Discovery Insure frequently asked questions

Call us directly on 0860 751 751 or speak to your financial adviser. Alternatively you can get a quote in 60 seconds.

You can update your details and cover in one of three easy ways:

1. Chat to your financial adviser
2. Call us on 0860 751 751
3. Email us at insureinfo@discovery.co.za

Update your details as soon as they change to make sure you have the correct cover in place.

What your car is used for could influence your claims and cover

Giving us the correct information about what your car is used for is important – it helps us to determine your risk profile for theft or accidents seeing as these differ depending on what your car is used for. If the wrong details of what your car is used for is incorrect on your Plan Schedule, you may have to pay an additional excess when claiming. In fact, your claim may even be rejected.

There are different uses that your car can be insured for. You should indicate the one the car is used for most of the time on your Plan:

• Private and professional: You should choose this option when you use your car for: 
  • Private transportation of others and yourself between home and your workplace.
  • Your car can occasionally be used for business (but not more than six occasions in a calendar month).
  • However, the transporting goods for business, trade or commercial purposes is excluded from this option.
• Business: If you use your car mostly for work and occasionally (not more than six occasions in a calendar month) to carry goods for business or trade purposes, you can indicate this category on your Plan. However, transporting goods for commercial purposes is excluded from this category.
• Commercial use: When you use your car to generate income, you are using it for commercial purposes. Examples of cars being used for commercial purposes include the transport and delivery of any trade goods (like a delivery service or courier) and transporting people (such as a taxi).

If a car is used for commercial purposes, we can’t insure it and would need to be placed on a commercial policy. If your car is being used for commercial purposes and you have a claim, it will be rejected by Discovery Insure. 

How to determine if your car is being used for commercial purposes 

To help you determine whether your car is being used for commercial purposes, please consider the questions below. If you answer “yes” to any of the questions, your car may be insured incorrectly and you might need to move your vehicle to be insured with a commercial insurer. If you have any doubt, please speak to your financial adviser or call us on 0860 751 751. 

Questions to help you check whether your car is being used for commercial purposes: 

• Is your car being driven by one or several drivers who are employed by a company or individual who offers your car to the drivers to do their job?
• Is your car used to transport passengers in exchange for payment?
• Is your car used to transport any valuable goods, equipment items that are sold to others for financial reward? Examples include beauty products that are sold to clients and plumbing equipment (geysers, pipes) that gets delivered to customers.

If you need to make any changes to your Plan, please speak to your financial adviser, call us on 0860 751 751. You can also send us an email with all the details of what you need updated to insuremaintenance@discovery.co.za, with your Plan number, initials and surname.

Discovery Insure clients with Vitality Drive will automatically be enrolled in the Active Rewards programme.

For more information on Discovery Miles please click here

If you have a harsh event, we will recalculate the kilometres from zero. This means your trip won’t count as an event-free kilometres and you will start working towards your 100 km event-free trips from zero again.

When and how you receive your Vitality Drive card depends on the DQ-Track option you chose:

• With the smartphone-enabled DQ-Track, you will get your Vitality Drive card in your welcome pack when you pick up your Vitality Drive Sensor at Tiger Wheel & Tyre (You will not qualify for fuel rewards on Drive your Discount, so you will not receive a Vitality Drive card when you install a smartphone-enabled DQ-Track device).
• If you chose the standalone DQ-Track, you will receive your card from the technician on the day of your installation appointment.

Once you have your Vitality Drive card and have linked it to your Plan, all you have to do is swipe it at BP or Shell service stations when you fill up to earn your fuel rewards.

Not sure how to link your new Vitality Drive card? Simply click here to link it.

Replacement Vitality Drive cards are available at your nearest Tiger Wheel & Tyre branch.

You can choose how you would like to measure your driving behaviour – with either the smartphone-enabled or standalone DQ-Track.

The smartphone-enabled DQ-Track gives you the opportunity to earn more Vitality Drive points, more easily. It consists of the Discovery Insure app and our Vitality Drive Sensor device, and uses accelerometer, gyroscope and GPS data to measure your driving behaviour. It also gives you immediate trip feedback as well as detailed feedback on driving events including cellphone use, and the ability to compete with other drivers.

Learn more about the smartphone-enabled DQ-Track, including compatible smartphones, data charges and other costs, the app’s features and how it measures your driving behaviour. Read the Discovery Insure app’s privacy policy and terms of use.

Stolen vehicle tracking and recovery is automatically included on the standalone DQ-Track for a monthly fee of R85 per car, per month.

All devices offer access to  safety features such as Impact Alert, which can detect when you’ve been in a severe accident and we can send help immediately if we can’t get hold of you, warnings of imminent bad weather and the ability to earn Vitality Drive rewards for driving well.

A R150 activation fee is payable immediately when you choose your DQ-Track. This activation fee is at a plan level, meaning that even if you have three vehicles on your plan and choose to install a DQ-Track in all the vehicles, you will only pay one activation fee.

Download more information about DQ-Track and its safety features.

When you join Vitality Drive through Drive your Discount, your driving behaviour will be measured by the Discovery app at no additional cost. To get access to safety features, you can install a smartphone-enabled DQ-Track and pay a R150 activation fee per Plan.

When you join Vitality Drive, you have the option of installing either the smartphone-enabled or standalone DQ-Track to get a driver performance score and earn Vitality Drive Points. You will pay a R150 activation fee per Plan.

Smartphone-enabled DQ-Track

For the smartphone-enabled DQ-Track, you can collect your Vitality Drive Sensor from your nearest Tiger Wheel & Tyre store. The Vitality Drive Sensor works with the Discovery Insure app to measure your driving behaviour.

Standalone DQ-Track

If you're a Classic or Purple Plan client, we'll come to a location of your choice to install the standalone DQ-Track. Essential Plan clients need to take their vehicle to their nearest fitment centre. If a fitment centre is not within a 50km radius, you will receive the mobile fitment option.

You can make an appointment here or call 0860 751 751 to install your standalone DQ-Track.

You can only get one Active Reward a week for each primary driver.

If you are using a Samsung device and have recently upgraded to Android Operating System 9 (OS 9), make sure that your Discovery Insure app is not in hibernation mode. Here is a step by step guide on how to take your Discovery Insure App out of hibernation mode so we can continue to measure your driving behavior.

Here are the ways to check your DQ-Track’s functionality:

Testing your standalone DQ-Track by SMS

1. Create a new SMS on your cellphone.
2. Type in the letter T or P.
3. Using the international +27 number format, send the SMS to the DQ-Track cell tracking number given to you during installation.
4. You’ll receive an SMS from DQ-Track confirming your car’s location within minutes.
5. You may not receive the SMS immediately if your car is out of GSM coverage (for example, a remote area where GSM coverage is poor, like a parking basement).

Testing your standalone DQ-Track online with DQ Mapper

1. Log in to www.discovery.co.za here.
2. A new window will appear. Click on ‘Access DQ Mapper’.
3. A new window will appear showing both a map and a list of cars on your plan that have a DQ-Track installed.
4. Click on any of these cars to see their location.

Testing your smartphone-enabled DQ-Track

You can see if your Vitality Drive sensor is connected on the "My vehicles (Vitality Drive sensors)" screen in "Settings" on an iPhone and on the 'Active Vitality Drive sensors' screen for Android. You'll see this within the first 10 minutes of activation at the time of installation. To check if your Vitality Drive sensor is connected at any other point, go to "About", then "List Vitality Drive sensors" on an Android device, and for iPhone, tap on "Account details" and then "Your cars". You can also see if the Vitality Drive sensor is connected while driving by seeing a green bar that says 'DQ Connected' on the Dashboard. This will only appear in driving mode.

Vitality Drive members earn Vitality Drive points for driving well, improving their driving knowledge and awareness and making sure their vehicle is safe to drive.

Download more information on how to earn Vitality Drive points and Get to Diamond status.

Vitality Drive points earned for different activities take different lengths of time to reflect on your Vitality Drive Dashboard based on where we get the information from. 

The information below shows how long points take to show on your Vitality Drive Dashboard for different activities:

Within 48 hours 

Vitality Drive Points will reflect on your Vitality Drive Dashboard within 48 hours of completing: 

• Online driver assessment
• Online driving course

Within seven days 

• Passing the Tiger Wheel & Tyre Annual MultiPoint check
• Your service history being up to date

Within 14 days

• A Discovery Insure driving course
• EyeGym courses

After the end of each month

• Your Driver performance score
• Reaching a Personal goals
• Your claim-free years

If you have completed an activity and your Vitality Drive Points have not been awarded in the time listed above, please email us at vitalitydriveinfo@discovery.co.za.

The information from your DQ-Track will be used to measure your driving behaviour and track the location of your vehicle in the event of a severe incident.

We will not use information from your DQ-Track when approving claims. The only time we will use the data from your DQ-Track in the claims process is to verify the time and location of an incident.

If you are involved in an accident and want to use data from the DQ-Track to prove your innocence and claim money from a third party, we will help you do so too. Discovery Insure, however, will not use such information without your permission.

If you insure your motorcycle with Discovery Insure, you have the option to select the Vitality Drive programme and get rewarded for your motorcycle riding behaviour.

The Vitality Drive programme for motorcycles differs from the standard Vitality Drive programme, depending on whether you have a comprehensively insured car on your Discovery Insure plan or whether the only vehicle you insure on the Discovery Insure plan is your motorcycle.

If your motorcycle is insured with other vehicles

You can select the Vitality Drive programme for motorcycles if you have activated Vitality Drive on your Discovery Insure plan. Vitality Drive for motorcycles is optional, even if Vitality Drive is activated on the Discovery Insure plan.

You can add a motorcycle to your Vitality Drive programme on the fuel rewards and Drive Your Discount reward options, if you have other vehicles on your policy.

If your motorcycle is the only vehicle insured

You can join Vitality Drive fuel reward option for R63 a month for each primary driver if your only motor vehicle is a motorcycle and you have insured your household contents or buildings for at least R250 000. You cannot join Vitality Drive through Drive your Discount if you only insure your motorcycle.

Learn more about Vitality Drive for motorcycles.

Discovery Insure is committed to keeping you safe on the roads. As a Vitality Drive member, Drive Me offers you an affordable way of getting home safely after a big night out, you can avoid more than an unpleasant hangover.

With Discovery Insure, you have access to up to 25% off safe personal driver services at any time of the day with our Drive Me partners – Uber, Road Trip and Scooter Angels, who are available in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Port Elizabeth, Cape Town and Durban. Scooter Angels is also available in Bloemfontein, East London, George, Nelspruit and Pietermaritzburg.

If your Discovery Insure Plan is cancelled, you will need to have your standalone DQ-Track removed from your car. If you choose not to have your standalone DQ-Track removed or if you do not contact us to arrange for it to be removed, you will need to pay a fee of R1 180. If you’ve installed the smartphone-enabled DQ-Track, you can simply discard it.

If you have installed and activated the smartphone-enabled DQ-Track, you can make use of this panic button for in-vehicle emergencies.

Clients with an Android operating system:

Simply press your smartphone’s power button repeatedly, in quick succession (at least five times), while your Discovery Insure app is connected to your Vitality Drive Sensor.

An alert will be sent to Discovery Insure. The smartphone will vibrate and you will receive a notification to confirm that the alert has been sent.

Clients with an Apple iOS operating system:

Simply press the red 'Panic' button that appears at the top right of the dashboard page of your Discovery Insure driving app, when your Discovery Insure app is connected to your Vitality Drive Sensor.

(If your smartphone is not connected to your Vitality Drive Sensor then the dashboard will not display the vehicle panic button.)

An alert will be sent to Discovery Insure and you will receive a notification to confirm that the alert has been sent.

All clients:

A call centre agent will try to contact you or the names noted on your Plan and offer the necessary assistance. If they can’t get hold of you, they will immediately dispatch an emergency response team to assist with your vehicle emergency.

The call centre can:

• Dispatch medical assistance;
• Initiate recovery processes or towing services, depending on the incident.

In the event of theft, hijacking, fire, lightning, explosion, storm, water, hail, snow, flood, earthquake, or malicious damage, you will not have to pay any excess on motor claims. If you have DQ-Track installed and you are in a motor vehicle accident that is caused by an insured third party, you will not have to pay any excess. The no excess benefits only apply to you if you have the Classic Plan or Executive Plan.

You will also not have to pay an excess on household contents claims caused by theft (with visible forced entry), fire, lightning, explosion, snow, flood, storm, rain, hail, earthquake or malicious damage.

We’ll waive your specified portable possessions’ basic claim excesses if these items’ documents (proof of purchase and valuation) are stored in our Online Vault. If you’re a pensioner and older than 55 years, your vehicle excess will be waived. Complete details of the excess structure are available in the Excess Annexure.

Discovery Insure offers you a number of convenient, hassle-free ways to claim.

Learn more about how to claim.

You can stay informed about the progress of your motor, household contents, buildings, or portable possessions claims online with  ClaimsView.

ClaimsView has several unique features, including, being able to see the status of your claim, access service provider contact details and with a motor claim, for example, view photographs of your vehicle as it goes through the repair process.

Read more about  ClaimsView.

FastTrack claims is available under the portable possessions section of cover. With FastTrack claims, your specified electronic devices such as cellphones, tablets or laptops will be replaced within 48 hours if the claim is an approved FastTrack claim. If we don’t meet these deadlines, we will waive the basic excess for the claim.

You can log your FastTrack claims on our website or on the Discovery Insure app.

Learn more about the terms and conditions of this benefit.

Clients who submit their car’s minor damage claims online, will have their repairs completed within five working days of starting the repair. If we do not deliver on this promise, the next month’s premium for the damaged car is reimbursed.

Xpress Repairs criteria (else normal claims process applies)

• Available to all clients after three months of cover.
• Damage must be non-structural.
• Only damages to two or less parts and four or less panels qualify.
• Only accidental and collision damages less than R15 000 qualify.
• Exclusions: Glass, mag wheels and pearl colour paint claims.

You need to read your Plan Guide carefully to know all the important events that will not be covered at claim stage.

You have a few options to update your Plan. Learn more about how to manage your Plan.

To get help in an emergency, call 0860 999 911 and we will give you the assistance you need.

The Young Adult benefit is exclusively available to drivers under the age of 26 years.

Learn more about the great rewards and benefits we’re offering young adult drivers.

Once you have activated your Young Adult benefit, we will deposit 25% of your car insurance premium into your Rewards Fund. We will deposit this money into your Rewards Fund upfront for each six month period (25% x monthly premium x 6). The balance in your Rewards Fund will increase or decrease depending on your driving behaviour and how many kilometres you drive between 23:00 and 04:30. After six months the balance of your Rewards Fund will become available to you.

Yes, your Rewards Fund can become negative but it won’t impact you as it will be reset to zero at the end of every six-month cycle. We won’t ask you to top up your Rewards Fund if your balance is negative.

Drive well and earn at least 300 DQ Points each month and avoid night time driving betweeen 23:00 and 04:30.

You may have a premium adjustment at the end of every six months, based on your kilometres of night-time driving over the previous six-month period:

These premium adjustments are in addition to your annual premium review at your Plan anniversary and will apply for a period of six months only.

You can boost your Rewards Fund each month based on your Vitalitydrive status:

However, for every 1km that you drive your car between 23:00 and 04:30, while it’s insured by Discovery Insure, your Rewards Fund will decrease by R10. If you use our DriveMe benefit you will not have any money deducted from your Rewards Fund.

Yes, you will lose all the money you’ve accumulated as the funds are only available after each six-month cycle.

Vitality Drive has two reward options to choose from. You will either be able to join the Vitality Drive fuel rewards option and earn up to R800 fuel rewards each month and have access to other fuel related benefits or you can join Vitality Drive through Drive your Discount and get an upfront premium discount of up to 20%.

Policies cannot have a combination of the Drive your Discount reward and fuel rewards reward option. One of the reward options would need to be chosen for all primary drivers on the plan. Both Vitality Drive reward options are available on all, Essential, Classic or Purple plans.

To Increase your rewards%:

• You must Insure your motor vehicle and home
• You must complete and pass a Tiger Wheel & Tyre Annual MultiPoint check.

To maximise your fuel rewards percentage to up to 50%, you need to:

• Insure your household contents and/or building with your car or motorcycle on your Discovery Insure Plan for at least R250 000.
• Take your motor vehicle to Tiger Wheel & Tyre and pass an Annual MultiPoint check.

*You must insure your building or household contents or both for a minimum of R250 000.

Here's a summary of your Vitality Drive points -earning activities:

If you purchase fuel at BP or Shell and make use of the Gautrain, we’ll reward you on your total monthly combined spend. You can also choose to have your fuel rewards doubled and paid into your Excess Funder Account.

You could win up to a free tank of fuel for achieving a 5 Star trip on the day you fill up at BP or Shell. You’ll receive the good news by SMS.

Click here to see all the winners and to find out more.

If you would like to switch between reward options, you can call our call centre or contact your financial adviser.

Switching from Fuel rewards to Drive your Discount

If you choose to switch from fuel rewards to Drive your Discount, you will no longer earn fuel rewards or any fuel-related benefits. If you have an Excess Funder Account (EFA) the funds will remain in your EFA and this will operate according to the normal EFA rules.

Switching from Drive your Discount to Fuel rewards

If you switch from the Drive your Discount option to the fuel rewards option, your discount will be removed and you will pay the full premium on your selected plan (e.g. Essential Plan with fuel rewards). You will then qualify for fuel rewards with all fuel-related benefits.

Yes, you can switch between getting your fuel rewards paid into your premium paying bank account and having them doubled and added to your Excess Funder Account on a monthly basis.

Call us on 0860 751 751 to switch between these two reward options.

Learn more about fuel rewards and the Excess Funder Account.

You can see your fuel rewards or Excess Funder Account balance here.

Drive your Discount is a digitally enabled way to join Vitality Drive through the Discovery app and earn an upfront and ongoing premium discount of up to 20% based on how well you drive.

With Drive your Discount, you can earn an upfront and ongoing car insurance premium discount of up to 20% by driving well and joining Vitality Drive on the Discovery app.

Here is how you can get an upfront and ongoing premium discount of up to 20%:

1. Download the Discovery app and register for Drive your Discount.
2. Drive well to earn an upfront discount of up to 20%. Every seven days, you can check the app to see how your discount may have changed based on how you drive. You need to drive well for a minimum of 7 days and 100 kilometres to be presented your first discounted quote.
3. Join Discovery Insure at any time during the trial period by accepting your quote and discount offered to you on the Discovery app.
4. Once you have accepted the quote and joined Discovery Insure, your driving behaviour will continue to be measured through the Discovery app. Through this, you will earn up to 1 600 Vitality Drive points by driving well, completing knowledge and awareness activities, and ensuring your vehicle is safe to drive. You will earn a Vitality Drive status based on your Vitality Drive points.
5. Continue driving well to maintain your up to 20% annual renewal premium discount.

You can earn up to 20% off your car insurance premium. The upfront discount is guaranteed throughout the first year on the plan. You can maintain your up to 20% premium discount, every year at renewal by driving well.

You will also have access to Vitality Drive status-based rewards such as up to 25% off Uber, 25% off car seats, 20% off car maintenance and have access to weekly Active Rewards.

You can also get access to state-of-the-art safety features by downloading the Discovery Insure app, installing a Vitality Drive Sensor at Tiger Wheel & Tyre and linking the Discovery Insure app to the sensor.

You will not qualify for fuel rewards or any of the fuel-related benefits.

You will not qualify for fuel rewards or any of the fuel-related benefits (Excess Funder Account (EFA), EFA Tyre benefit or 5-Star days).

Yes. Your upfront discount is earned during the 28-day trial period and is guaranteed throughout the first year on the plan. At anniversary, we will recalculate your Drive your Discount discount based on how well you drive during the year. You must therefore continue to drive well to earn an up to 20% premium discount every year at renewal.

The upfront discount is guaranteed throughout the first year on the plan. After your first plan year, we will recalculate your Drive your Discount discount based on how well you drive. You must therefore continue to drive well to earn an up to 20% premium discount every year at renewal.

You will use the Discovery app to measure your driving behaviour. As a result, you will not have access to the Vitality Drive safety features.

However, you can activate your safety features. To activate your safety features, download the Discovery Insure app, install your Vitality Drive Sensor at Tiger Wheel & Tyre and link it to the Discovery Insure app.

In addition, you will get enhanced app functionality including immediate trip feedback through the app.

We need to upload your trip data to determine your driving score. This upload can be done through Wi-Fi or 3G. You can manage these upload options in Settings. Any data usage will be charged at normal provider rates.

An upload will be attempted each time a trip is completed. If an upload fails, we will try again after your next trip.

The Drive your Discount feature is available for iOS and Android operating systems, and for the following handsets:

• iPhone 5, 5C, 5S, 4S (iOS 7 or later)
• Samsung Galaxy S4 and S4 Mini, SIII and SIII Mini
• Samsung Galaxy Note III, 10.1
• DROID RAZR HD, HD MAXX
• DROID MINI, Ultra, MAXX
• LG G2
• Moto X
• Nexus 4, 5, 7
• HTC One.

Your drive rank together with the length of time you have been on the trial will be used to calculate your discount. Your drive rank is a measure of how well you drive. You will get a drive rank out of 10, where 1 is for poor driving behaviour and 10 is for excellent driving behaviour. It is calculated using various driving behaviours which are explained above. Once you have driven for at least 7 days with 100 kilometres of driving, we will translate your driving rank into a discount or loading percentage that will be applied to the premium presented in the quote in the app.

When you accept the quote with the discount, we will lock in your upfront discount for your first plan year.

During the 28-day period, you will be scored using a drive ranking. Your drive rank is a measure of how well you drive. You will get a drive rank out of 10, where, 0-3 are poor drivers, 4-7 are average drivers and 8-10 are excellent drivers.

Your drive rank is based on the following driving behaviour elements:

ACCELERATION, BRAKING AND CORNERING:

We look at the number of times you drive above the g-force limits for acceleration, braking and cornering. These limits are determined by analysing driving behaviour with accident data. Driving below the limits significantly reduces the risk of being involved in an accident, while driving above these limits increases the risk.

SPEEDING:

We measure the amount of time you drive above the speed limit.

NIGHT-TIME DRIVING:

We consider the amount of time that you drive late at night (after 23:00 and before 4:30 in the morning).

DISTANCE:

We look at the total number of kilometres you drive. The more time spent on the road, the higher the risk of being involved in an accident.

CELLPHONE USE:

We also track cellphone use while driving. We measure the time you avoid using cellphones while driving.

We will then translate your overall driving behaviour into a drive rank which you can view on the app.

During each trip, we will measure the way you drive for each driving behaviour factor, acceleration, braking, cornering, speeding, night-time driving, distance driven and cellphone use. After each trip you will be able to view how well you did in the trip and the amount of harsh events that occurred during the trip.

Each trip is scored out of a maximum of five stars to a minimum of one star. We consider four or five star trips to mean you drove more safely than average (good job!). Two to three stars means you drove at an average safety level, and one star means you drove at a higher risk level than the average driver (which increases your chances of a major accident).

The following settings should always be active on your smartphone:

Android:

• Accept all permissions.
• GPS and locations services (make sure your Android device is in high accuracy mode)
• Mobile and cellular data
• The following settings must be deactivated:
  • Mock locations must be off
  • Deactivate battery saver mode

iOS:

• Accept all permissions
• Location services
• Mobile data
• Background app refresh must be switch on for the Discovery app.

If you have any more questions, you can email us at insuremaintenance@discovery.co.za or call us on 0860 751 751 so we can try to resolve the issue.

As a client with Vitality Drive you qualify for more rewards. Earning these rewards is easy. All you have to do is drive well and earn Vitality Drive points. The more Vitality Drive points you earn, the higher your Vitality Drive status, the more rewards you’ll get.

Download rewards that are available on both Vitality Drive rewards options.