As you buy your new car the first thing you should do is to sort out the insurance on it. Apart from the fact that it’s a legal requirement, arranging proper insurance to cover damage and possible repairs to your car is the smart thing to do. But what about your car tyres Shrewsbury?
Tyre insurance is one of the many finance and insurance schemes that car dealerships will try to convince car buyers, along with GAP insurance scratch, key insurance and other types of assorted policies.
The main purpose of buying tyre insurance is to cover you if one or more of your car tyres are damaged and not repairable. This can happen because of accidental damage such as bouncing off a pothole or malicious damage such as putting a knife through your tyre.
Some people opt for tyre insurance because they know the importance of covering the rest of the car against accidental or even small damage. Tyre insurance usually comes with more expensive vehicles that are equipped with large alloy wheels or big off-road tyres, as are expensive to replace.
Most of the car brands also come fitted with run-flat tyres, which can not be repaired like a normal car tyre. In simple words, you can say run-flat tyres are replacement tyres for even minor damage.
The tyre insurance premiums will based on the type of car, its wheel size and performance, so the cost of tyre insurance for a small cast will be significantly cheaper than for a high-end supercar and sports cars.
What Does Tyre Insurance Cover?
Tyre insurance covers unwanted damages caused by an accident. For example, bumping on a big pothole or a blow-out as well as malicious acts like slashing. Your tyre insurance will pay you for replacement tyres and will not for repairs to your existing tyres.
Small wear and tear are not covered in the tyre insurance. As you know the tyres wear naturally as you start using them and after their lifespan is completed you need to replace them. A new tyre will have about 8mm of tread and the minimum legal tread depth in the UK is 1.6mm.
Insurance providers have fairly strict rules and regulations for what they will and won’t pay for and you won’t get a new set of tyres if your old tyre has barely legal tread depth.
In general tyre insurance is less common because many drivers would rather take the chance of avoiding damage than pay for something they might never need. Another reason is that the cost of providing the coverage is becoming pretty high for the insurers.
Producing tyres is expensive and this is why they are costly to buy and there is not a lot of margin in them for tyre suppliers. As a result, any insurer asked to pay out for some damaged tyre will find themselves having to pay premium prices and that’s not something insurance providers like to do regularly.
Should You Take A Tyre Insurance?
If you calculate the metrics of any insurance policy, you need to check the cost of the insurance, the value of the tyres you are insuring and how much you will have to claim on the policy. For example, In most insurance policies, tyre insurance will cost you the premium upfront cost and an excess if you make a claim.
Most of the tyre insurance policies will allow you to claim a certain number of replacement tyres throughout the policy which is usually around three year term. So you need to look up the likelihood that you will make any claims on the policy during that time. If you live near heavily potholed roads, you may already face tyre failures in the past.
Most of the time, the premium of the tyre insurance is similar to the cost of one new tyre. You will also have to pay an excess which is roughly £25 if you make a claim.
It tends to work out that if you claim for more than one tyre over the life of your policy, you would be saving money over buying new tyres. But, that will depend on the actual payout you receive. If your tyres are almost wearing out or balding when you make a claim, you won’t get the full new replacement cost.
If you own expensive tyres, like run-flat tyres or big 4×4 tyres, a tyre insurance policy might be more beneficial as the cost of replacing a damaged tyre is higher and you will suffer a damaged tyre is higher.
What Should You Look for Buying Tyre Insurance?
Here are some of a few points you should look after when considering tyre insurance for your vehicle.
- Ensure your tyres are marked with an “E” symbol as it shows that it is fit for purpose in the UK and Europe.
- Check if the policy covers accidental and malicious damage.
- Any wear caused by defective steering issues or bad maintenance damage has to be caused by unexpected deflation that will not be covered in the policy.
- Check the “wear and tear” deduction. A brand-new tyre that has 8mm of tread that is damaged when it’s at 3mm will get a comparatively lower payout.
- Look for any hidden charges and excess charges that cost you more when paying the premium.
- Check the payout limit, it is usually £140 per wheel or £320 per wheel depending on the premium for the set of tyres each year. It is not common to have to claim this often though.
- Check the policy if you can only replace the tyres Gobowen from the main dealerships rather than somewhere else.
