Bjak.my (Bjak) wants to help you find the best car insurance policy at the best price you’re willing to pay.
Launched in 2019, they joined the car comparison site scene that already had existing competition like MyEG and AutoRoadTax (which is linked to MyEG).
All 3 sites can handle everything from car insurance to road tax for you while still leaving you in control of your choices.
One way that Bjak stands out is that they can give you a quote in under 3 minutes.
Bjak also stood out to me in another way: it was the only site of the three that could detect my one-month-old car in the system.
I tried inserting my car’s registration number, IC and postcode on MyEG and AutoRoadTax as well, but I was met with an error telling me that they couldn’t find my new car in the system.
What I can gather from this then is that Bjak seems to have a more updated database and a system that reflects that, which automatically makes it preferable.
Getting A Quote
Being a newbie to all the legal requirements of owning a car, I decided to see how easy using Bjak would be.
Disclaimer: I didn’t actually use the service to buy my car insurance and road tax. As a first-time car buyer, my dealer had already handled all that for me. But I wanted to be prepared to know what my options are and how low I can get these quotes for future reference, so I gave Bjak a shot.
The first step is obviously to fill in the details on your vehicle registration number and IC, type of vehicle, as well as postcode.
All these details are necessary to retrieve and verify your vehicle information with JPJ and to check for existing No Claims Discount (NCD) information. These apply to every other vehicle insurance comparison site.
Dictionary Time: A no claims discount is a reduction in the cost of your car insurance if you don’t make a claim. You usually earn one year of no claim discount for every claim-free year of motoring. So, if you don’t make a claim for five years, you’ll have five years of no claim discount applied to the basic cost of your car insurance.
Liverpool Victoria
Bjak will then send you an email (or WhatsApp message, depending on which method of contact you chose) with a quoted amount due for your insurance and road tax.
As with a human agent, if you’re satisfied with their suggestion, you’ll just have to click on “Proceed to Pay” and they will deliver your road tax to your address within 2 working days.
But I wasn’t happy with the quote I got, as they had merely suggested something that they thought would suit my needs based on the information they could find about my car ownership on JPJ.
Customise And Compare
I wanted more customisation, so I scrolled down further and clicked on the link to do just that.
The next step led me to change my coverage type and sum insured. I had the options to use their agreed value, or choose between:
- Comprehensive (first party),
- Third party, fire, and theft (also known as second party),
- Third party.
Dictionary Time: The sum insured is the maximum amount a car insurer will pay out under your car policy over a fixed period which for car insurance is nearly always a year. The sum insured decreases by 10% a year as the car depreciates or by the market price of the car.
Frank.co.th
They also tell you how much the current market value for your car is under the slider, which I found very helpful.
You will then be able to choose an insurer to request a quote from. Their list of companies include:
- Allianz General Insurance Company (Malaysia) Berhad,
- AXA Affin General Insurance Berhad,
- Etiqa General Takaful Berhad,
- Zurich General Takaful Malaysia Berhad,
- Syarikat Takaful Malaysia Am Berhad,
- RHB Insurance Berhad,
- Pacific & Orient Insurance Co. Bhd,
- Liberty Insurance Berhad,
- AmGeneral Insurance Berhad (Kurnia).
Once that’s done, they will send you another email with their recommendation for the lowest price that suits what you’ve chosen.
Still not completely satisfied, I went in again to compare.
Finally, they led me to where I could properly compare what each insurer covered, and for how much. Personally, I wish I could’ve seen this much earlier on in the process, as it could’ve saved me more time.
After reading through all the plans suggested to me, I chose what I thought looked like the best coverage for me.
A drop-down menu gave me the option to pick some add ons, like windscreen coverage, unlimited towing, easy claims, and road tax.
The last step was to fill in my address and check the box claiming that all my info is accurate and will be sent to JPJ.
A final quote was shown at the bottom of the site’s page. Once I paid, my insurance and road tax would be delivered to me.
Did It Really Take 3 Minutes?
Well, if you’re not fussy or curious like me to see all your possible options, it would.
Filling in your details and just going with the first quote they suggested and then paying would literally be that quick, especially since their replies didn’t take long at all.
To add on, if you were happy with your first choice and wanted to renew the same exact insurance plan the next year, it would be quick too, as you wouldn’t be spending time doing comparisons again.
What bugged me the most about the whole process was all the back and forth between my emails and Bjak’s site that was happening every time I completed each minor step.
Being able to see my quote on the website itself would let me keep track of changes happening on the spot, much like how when you apply a discount code in Shopee, you can see the price going down in real-time.
It would also make the user experience more seamless because having to keep leaving the site to check my emails and messages takes my focus away.
Thus, I would forget what I was doing in the first place when I come back to it.
Though it’s probably done to keep your quotation and details private, I do wish the user experience was more seamless and didn’t require me to leave the site every time.
Other than that, I do like how quick and informational the whole process was. Every step came with explanations on what you’ll be choosing.
It was very user friendly, and something I can appreciate as this mimicked the experience I would have with a personal agent too.
However, before you immediately go with Bjak for your renewals, it’s still a smart consumer practice to do your own comparisons on the other sites too.
Feature Image Credit: Bjak