Mr. Gao bought insurance after he purchased his car in 2003. He was asked to pay for the insurance based on the price of his new car. However, when he had a problem with his car and came to the insurance company for compensation, he was told that he could only get compensation based on a deducted price with an annual 0.6% depreciation in value.
Here is Chu Qiong, Mr.Gao's agent.
"The reality is that although we paid for a premium of 190,000 yuan, we could only get compensation of up to 100,000 yuan. As for the remaining 90,000 yuan, the insurance company said they wouldn't be responsible for that, which means you are paying some insurance costs without anything in return."
Currently, high insurance payments and low compensation payouts are common practices among vehicle insurance companies in China.
Wang Weiguo, the director of Container Transportation Association of Ningbo city says they have been overcharged by insurance companies to the tune of more than 100 million yuan over the past eight years.
"According to the calculations by the insurance company, each of our cars is charged approximately 2000 yuan extra each year. We currently have more than 8000 vehicles in our association, therefore, we have to pay an additional 16 million yuan a year. As a result we have paid 100 million extra over eight years."
Currently, there are 199 million vehicles in China. And almost all the insurance companies charge high insurance costs while giving low compensation. And most car owners have experienced high insurance costs and low payouts.
Li Xiaohu, a lawyer says this is very unfair for consumers.
"Consumers assume obligations, but they are not given the corresponding rights in the insurance policies. These situations have drawn the attention of the authorities, who have started to revise insurance laws. It's expected that the revisions will focus on the unreasonably high insurance costs and low compensation payouts."
The China Insurance Regulatory Commission recently released a draft policy on commercial vehicle insurance, saying that the auto insurance costs should be calculated based on the real value of the car, rather than the purchase price.
For CRI, I am Zhang Wan.
