Floods increase the prices of car insurance

According to Jose Carlos de Oliveira, a member of the Automobile Federation National General Insurance (FenSeg), the number of accidents caused by natural phenomena in São Paulo in 2010 was double that recorded at the beginning of last year. "We have recorded an increase of 103% in the number of cases of car accident victims because of the floods," said Oliveira, who is also director of automobile insurance of Maritime Insurance.



Only in Rio de Janeiro, between Monday (5) and Tuesday (6), Mapfre Seguros had 30% more requests winch, due to heavy rains that hit the city and left more than 100 cars submerged . "Only on Tuesday did almost 400 calls in the city," says vice president of Mapfre Seguros, Jabis de Mendonça Alexandre.

The increase in the number of vehicles affected by heavy rains is directly linked to the high price of policies. According to quotes provided by insurers to G1, a single man of 25 years, residing in Sao Paulo paid R $ 2,172.63 for insurance in 2009 from an average hatch of value between $ 30,000 and $ 35,000. In 2010, the price charged for insurance was R $ 2,533.72, an increase of 16.6%.

Already the policy of a woman, aged 30, also unmarried and a resident of the state capital, rose 80%. The owner of the car worth between $ 40,000 and $ 50,000 R $ 2,245.84 paid by the insurance model in 2009 and this year the price jumped to R $ 4,041.39. "All insured persons are complaining about the increase from 2009 and not much to flee, because the increase in value has reached all the insurance companies," said the broker Ivone Maria Ribeiro.

Despite the difference in the values of the policies observed in the examples, the vice president of Mapfre Insurance says the increase in 2010 should be between 10% and 20% of the amount paid last year. "Insurers need to create funds to cover losses and only way to ensure this is to move the prices of policies," says Alexander. "The cities most vulnerable to storms and floods, like Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais and Santa Catarina are the ones with the highest increases."

The member of the Automobile FenSeg emphasizes that the rise in price is also related to other factors such as increased cost of labor, parts and content theft. "Everything was a little worse this year." Despite the large floods have occurred in the early years, the owners still renew insurance also feel the high. "Insurance pricing the next 12 months based on the index claims of the previous 12 months, so even those who still will close the insurance should pay more," says Oliveira.