it gets done, that’s about all we really care about (that, and when the car will be returned).

 

In fact, our concern doesn’t even extend so far as to know who’s dealing with the repairs. It could be a mechanic, a magician, or a panel beater. All we know is that the car’s in ‘for repairs’. To shed light on the subject, we’ve nailed down the differences between the 2 main car repair services and who you should see for what.

 

The deal with car mechanics

Many South Africans first think of visiting a mechanic if something goes wrong with their cars, especially after an accident. And they may be right. You see, car mechanics deal with the inner workings of your car, like not starting or making funny noises. These experts evaluate all your car’s mechanical systems and repair them using various tools and equipment.

 

Issues mechanics resolve:

  • Engine noises and other strange sounds.
  • The replacement of parts, such as the clutch or gearbox.
  • Malfunctioning air systems.
  • Misfiring spark plugs.

 

The list is seemingly endless, but only relevant to a car mechanic if the car has internal issues. If the car has body damage, then a panel beater is what you’ll need.

 

The deal with panel beaters

Panel beaters have nothing to do with the fixing of the inner workings of your car. These chaps are all about your car’s exterior and will take on the responsibility of repairing and realigning damaged and dented panels of your car’s bodywork. Much like mechanics, panel beaters have special equipment and processes, and rely on tools like files and grinding equipment, dollies, gouges, keys, chisels and clamps, and electrical equipment among others.

 

Issues panel beaters resolve:

  • Removing or smoothing out bumps, dents, and general crinkles.
  • Replacing damaged body parts and welding replacements in their place.
  • Straightening bent frames.
  • Aligning damaged frames, body sections, and unit bodies.

 

Panel beaters are also responsible for the final assembly and inspection for true fit, and will test your car to ensure proper connection and working components in electrical fittings, door handles, locks and lights. That’s as close as they get to being mechanics. If there are issues with these components that aren’t related to panel beating, they’ll refer you to a mechanic.

 

So, which service do you need?

There’s nothing worse for your car than getting the wrong repair service to take responsibility for the repairs. A panel beater shouldn’t fix your fan belt and a mechanic shouldn’t realign your bumper. It’s absolutely not a case of letting just anyone screw and bolt together parts with any old tool. Not only can it lead to more issues down the road (literally), but it could endanger your life.

 

The best way to think of it is this way:

  • Internal problems = car mechanic.
  • External problems = panel beater.

 

Each is equipped with the right knowledge and expertise to restore your car to its perfect self. A commonality that these 2 services share, however, is the fact that they can present you with unexpected costs that might not be affordable. No matter how reasonable the cost may be, car repairs of any sort are unlikely to be the same as the price of a bottle of milk. And you don’t want to skimp on these kinds of repairs.

 

But if you have car insurance from an insurer with a reliable reputation for putting their clients’ wellbeing at the front and centre of all that they do, then everything becomes that much easier to budget for. Take King Price, for example. The royal insurer treats all their clients like kings and queens, only uses royally approved service providers, and offers logical car insurance that decreases every month. Which is the best way to prepare for unexpected situations, like needing to have your door panel replaced after a minor argument with a parking lot pole.

 

Take a few minutes to get a quote online or call 0860 50 50 50 and let King Price help you prepare for the unexpected.