Care when taking out pirate insurance

You may not know, but there are many companies on the market that offer “vehicle protection” such as car insurance. This practice is called pirate insurance and should be avoided.

A few years ago, a fraud that has been taking money from honest people seeking to protect themselves from possible losses became public, known as pirate insurance.

Companies that claim to offer vehicle protection, selling the service as if it were traditional vehicle insurance, and do not guarantee any protection, much less possibilities of reimbursement in cases of total loss.

SUSEP, the body responsible for regulating all national insurance, has been identifying and fining several companies that offer this fraudulent service, however, there are still many of them operating in the market.

Therefore, knowing how to identify them is essential. With this in mind, we created this article, with all the precautions that must be taken when taking out pirate insurance, follow along and understand better.

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How to recognize a pirate insurance company

An easy way to recognize this type of company is by checking its internal workings. They are generally companies that have a CNPJ, but work as cooperatives. In other words, they form groups of customers who continue paying their installments normally, and pool the money from these monthly payments to cover any claims that may occur.

According to estimates made by SUSEP, in 2016 alone, more than one million people, across the country, contracted this type of service. And certainly the vast majority of these people made this hire thinking it was a serious service.

Main problem with taking out pirated insurance

The biggest problem with hiring pirate insurance services is related to compensation. Most customers of this type of company spend months waiting to receive compensation in cases of total loss. And most of these customers don't even receive any value.

Understand the difference between vehicle insurance and pirate insurance

Pirate insurance is not the same thing as vehicle insurance. Although the coverage and services offered are similar, vehicle protection does not have any regulations that guarantee the provision of the services offered by the company.

Generally, the prices offered by these companies are much lower than the real car insurance prices, and there are cases where this savings reaches 70%.

Another important difference that deserves to be mentioned is when the customer takes out an auto insurance policy, he transfers all responsibility in relation to the risks incurred with the vehicle, to the company. In pirate insurance, that's not how it works. When you hire this type of service, you sign a contract based on mutualism, which says that, if any damage or accident occurs to your vehicle, all risk will be shared with the other members of the cooperative.

Therefore, be careful when researching and taking out services such as car insurance. Research the company's reputation well before signing any contract, simply motivated by low prices. Find out if that company really has good customer ratings!