Insurance and Car Insurance in Mauritius (Draft version

Insurance in Mauritius

Insurance is a service provided by insurance companies to both commercial organizations and individuals in order to cover the latter in case of mishaps. Risk is a key feature of insurance and the objective is to protect oneself against an uncertain loss. Insurance companies thrive on the risk averseness of customers in order to market their different products.

Insurance companies provide different types of insurance to their customers. These include commercial and personal insurance.  Some companies like Swan insurance in Mauritius offer insurance for pleasure craft, travel insurance, medical insurance,  household and liability insurance,  and car insurance.  

Car insurance

Regarding car insurance,  SWAN provides online details of the available insurance covers for cars and a hotline is provided for contact. Mauritius Union General insurance provides a practical way (click and go) of obtaining a quotation for car insurance online but also to pay for the same insurance by the same means. This is very practical and avoids a great deal of hassle. Generally speaking, most insurance companies provide a hotline or email in order to understand the needs of the client and formulate a quotation accordingly.

Generally speaking, the older the car, the more reluctant the insurance company is to cover the customer. This makes sense as such cars are prone to accidents due to wear and tear.  Also given that the value of the insurance cover tends to be correlated to the value of the car, it will tend to be lower for older cars. Hence, with higher risk of accidents and lower revenue from the sale of the insurance policy, insurance companies generally try to avoid to provide such insurance covers for old cars.

In car insurance it is important to understand the concept of excess. Put simply excess is the amount the customer has to pay before the insurance company starts to pay. For instance if the damage amounts to Rs 3000 and that the excess is Rs 2000. The insurance company will refund only Rs 1000.

Car insurance : a legal requirement

It is to be noted that to be able to validate their fitness certificate, all drivers in Mauritius should be insured with an insurance company.