Sanlam launches pay-as-you-go accident cover app

Go Cover, a first on the South African market, requires a simple once-off registration after downloading and optional nomination of a beneficiary or contact person. A couple of clicks thereafter, smartphone users can secure up to R1 million cover for twenty-four hours or for an extended period of up to 30 days. And this comes with a minimum price tag of just R10. The cover can be activated immediately or at a precise future date and time within 30 days. For example, one can buy 14 days of cover and set it to automatically begin the following week.

Jack Kruger, head of design at Sanlam says the app was built on observations of how the digital era has transformed the way consumers buy products.

“We identified the unbundling of services, a move towards micro-services and services being available on demand, as major trends behind contemporary digital business models, such asAirBnB, Uber andSpotify. People want quick, easy to understand, affordable and convenient products and this is what we want to offer them with Go Cover.”

To simplify the product further, Sanlam decided to only offer three levels of cover. For twenty-four hour cover: a premium of R10 gives cover of up to a R100 000, R20 for up to R500 000 or R30 for up to R1 000 000. The daily rate decreases as the period extends.

Kruger says Go Cover has been designed to cater for insurance needs of people who, for whatever reason, don’t necessarily want to purchase a product with monthly premiums, but still require great cover periodically. This can include anyone from weekend warriorswho participate in adventurous sports and other hazardous activities, to people who simply realise the risks associated with travelling by road at particular times of the year – and want accident cover to secure theirs or their families’ financial future.

Go Cover can be purchased by anyone in South Africa, including foreign tourists travelling in our country. Moreover, it also covers South Africans who are travelling abroad. It is also suited to people who require a degree of workplace protection – either for themselves, or their employees.

“If you have workers who are occasionally deployed to perform high risk activities, Go Cover might be more ideal than longer-term cover.”

Kruger, however, advises that people should not seeGo Cover as a replacement for other modes of insurance cover or medical aid.

“Go Cover is more of a complimentary insurance, and it pays out over and above any other insurance you might have. It can be very handy if you partake in hazardous activities that are excluded in your long-term insurance. It covers everything from cage-diving to para-gliding and mountain biking. It can also be used as a form of travel insurance by people who travel by road during the festive season.”

The strong influence of smart technology is evident in most Go Coverfeatures: It can be purchased through an App, available on both the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store, or via the Go Cover site. With your permission, the App can geo-locate you and push useful notifications with easy activation if you are at the airport, sport events or in a vicinity of an area where you usually undertake a hazardous hobby. Sanlam is also looking to link the App to online wallets like WeChat.

Kruger says if you observe the similarities on many of the popular e-commerce Apps used by consumers to transact today, you start to understand the serious need for easy-to-understand, no-commitments, on-demand solutions for consumers. They want to buy things on-the-go and insurance can’t afford to lag behind.

“If you make a purchasing process simple enough, people use it, even if they haven’t considered it before.”