Welcome to the home of amazing car insurance. Our coverages from Caser seguros are next to none when it comes to value for money.
With a wide variety of different covers and a ton of extras, policies can be custom build to your specification. Whether you have a brand-new sports car or a second-hand run-around, we’ve got you covered (no pun intended).
There are 4 main levels of cover you can take relating to car insurance specifically, not including optional extra covers that can be added.
This is the aforementioned minimum legally required cover. It essentially covers nothing more than damages to third parties (it’s in the name), meaning that personal liability is included as well as some other legal requirements such as legal defence cover. This is a cover that is really rarely recommended for customers but is often chosen by owners of very old second-hand vehicles.
What’s important to be aware of here, is that other than you, the policy holder, being legally permitted to drive with this insurance cover, your vehicle and you personally have no cover for per sonal damages in the event of an accident.
To put this into perspective, should you unfortunately be involved in an accident that is deemed to be your fault, where bot h your vehicle and a third parties’ is damaged, your insurance will only cover the damages to the third parties’ vehicle. You would have to pay for your own repairs and possible medical expenses, should this be necessary.
Naturally the cost of repair for accidental & deliberate damages caused to your vehicle, would also fall to the owner of the vehicle, unless covered by another unrelated policy.
Third-party cover with windscreens does exactly what it says it does. Essentially, the policy is no different to the normal third-party cover previously mentioned, including all of the legal and liability aspects. The only addition is that damages caused to your windscreens / windows are covered, without additional expense for yourself.
This level of car insurance cover usually only marginally increases your annual premium, and is generally recommended, even for those who have older cars that already have minor damages and dents, as windows need to be in good condition to make the car legal to be used on the road.
What this means is that even a chip in your windscreen could cause a failed ITV and sanction from the policy, forcing you to fix/ replace the windscreen, which can be costly.
Here we have another upgrade from the basic third-party cover. Again, covering all of the two previously discussed covers, including personal and physical damages for third parties, along with the legal cover and windscreens.
This level of cover, however, also includes fire and theft, which is considered the best kind of cover, short of fully comprehensive, which we will get into next. In essence, fire and theft is another product name that is very on the nose in terms of what aspects of insurance it includes.
The fire aspect means that you will generally be covered in case your vehicle is irreparably damaged due to a vehicle fire. In the event of a vehicle fire the policy holder will be paid out in-line with the book value of your vehicle at the time, something that the previous third-party covers do not include.
This aspect of the cover relates to the eventuality that the insured vehicle is stolen and possibly never recovered. In this case, similar to the fire aspect, the policy holder would be paid out the amount of the book value of the car at the time, allowing them to hopefully pay for, at least in part, a replacement vehicle, without them having to cover the full costs of this unfortunate possibility.
Again, as with the fire cover, you will not find this included in the basic third-party or third-party + windscreen levels of insurance.
Third-party fire and theft insurance is considered the industry standard for the majority of users. As it offers a middle-ground in terms of value for money. It is highly recommended for those individuals who have new or second-hand cars, wanting good cover for their vehicle without the higher premiums associated with fully comprehensive. Naturally it comes down to personal preference and affordability in this instance but the increase from other third part covers is marginal when you consider the additional features included comparatively.
We have now arrived at what is considered the highest level of cover available to users.
Fully comprehensive in this case is understood as a cover that, in addition to all of the afore mentioned levels of cover, also includes personal damages. We touched on this subject in the third-party section briefly. In the event of an accident occurring, with this level of cover, not only will the damages caused to third parties be covered, but your own personal and vehicle damages would also be covered, without you needing to ‘cough-up’ for the associated expenses.
Certainly, this level of cover is considered to be common sense for individuals who have bought a brand-new car or indeed, a second-hand car with low milage or one that is still quite new in terms of its assembly year.
The level of cover included with this kind of policy often has higher pay-outs as well, given the potential value of a newer vehicle. Not only that, but the personal injury, disability or death covers are usually valued higher as well, whereas the lower tiers of cover previously discussed, are lower or sometimes not included at all. So, in essence, it’s worth considering this kind of cover irrespective of which car you drive or how old it is, as personal injury is a very important aspect that is often overlooked when taking out a policy.
Built into fully comprehensive cover, are two different modalities relating to excess payments (also known as co-payment). We’ll go into more detail about this below but in-short, fully comprehensive comes in two variations when it comes to claims for personal vehicle damages. The first being without excess, which means that you do not contribute any additional payment when making a claim. The second being with excess, where you contribute a fixed fee towards each claim. It is a little more complicated than that however, so allow us to detail the main differences:
This is the simplest version of fully comprehensive cover to explain. It simply means that in this level of cover you can make a claim for accidental damages to your vehicle as well as damages caused by an accident, where the policy holder/ driver is at fault and the third party (if applicable) is not liable to compensate for them.
What this means, is that you can have your own cosmetic and mechanical damages fixed by a professional, at your leisure, without the need to pay for it. Equally, should you be at fault for a collision or accident, you can get your car repaired. In the lower levels of cover, you do not have this option, at least not without paying for it in full yourself.
Here, access to the features of fully comprehensive cover is no different to the previous. You have access to the same repair options to your own vehicle with one difference, you pay a fixed fee per claim you make.
This fixed fee is your own choice at the time of taking out the policy, generally in sums of €100, €200, €300, €600. Here you chose how much you would contribute to your own claim, with the insurance provider covering any sums above and beyond that sum. If for example your mechanic quotes you €1000 for a specific or overall repair, you would contribute the amount chosen towards this repair, and no more. It’s important to note here, that should the repair be below your chosen excess, you’ll cover this amount yourself, as you would be doing so regardless, due to your insurance only covering the remaining amount above that value.
That’s a good question, but the answer is simple, the price of the policies premium. Fully comprehensive policies are essentially the highest level of cover available, and this means that the premium (the amount you pay your insurer annually) is generally also the highest.
The way we can mitigate the increase in the premium costs, is to apply the excess option. In this case, the higher the chosen excess, the lower the annual costs of the policy are. The benefit here is that, should you not make any claims, you are keeping your annual costs low, in exchange for contributing a fixed amount to your claim, in the event of needing to make one to your insurer.
This is a great way for more people to have access to a comprehensive policy which might otherwise not be affordable for them.
In Spain, you are legally required to have insurance not only for cars, but for any motor vehicle you own. What some people don’t know is that this applies regardless of whether the vehicle is in use or not.
The law states that “All owners of motor vehicles that are habitually located in Spain are obliged to contract and keep up to date, an insurance policy for each vehicle owned, which covers up to the amount of the extents of the civil liability of compulsory insurance, as referred to in article 1…”
What is important to note is that the legal text does not distinguish between vehicles that are in use and those that are stationary or not currently in use. What this means is that, in theory, there is a legal requirement for vehicles you own to be insured with at least a basic policy, which essentially covers civil liability.
The main reason that insurance is mandatory lies in the civil liability aspect. While you may not be driving your car, meaning you personally wouldn’t be likely to cause an accident, other scenarios may lead you to be liable to pay for damages caused to third parties.
A common example would be your car being is parked in a private communal garage, where a fault in your car causes a vehicle fire which spreads to other vehicles parked next to it. You aren’t driving the vehicle and you haven’t caused an accident, but your vehicle being your responsibility, meaning that you are directly liable for the damages to the other vehicles, even though this occurred away from a public road. Your insurance would cover the costs incurred for the owners of the other vehicles in this instance, which could be substantial and potentially unaffordable for you personally otherwise.
Our car insurance policies, compared to others offer special variations and combinations of the discussed levels of cover, that normally is not available to you when you chose your kind of policy. With other insurers, you are locked into a policy and the limitations it comes with, without the option to mix and match certain features otherwise only available to those in higher levels of cover.
For example, we offer an additional cover for those with third-party covers called ‘Coche X Coche’ (car for car), where despite not having fully comprehensive cover, we offer a replacement vehicle to you from a set list of available cars in our catalogue which will be given to you to keep in the event of your current vehicle being irreparably damaged. This is a fantastic feature for those whom fully comprehensive polices are inviable, for whatever reason.
Another option we have aside from our 24h and 0km assistance with a courtesy vehicle included, is our one-of-a-kind ‘Caser Autohelp’ service.
Caser Autohelp, is a fantastic feature, where in the unfortunate event of an accident, for example at night, where you are on your own on a country road, we are able to locate you and automatically send emergency services to you, without the need for you to do anything. We do this by installing a very small device into your vehicle, which uses crash detection technology connected to a mobile application to know when an accident has occurred automatically geolocating you without need for you to interact with us, which is crucial if for example you may be trapped or incapacitated and unable to respond.
Our covers are extremely advanced, compared to your bread-and-butter car insurance, offering new features all the time, generally available to all customers, regardless of their chosen cover.
Naturally, we have exclusive offers and discounts for our expat clients, not available from anyone else along with sales and customer service staff who speak your language. You will also be assigned a local adviser, which will be one of our team, whom you can contact for queries at any time as well as 24h helplines in the event of urgent matters and claims.
To switch over to us, all you need to do is contact your current insurer with at least 30 days’ notice to request cancelation. In most instances this can be done over the phone but sometimes you will need to write to your insurer. We are of course more than happy to help you, by providing you with prewritten letters to send or finding out who you need to call.
Of course, you need to be aware of your renewal date with your current insurer and cancel no later than 30 days prior to the renewal, so and to avoid being charged and tied into another year’s contract. No matter the case, we’ll always do our best to assess your situation and advise accordingly.
Sound good? Let’s get you a personalised, no obligation quote today. Click below
Sebastian Dombrowicz
(Insurance Cover Spain)
Calle Canónigo Torres 8, 2c
03181 Torrevieja
(Alicante) España
DGSFP Registration: C0031X09920818K.
Registered agent for Caser Seguros.
Insurance Cover Spain © 2022-24 Sebastian Dombrowicz. All Rights Reserved. Service Provided by Sebastian Dombrowicz.
Sebastian Dombrowicz - NIF Number: X9920818K
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