'Check that your car cover is in place, as insurer won't call you about any changes' - Wendy Knowler

Insurance policies are often referred to as 'grudge purchases', but car cover is the one form of insurance that most people do view as necessary.

However, on The Money Show this week, consumer journalist Wendy Knowler asks an important question that you should be asking yourself: 

"Are you paying your car insurance premium every month, believing you'll be covered in the event of an accident or theft, when in fact you have no chance of a successful claim?"

SOME REASONS YOU MIGHT NOT BE COVERED:

• Your teenaged or 20-something child is actually the regular driver of the car, not you, as you told your insurer.
• You live in Gauteng or KZN and drive a car statistically at high risk of being stolen or hijacked. You didn’t need a tracking device, or only a basic one when you took out the policy, but your insurer made tracking requirements more onerous and you missed those emails.
• You changed address and didn’t update your details with your insurer.
• Unbeknownst to you, your premiums weren’t been debited.

Knowler relates the story of a consumer who learned the hard way that her premiums were no longer being debited - it can happen more easily than you think!

Margaret lost her credit card and cancelled it, but neglected to update her details on her insurer's app. Then, the car in question was rammed by a taxi and she discovered upon claiming, that her cover had lapsed.

"In other cases the companies contacted me about nonpayment and I was able to rectify it, but I didn't hear from Naked Insurance."

To avoid this expensive and time-consuming kind of trap, Knowler's advice is contact your broker or your insurer directly, and make sure your cover is in place.

"They WILL NOT PHONE YOU to say your policy is cancelled or they've removed theft and hijacking cover from your policy, because the Policyholder Protection Rules do not require them to, is what Santam told me when I took up one of those 'no tracking device, no claim' cases."

You may have missed the emails about any changes, so PHONE THEM, the consumer ninja urges.

RELATED:

• Beware the hidden traps in car hire contracts: Read ALL the Ts and Cs!
• Mind the insurance gap - how a couple's first-time car purchase turned into heartbreak

Scroll up to the audio player to listen to the full discussion