Been speaking to a Chinese person , and this is how car insurance works in mainland China ( may differ in Hong Kong ) ; You go into an office, ( or very often their rep will call at your home or office to suit you ), explain the situation , then purchase the policy , keeping the rep's card in your wallet.
If you have a crash or claim , you call your company's 24 hour landline, which after office hours diverts to the mobile number of on - duty assessors who aim to be with you asap, often within 15 - 20 mins , though not if no damage inflicted to third parties. So if you are involved in a prang with another motor , you will get your company's assessor on the spot , and if it's your fault and the damage is minimal , they will dish out cash to the other party there and then to settle the claim . If you are unhappy with the company's service , you call the guy who sold you the policy and get them to try and help.
Another interesting fact , due to the fast expanding market , there is no claim history for drivers , so if you have a big claim, by switching to another provider when the policy ends , you ' lose ' that claim and start afresh.
There is a lot of commission paid between insurance companies , salesmen and the body shops , and lots of dodgy claims . Consequently , motor insurers are losing money hand over fist, and the number of them is conversely increasing !!
Having visited China , I can attest to poor standards of driving in general . Some drivers beep their horn at least every 20 seconds , just to let others know they are there .
Worryingly, mainland Chinese can swap their licence for a Hong Kong one , which in turn can get swapped for a full UK licence... I wonder how that would stand up to scrutiny by a UK court / police in the event of a serious claim , where the policyholder - like my source - , informed the Ins. Co when buying the policy that they have a ' Full UK licence ? ' ?
Edited by motorprop on 04/06/2009 at 00:14
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>>>>Worryingly, mainland Chinese can swap their licence for a Hong Kong one , which in turn can get swapped for a full UK licence... I wonder how that would stand up to scrutiny by a UK court / police <<<<
As far as I am aware HK is no longer a British Protectrate and was returned to China so any Licence NOW issued there cannot be exchanged for a UK Licence.
DVLA site confirms. Not on their list for exchangability.
dvd
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Having visited China I can attest to poor standards of driving in general . Some drivers beep their horn at least every 20 seconds just to let others know they are there .
On a work trip stayed outside Beijing in hotel room overlooking a junction where traffic had to merge. There was a cacophony of horns blaring continuously from very early in the morning until late at night - it was just how it worked.
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I don't know, HK is part of cChina, and yet things sent from there never seem to attract customs & excise duty, as though some benefits are still in place.
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my Chinese contact converted his HK licence within the last 2 years to a full UK one .
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