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sligo
Joined: 15 Oct 2008
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 Posted: Tue May 26, 2015 7:24 pm Post subject: Car insurace |
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My wife (Korean) and i have just passed our driving tests and want to buy a car. How do we go about finding insurance?
Also, apart from buying and insuring the car, what other costs will we have to pay over the course of a year? the UK has a vehicle emissions tax (previously road tax) does Korea have anything similar? |
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Lazio
Joined: 15 Dec 2010
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| Posted: Wed May 27, 2015 4:22 am Post subject: Re: Car insurace |
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| sligo wrote: |
My wife (Korean) and i have just passed our driving tests and want to buy a car. How do we go about finding insurance?
Also, apart from buying and insuring the car, what other costs will we have to pay over the course of a year? the UK has a vehicle emissions tax (previously road tax) does Korea have anything similar? |
Whether you buy new or used, the dealership will be able to sort out your insurance. You can do it on your own as well. Your wife can check some companies online and have a rough idea what to expect.
Since you are both beginners and assuming young as well, your insurance for the first year will be pretty high. The younger and more valuable your car, the more expensive your insurance is. Engine size, number of airbags etc. all affect the final number.
Get a black box and you can reduce your insurance by 3 to 5%.
If you will drive less than 10,000km in a year, you should consider Samsung as they give you 12% discount. They give 4% discount for having a black box so that is already 16%. If you pay 600-800k (very rough guess) that is already at least a 100k less which is nice.
Although we both had licenses for many years and drove abroad and in Korea, we never had cars on our name so we were also considered beginners. Early-mid thirties, 2000cc engine and a 6 year old car. For the first year after the above mentioned discounts we paid around 750k. No accident and for the second year now it is slightly under 400k. Provided that we stay under 10,000km.
Apart from insurance there is also tax. I think it should be paid twice a year, around 100 or 200k at a time. Every two years there is a mandatory road worthiness check which costs a couple manwon. |
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Underwaterbob
Joined: 08 Jan 2005
Location: In Cognito
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| Posted: Wed May 27, 2015 4:15 pm Post subject: |
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| Also consider used cars. They are very unpopular in Korea (newnewnew!!) and thus there are some great deals to be had. |
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Steelrails
Joined: 12 Mar 2009
Location: Earth, Solar System
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| Posted: Wed May 27, 2015 5:06 pm Post subject: |
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AIG has stopped doing insurance in Korea now. Samsung insurance for foreigners is the way to go. 24 hour roadside assistance in English AND you're entire car is covered no matter who is driving, as long as they are licensed. If you have one car, you don't need any supplemental insurance for your spouse or anyone else who drives it. That means the drunk driver service random guy can drive your car and you'll still be covered. Other domestic insurance companies DO NOT offer this.
Prices were very reasonable. PM me if you want the contact information for the agent.
And 2nd what UnderwaterBob said about used cars. The key difference here is that Koreans consider a car old at 100,000 KM vs. 100,000 miles. I was looking down at the old odometer and seeing it creep up to 88,000. I was thinking "getting close to selling time", then I remembered that this was only like 55,000 miles which is just getting broken in. Keep in mind I picked up a 5 year old fully equipped sedan with 64,000km for the whopping price of 3.8 million won, listed at 4.3 million. It would probably be nearly twice that back home.
The one thing to be worried about is the warranty and any problems. Some places might be...unreliable when it comes to the new cars that pass through their lot. Check the records and make sure that if anything got replaced that is expensive and can easily be got to (say a new catalytic converter or tires) hasn't been swapped out for an older part. And do haggle. If there's damage and it ain't listed hit em over the head with it to lower the price. I got em on the brake pads (which are really cheap to get done here) and a slightly cracked tail light (which I didn't bother replacing) and some other insignificance of value.
(As an aside, not everything labeled "foreigner" is bad and sometimes we get privileges and benefits that Koreans don't, this kind of insurance being an example, but hey if its labeled "foreigner" it must be discriminatory and of inferior quality  ) |
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Bongotruck
Joined: 19 Mar 2015
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| Posted: Wed May 27, 2015 11:43 pm Post subject: |
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You had to throw that in there, didn't you, SR?
You couldn't post anything on any thread without taking a jab at expats, huh?
The thread is completely positive/neutral in nature until you posted this. Consider deleting your completely unhelpful attack on expats in Korea.
| Steelrails wrote: |
AIG has stopped doing insurance in Korea now. Samsung insurance for foreigners is the way to go. 24 hour roadside assistance in English AND you're entire car is covered no matter who is driving, as long as they are licensed. If you have one car, you don't need any supplemental insurance for your spouse or anyone else who drives it. That means the drunk driver service random guy can drive your car and you'll still be covered. Other domestic insurance companies DO NOT offer this.
Prices were very reasonable. PM me if you want the contact information for the agent.
And 2nd what UnderwaterBob said about used cars. The key difference here is that Koreans consider a car old at 100,000 KM vs. 100,000 miles. I was looking down at the old odometer and seeing it creep up to 88,000. I was thinking "getting close to selling time", then I remembered that this was only like 55,000 miles which is just getting broken in. Keep in mind I picked up a 5 year old fully equipped sedan with 64,000km for the whopping price of 3.8 million won, listed at 4.3 million. It would probably be nearly twice that back home.
The one thing to be worried about is the warranty and any problems. Some places might be...unreliable when it comes to the new cars that pass through their lot. Check the records and make sure that if anything got replaced that is expensive and can easily be got to (say a new catalytic converter or tires) hasn't been swapped out for an older part. And do haggle. If there's damage and it ain't listed hit em over the head with it to lower the price. I got em on the brake pads (which are really cheap to get done here) and a slightly cracked tail light (which I didn't bother replacing) and some other insignificance of value.
(As an aside, not everything labeled "foreigner" is bad and sometimes we get privileges and benefits that Koreans don't, this kind of insurance being an example, but hey if its labeled "foreigner" it must be discriminatory and of inferior quality ) |
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Steelrails
Joined: 12 Mar 2009
Location: Earth, Solar System
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| Posted: Thu May 28, 2015 3:41 am Post subject: |
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| It bears reminding. Sometimes foreigners get benefits which aren't available to Koreans. And no one is taking a jab at expats. I'm taking a jab at people who look at one incident without taking into account the whole. |
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sligo
Joined: 15 Oct 2008
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| Posted: Thu May 28, 2015 6:22 am Post subject: |
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| Thanks for all the replies. I am 36 and my wife is 31. I am looking to buy a low powered car, but i have noticed the (terrible) Larry King Lease car ads, and wonder how a lease car would be covered by an insurance company, and also how one would go about seeking out an ex-lease car to purchase. |
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Steelrails
Joined: 12 Mar 2009
Location: Earth, Solar System
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| Posted: Thu May 28, 2015 7:37 am Post subject: |
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| sligo wrote: |
| Thanks for all the replies. I am 36 and my wife is 31. I am looking to buy a low powered car, but i have noticed the (terrible) Larry King Lease car ads, and wonder how a lease car would be covered by an insurance company, and also how one would go about seeking out an ex-lease car to purchase. |
I'm not sure about the leases, I know that companies have been pushing them as of late. I imagine leased cars are covered at relatively the same rate as owned cars.
If you want a used car, SKEncar is the most popular site. However, while SKEncar serves as an umbrella, it is individual dealers who make up their system and quality might vary.
If you just need a no frills daily driver, try to stay under 2000cc for engine displacement as there is some sort of tax/rate increase for cars whose engines are above that. Note that most 2.0L cars will be labeled 1,997cc or something like that to skirt this regulation. |
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Bongotruck
Joined: 19 Mar 2015
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| Posted: Thu May 28, 2015 5:50 pm Post subject: |
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No, you injected negativity and politics into a thread about insurance.
You used someone else's query to take a left handed jab at a bunch of people you have an ax to grind with.
Get over yourself.
| Steelrails wrote: |
| It bears reminding. Sometimes foreigners get benefits which aren't available to Koreans. And no one is taking a jab at expats. I'm taking a jab at people who look at one incident without taking into account the whole. |
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sligo
Joined: 15 Oct 2008
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| Posted: Fri May 29, 2015 3:05 am Post subject: |
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| Bongotruck wrote: |
No, you injected negativity and politics into a thread about insurance.
You used someone else's query to take a left handed jab at a bunch of people you have an ax to grind with.
Get over yourself.
| Steelrails wrote: |
| It bears reminding. Sometimes foreigners get benefits which aren't available to Koreans. And no one is taking a jab at expats. I'm taking a jab at people who look at one incident without taking into account the whole. |
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Let it go, i want info about car insurance and deals on buying cars. f you want to attack, there are hundreds of posts he has made that will allow you to do such a thing. |
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