I Am About To Spend N1,000,000 To Buy My dream Car, But I Am Worried I Can’t Afford Comprehensive Insurance.

Dear Insurance Info,

I just saved up N1 million naira to buy a used car. I found a Toyota Corolla 2003 for that price and I am making plans to buy it. I saw your column on Nairaland the other day. Reading the column made me realise that I never factored insurance into my thinking.

Now I am worried and confused about spending another N50,000 for insurance. It took me almost a year to save up this money and I don’t have another N50,000.00 to buy comprehensive insurance. Should I wait to buy the car or go ahead and plan to add comprehensive insurance later?

Thank you,

Jude A.

Dear Jude,

First let me take this opportunity to congratulate you for raising N1 million in this tight economy. It shows that you are diligent and know how to follow through on a plan. If only our government can be as dedicated as you are to a plan, Nigeria would be a better country.

Now to your question, you have spent about a year raising N1,000,000,00 which is roughly about N83,000.00 per month. Like you, most Nigerians do not take insurance into consideration when buying a car.

If you buy the car and get the N5,000.00 mandatory 3rd party insurance, and the car gets stolen. Do you have another 1 year to raise another 1 million naira to replace the stolen car?

If you are afraid you will lose the car to another buyer, go ahead and buy the car, provided you have a safe place to park it, but don’t register it yet. If you can raise N83,000.00 per month then you can raise the additional N50,000.00 to buy the comprehensive insurance that you need.

Once again, congrats on the new car. I hope you make the right decision

Also see: Why comprehensive insurance is a must have

Do you have questions about car insurance or need guidance on how to go about making successful insurance claims? Do you have any question you would like us to answer? Send them to Insurance Info and please include the state where you live (no full names will be used).

By submitting your story to Insurance Info Nigeria, you understand and agree that we may use your story, or versions of it, in all media and platforms, including via third parties.