Car insurance from R180 per month – and you don’t pay if you don’t drive

Meet Alex Thomson of Naked Insurance, a high-tech company with vastly lower operating costs than most traditional insurers.

Can Naked Insurance disrupt its industry in the way that, say, Capitec Bank disrupted banking?

Time will tell, but its offering is compelling, especially now as South Africa sinks into an economic depression.

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Related article: You’re insured against Covid-19, not the lockdown – insurers to their clients

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Naked has vastly lower operating costs than most traditional insurers.

An artificially intelligent system manages policies, instead of call centres and brokers, thereby slashing expenses and enabling its low premiums.

Its car insurance premiums, for example, start at R180 per month while you can get home contents insurance for as little as R43 per month.

Naked Insurance allows you to pause your accident cover when you’re not driving – it calls this option “CoverPause”.

You’re still covered for theft or anything that happens to your car while parked.

During the first 35 days of the lockdown, 46% of cars that used CoverPause got 90% of their usual premium back.

The Money Show’s Bruce Whitfield interviewed Naked Insurance cofounder Alex Thomson.

The future of insurance will be defined by new entrants…

Alex Thomson, cofounder - Naked Insurance

There’s a lot you can do to make insurance better… A lot of people find insurance to be a horrible product… It feels that the insurance company is not on your side… Anxiety, when you want to claim, undermines the very idea of insurance…

Alex Thomson, cofounder - Naked Insurance

To get this right, you’ve got to keep it simple… Something you can fill in in seconds…

Alex Thomson, cofounder - Naked Insurance

With something as simple as car- or home insurance; there’s no problem with doing it yourself…

Alex Thomson, cofounder - Naked Insurance

Are you responsible? We can do [determine] that better… This is the wonder of artificial intelligence and data science… There are smart algorithms that can figure out crazy things…

Alex Thomson, cofounder - Naked Insurance

Claims in June have been a lot lower than before the crisis… There’s been a few people driving into the garage walls…

Alex Thomson, cofounder - Naked Insurance

If you genuinely forget [to turn off CoverPause], we’re pretty accommodating…

Alex Thomson, cofounder - Naked Insurance

We have plans to do so [expand internationally] …

Alex Thomson, cofounder - Naked Insurance

Listen to the interview in the audio below (clip will appear below this sentence within the next five minutes).

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