South American Car Insurance

All about our insurance — now that we have returned to Alaska

We had insurance on the van and the camper.  The quote and information is below.  One of my biggest fears was that we would have an accident on the trip.  We had two accidents and I wanted to write about both of them.

In Santiago, Chile, we backed into a car in a parking lot.  The accident was totally our fault. The camper was not attached, it was with the van.  The accident was a dent, a small dent. The parking lot was a secure lot so we found the attendant and explained.  He went to find the owner.  I called ICI.  ICI, although very friendly, was completely unhelpful.  They did not seem to know what to do or how to proceed.  “Where are you?  Santiago, Mexico?  No? You are not in Mexico?  You are in Chile?  Like the country Chile?” – these are not statements you want your international insurance company to make.  Luckily it took more than an hour to find the owner of the car but in all that time, ICI was not able to tell us how to file a claim.  The person arrived and it was agreed that we should file a police report.  Police arrived and a report was filed.  Still, we had not heard back from ICI, inspite of several somewhat frantic calls.  ICI eventually gave us the number of a claims adjuster.   I called him and he was unhelpful.  It was almost 4pm there on a Friday and he was heading home and would not be able to talk to me until Monday.  He did not know if I was his client.  He wanted me to send him a copy of my policy so he could read in on Monday and decide if I was a client.  Also he called me sweetheart and darling in every sentence – “It’s nearly 4 here darling.  And it’s a Friday, sweetheart.  I can’t be working on this until Monday, darling.”

The bottom line was ICI did not know who to call or what to do.  The person they had me call was unhelpful, unprofessional and more than slightly misogynistic.

Meanwhile, the police were telling us to just pay the guy $200.  The guy was like “Yeah!! Pay me $200!

In the end, we played a game of 20 Questions that went like this:  If you decide we have insurance with you, can we file a claim?  If we pay the guy $200, could you reimburse us?  If we take photos and the police sign off on it, will that work?  Could it work?  Does it have the possibility of working?

The answers, of course, were never yes or no and all were vague.  In the end, we paid the guy $200.  The police very officially stamped several things and stapled things and signed things and it was all done.

ICI had told us we could cancel our policy when we returned to the USA and get a refund.  We did on May 22 and still had a month left so we cancelled.  But they never got the message or the email and they never cancelled and did not refund.  It was not much.  But still.  We never sent the claim into ICI.  I have no idea how to do this and they never provided us with any assistance.

I would guess if the accident had been severe, we would have had better service.

So in conclusion:  get insurance but be prepared to pay for anything small.

Original Insurance Information

We are getting our insurance from Insurance Consultants International –  ici@mxici.com

You can get Mexican insurance by the day, week, month or year but the cost is pretty much the same.  Our vehicle is over 12 years old so we can only get liability.  The policy covers roadside assistance and all the regular insurance things.

Our quotes are:
Month: $241
6 Months: $253
Year: $289

Central & South American insurance takes about 10 days because you need to complete a simple form and email it to the insurance broker.  He sent us a quote within an hour.  Once we picked the policy (6 months), the insurance broker sends it to be underwritten and that takes about a week.  Again, we can only get liability.