Naked launches cover for your standalone items

Naked, South Africa’s first end-to-end artificial intelligence-driven insurance platform, has announced that customers can now purchase cover for single items straight from its app. This follows the launch of Naked’s comprehensive home and contents insurance product earlier this year, which in turn built on the success of the company’s fully digital car insurance offering launched in April 2018.

The new insurance product covers valuable items for theft, accidental damage and loss in South Africa and for up to six months of consecutive travel anywhere in the world. Naked’s comprehensive product range now spans home cover, contents insurance, car insurance, and insurance for single items.

Consumers can get a quote in seconds and sign up for cover of valuables such as cameras, smartphones, laptops, sunglasses, sports equipment and guitars instantly. They can add or remove items and adjust excess values for each item in real-time to see how it will affect their premiums.

The process is completely digital with no need to haggle for the best price with a call centre agent. Once you’ve signed up and purchased your cover on the app, you simply need to take and load a few pictures together with a short description of your item to complete the transaction.

For example, a consumer might insure one of or a mix of items as follows, and experiment with different excess levels to find the right deal:
• R2,500 headphones or sunglasses with a R500 excess for R45 per month;
• R8,000 laptop with a R1,000 excess for R82 per month;
• R15,000 wedding ring with a R2,000 excess for R102 per month;
• R7,000 smartphone with a R1,000 excess for R91 per month;
• R3,600 surfboard with a R500 excess for R49 per month.

The product is especially well suited for those who want to cover one or two valuable items, but don’t want or need full home insurance. Unlike most traditional insurers, Naked allows people who don’t have an existing home and contents policy to purchase cover for a single item. It’s ideal, for example, if you have bought a new TV or notebook and want to cover just that item.

“Single item cover from Naked also offers more choice to customers in markets where insurance is traditionally sold as a tick box option – for example, cover for an expensive new smartphone when you upgrade,” says Ernest North, co-founder at Naked. “It is easy to get a quote from Naked and the premium will typically be lower than buying insurance through the cellular dealer.”

The single item cover from Naked – unlike home contents insurance – covers the customer’s stuff even when in transit, used for business or used outside the home. This makes it a useful option for entrepreneurs who use expensive equipment like cameras, sound equipment or high-end computers in their small and home-based businesses.

Says North: “What makes Naked unique is that customers have the choice between purchasing home contents insurance (including specified valuables) – as they could from a conventional insurer – or purchasing cover for one or a few single items on a standalone basis. Not only does the efficiency of our automated process offer transparency and convenience to the customer, it also enables us to offer significantly lower premiums than what people are used to. Our goal is to make it simple for you to buy the exact right cover for your needs.”

Customers claim from, manage, change and cancel their policies from the Naked app without the need to speak to a call centre agent, giving them unprecedented control. Naked’s AI fraud analytics fast-track the majority of claims, so that people who pass the automated fraud analytics can receive instant approval for payout of the claim or the replacement or repair of their item.

The home insurance products are built on Naked’s digital systems and processes. Because it does not run legacy systems or manage a large call centre infrastructure, Naked can pass significant premium savings on to its customers. This automated process and an easy cancellation process means customers can be confident that they are always charged a fair premium.