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FWD's car insurance is a great choice whether you are a young driver looking for maximum savings or a safe driver looking to insure a family car with maximum coverage. Its combination of affordability and great coverage, along with three coverage levels to choose from, means it has something for everyone.

What You Need to Know About FWD Car Insurance

FWD is a great option for families due to its affordability and family-friendly benefits. It is affordable for the average sedan driver and it gives you the option to permanently keep your 50% NCD, leading to future savings. Despite the low coverage, FWD's car insurance plans provide a wide variety of coverage. Even with FWD's Third Party Only plans provide more coverage than is legally required, like 24-hour roadside assistance and towing, for below average prices.

FWD's Comprehensive plan covers the required risks including theft, fire, vandalism, force majeure and floods. You also have the option of choosing an excess between S$750 and S$2,500, which makes it easy to control how much you want to pay out of pocket. The additional S$2,500 young/inexperienced driver excess can be waived as well for an extra cost.

What is the cost?

Premiums for FWD's Comprehensive plans are typically 10-25% below average for male and female sedan drivers, and you can permanently maximise your savings with their 50% lifetime NCD benefit. This benefit keeps your NCD at 50% regardless of whether or not you file a claim.

However, in a couple of instances, we found that FWD may end up costing you more than what the market average dictates. For instance, young female drivers (under 30) will pay 11% more for the Classic plan than the average basic Comprehensive plan. SUV drivers who also don't have an NCD may also see slightly above average premiums, although the difference is marginal and the array of benefits can well make up for the price.

FWD's TPO and TPFT plans are also some of the cheapest on the market, costing around 25% below average. It remains the 2nd or 3rd cheapest TPO or TPFT insurer on the market, with drivers of used cars and a safe driving record paying the 2nd cheapest premiums on the market.

What are the benefits?

FWD's Comprehensive plans are split up into three tiers of coverage: the basic tier Classic Plan, the mid-tier Executive plan and the top-tier Prestige plan. Despite the low prices, FWD's car insurance plans provide comprehensive coverage.

For instance, even with FWD's cheapest Classic policy, you can expect a fairly generous degree of coverage spanning personal accident benefits, medical expenses, towing costs, daily transportation allowance and 24-hour roadside assistance (for accidents and non-accident reasons). This is in contrast to most other budget comprehensive plans that will make you pay extra for these benefits.

If you want to maximise coverage, you can opt for FWD's Executive or Prestige options, which provide higher coverage limits for these benefits but for below average prices. Additionally, FWD can be a good option for young drivers, since they'll be able to waive the S$2,500 young & inexperienced driver excess (YIDR) for an additional cost and still come out saving around S$1,500 on out of pocket costs.

Lastly, FWD's TPFT and TPO plans offer plenty of coverage not typically seen with these types of plans, making FWD a strong choice for older car drivers who are looking for a balance between just TPFT and Comprehensive plans. Benefits include 24-hour roadside assistance S$300 of towing costs, and S$3,000 of legal fee coverage for third-party liability cases.

Where Does FWD Car Insurance Fall Short?

Though FWD's three tiers of Comprehensive plans offer a fair degree of customization in offering a progressively increasing level of coverage, it is not the most flexible plan out there. Despite the benefits being a plus for benefits-focused drivers, safe and experienced drivers may be paying for more than what they need.

If you want a car insurance plan that covers exactly what you want, no more and no less, there are other insurers that allow you to pick and choose different features and services. For example, DirectAsia allows you to forgo a loss of use benefit for a cheaper premium, while AXA offers a wide array of plans and add-on packages to cater more specifically to the needs of families or overseas travellers.

Add-on Coverage

Although FWD offers a lot of features in its core plan, it's possible to maximise or tailor your coverage even further with their add-ons. These include adding your preferred workshop, an overseas booster to cover driving in west Malaysia and Thailand, NCD protector and customizing excess options.

If you want to upgrade from the Classic plan to the Prestige or Executive plan, you will receive higher coverage for accessories, loss of use, towing, medical and one time payment due to death or permanent disablement. You will also get a courtesy car for the duration of the repair or up to three months if yours is totalled or stolen. However, even with the added benefits, the most expensive plan still costs 10% below the industry average for mid-priced sedans.

How FWD Fares Against the Competition

Comparing FWD to other popular car insurance plans like Aviva or Budget Direct, we'll find that FWD's most basic comprehensive plan (the Classic plan) is more expensive than Budget Direct but includes more benefits (at the risk of less customisation). On the other hand, FWD is more expensive than Aviva for most drivers, but offers more benefits for its cheaper plans than Aviva. Overall, Budget Direct will be a better choice than FWD if you are a safe driver looking for basic coverage and want the ability to pay only for what you need.

When comparing Aviva to FWD, things are a little more complicated. On average, Aviva is generally 22-24% cheaper than FWDs, but we found that FWD costs less than Aviva when it comes to comparing their top-tier plans (FWD Prestige vs. Aviva Prestige) for luxury cars. At the same time, Aviva's personal accident benefits are also higher, there's unlimited coverage for car accessories and they offer child seat coverage as well. On the other hand, FWD while costing more than Aviva offers more benefits when comparing the basic tier plans (FWD Classic vs. Aviva Lite).

Thus, the decision comes down to what you want out of a car insurance policy. If you are looking for basic comprehensive coverage that's all encompassing or you are looking for cheaper luxury car coverage, then FWD would be a better fit. If you are looking for family-friendly benefits for cheap prices, then Aviva would be a better choice.

Before You Buy: Exclusions & T&C's

In some cases, FWD will deny your car insurance claim. This is most likely because the damage or loss that occurred to your car was caused by an uninsured event. For instance, damage that is caused by depreciation, wear and tear and mechanical, electrical or structural breakdowns won't be covered. Furthermore, you won't be covered if you are driving without a license, are suspended from driving or are under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Other general exclusions include:

Please read the policy wording carefully for a fully comprehensive list of what is and isn't covered in your motor insurance policy.

Being a Policyholder: Claims, Contact & More

To file a claim with FWD, you can use their online portal (linked below), or submit a claim by phone or email. If you are the victim of a theft, accident or your windscreen was broken, you should call their emergency assistance number, where you will be guided through the claims process. All events must be reported within 24 hours of them happening. If you have questions regarding what you need to file for a particular claim, FWD provides a claims FAQ that can point you in the right direction.

Is FWD Car Insurance Right For You?

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Overall, FWD can be a great fit if you're looking for a motor insurance plan that will provide a wide variety of benefits for below average prices. Though it's not the cheapest plan on the market, it provides valuable coverage that can be useful to new or nervous drivers who want to be sure they will be covered for a wide range of risks.Curious to see how FWD's car insurance plan stacks up to the best policies on the market? Read our guide to best car insurance policies in Singapore.

Protected up to specified limits by SDIC. This is only product information provided. You may wish to seek advice from a qualified adviser before buying the product. If you choose not to seek advice from a qualified adviser, you should consider whether the product is suitable for you. Buying an insurance product that is not suitable for you may impact your ability to finance your future financial needs. If you decide that the policy is not suitable after purchasing the policy, you may terminate the policy in accordance with the free-look provision, if any, and the insurer may recover from you any expense incurred by the insurer in underwriting the policy.

Methodology

Our reviews are based on a thorough analysis of all the car insurance plans available to purchase online. We created a baseline profile, which was a married 45-year-old male driving a new Toyota Corolla Altis 1.6 with 5 years of experience and a 50% NCD. To find the average pricing for the average sedan and SUV, we averaged the policy premiums for 4 most popular sedan models (Honda Civic, Mazda 3, Hyundai Elantra and Toyota Corolla Altis), 3 most popular SUV models (Nissan Qashqai, Honda HR-V and Toyota Harrier) and 3 most popular luxury models (BMW 530, Mercedes E200 and Audi A6) on the Singapore market. We also collected the same quotes for female drivers. To find out how competitive the prices were, we compared ase plans without any add-ons. This is because each insurer provides different benefits and there is not enough data to assume that the average driver chooses particular benefits.

For the benefits, we looked at how many benefits are included in the base plan as well as how much the extra add-ons would cost to add. We also looked at the type of benefits offered to find out which driver profile would benefit the most from which plan. Lastly, for claims, we looked to see whether emergency assistance was offered, whether you can file the claim online and other customer service conditions.

Protected up to specified limits by SDIC. This is only product information provided. You may wish to seek advice from a qualified adviser before buying the product. If you choose not to seek advice from a qualified adviser, you should consider whether the product is suitable for you. Buying an insurance product that is not suitable for you may impact your ability to finance your future financial needs. If you decide that the policy is not suitable after purchasing the policy, you may terminate the policy in accordance with the free-look provision, if any, and the insurer may recover from you any expense incurred by the insurer in underwriting the policy.

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