The world admires Singapore for various policies it implements. Off Peak car, weekend cars, or red plate cars are few of its policies to tackle the number of cars on road and yet allow its residents to own and use a car- during off-peak hours or weekends.
With off-peak cars, one could save on insurance and also save on other costs. Let us have a look at what off-peak car or red plate car is and how you can save on off peak car insurance.
What is an Off Peak car or Weekend car or Revised Off-Peak car?
Off-Peak car, weekend cars, or newly revised off-peak cars are car schemes in Singapore. By signing up for these schemes, you can drive the car in and around Singapore only during restricted hours. This helps keep the number of cars on the road in check. Pleasure or family use of cars is possible for those who mostly use their cards on weekends. These cars are identified with red number plates, hence also the name, ‘red plate cars’.
The three types of off peak cars are: 1. Weekend car or WEC 2. Off-Peak car or OPC 3. Revised Off Peak car or ROPC
WEC or OPC Schemes are not available anymore, although there may be car on road with these schemes issued before the introduction of ROPC. WEC and OPC cars can be converted to ROPC but not the other way round.
You can check the current Off Peak vs Revised Off Peak car status of your car by logging here with Singpass as well.
Off-peak car insurance
Insurers can afford to lower their premium for off peak cars due to their lower usage and such insurance packages are known as off peak car insurance or opc car insurance.
Insurers price their premium on various factors such as driver experience, age, claims history etc. The usage of car is another factor of interest as well. According to Insurances’s underwriting theory, the lesser you drive the car, the lesser are the chances of accidents and hence claims.
With Off-peak car schemes, insurers know that these cars will be only used on weekends, or off-peak timings, or on public holidays and only occasionally on other days. As such the usage is lesser compared to other normal scheme cars.
A car insurance quoted for off-peak cars may cost way lesser than normal car insurance. If you do have an off-peak car, it would be a no brainer to get an off peak car insurance.
At the time of penning this article, Directasia’s online quotation journey seems to offers an off peak or opc car insurance. Once you declare the usage, the price quoted is lesser. Other insurers like NTUC also asks a question about the off-peak usage on their online journey.
How much discount for off peak or red plate car insurance?
With off peak car insurance, insurers in Singapore happen to offer close to 15% discount on your base premium.
For example, for a very good driver profile, a non off-peak car insurance was quoted S$702.11 by DirectAsia on the basic plan. The same driver profile was quoted for a S$624.09 off-peak car insurance. That was about $78 of savings.
If you also think you would not drive your off peak car for more than 8,000 km a year, DirectAsia offers a discount for Low-Mileage car insurance as well.
What are various off peak car schemes in Singapore?
The three off peak car scheme in Singapore are Weekend car scheme, Off- Peak car scheme, and the Revised car off-peak car scheme. Only Revised car off peak car scheme is available for purchase going ahead.
The Revised off Peak car insurance does not restrict usage even on Saturdays or Eve of public holidays- as the older Weekend car or Off Peak car schemes did. Although, usage on some public holidays might still be restricted and the list is published by the government every year (Example, on eve of polling day).
With regards to off peak car insurance, any of the three off-peak car schemes are considered the same. As the usage of these schemed cars would be less, insurers would be happy to offer one a discount based on the off-peak schemes.
Benefits of buying off peak car?
Given the availability of this scheme, should you consider buying off peak car, there are various benefits to it.
Lesser cost of purchase
Off Peak car schemes bring down the cost of the car drastically. You are not required to pay a huge amount for a certificate of entitlement, as opposed to open category of car schemes. So, if you are looking for a budget-friendly, pleasure use only car, it is always a great idea to tap onto this scheme and save on costs of owning a car in Singapore.
Lesser Insurance premium
Most Insurers are very happy to quote and cover an off peak car, as they are of lower risk compared to all-day use cars. With reduced premiums for off peak car insurance, you can save further.
Lesser Road tax
With the revised off-peak car schemes, you will also enjoy savings on road tax payment .
A flat discount of $500 off the annual road tax is available, subject to a minimum payment of $70 per year. Furthermore, a cash rebate of $1000 for every six months the car is kept on the off-peak scheme until it reaches 10 years old is available for owners converting their normal car to off-peak car.
Overall cost savings
With car usage for pleasure on weekends or holidays, your overall cost of owning and using the car also reduces. You are less likely to spend on fuel. With lesser usage, the car maintenance cost can be slightly reduced as well.
Environmental friendly
As citizens of planet earth, we must start taking environmental issues seriously. With off peak car usage, you might use more of public or pooled transport during the week. This would help reduce the emission and let us do our part for nature. With Singapore’s public transport being considered one of the best worldwide, getting to and fro on weekdays would not be a big problem as in other countries too. And when you miss driving or need it for pleasure, your off peak car is always available on weekends. With off peak car we can reduce car emissions impact on the environment.
Benefits of off peak red plate car insurance
When it comes to off peak car insurance, the factor of savings on premium kicks in. You will end up paying a lesser premium as compared to non off-peak car insurance. Do also check our thoughts on other ways to save on car insurance.
Do let us know how do you go about your off peak car insurance purchase and how much did you save.
