Karen Stevens: Financial Services Ombudsman debunks myth surrounding jandals and insurance

Drivers are being given the green-light to wear jandals behind the wheel.

The Financial Services Ombudsman Karen Stevens has busted the myth insurance can't be claimed on a crash if the driver's wearing jandals.

But she says people should still be careful.

"If you know that your jandal's going to get stuck under the accelerator or there's a particular problem with the type of shoe you're wearing - then of course, you don't do that."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You know this myth that you can claim insurance. Oh,
by the way, somebody has text in about what happened
at the Northern Club in Auckland, and yes we are
going to talk about that, and yes we will do
it soon right now. Though, you know that myth that
you can't claim insurance if you crash your car while
wearing jandles. Sometimes your mum would say, hey, you can't
wear chandles. Well, according to the Insurance and Financial Services
on boardsman, it's all nonsense. Apparently insurers will decline your

(00:25):
claim for other reasons, but not just because you're wearing jendles.
Karen Stevens is the Insurance and Financial Services on boardsman. Karen, Hello,
hello Ryan, how are you very well? Thank you, so
we can cross this one off the list. It's a myth.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
It is a myth. And the thing is that most
people wear jendles when they drive. And the only thing
is if you know that wearing jendles, your jendle is
going to get stuck under the accelerator so that you
might hit something or that the particular problem with the
type of shoe you're wearing. Then of course you don't
do that because that's a risk that you don't take.

(01:01):
But otherwise, if you think that you've done many times
and there's never been a problem, then it should be okay.
What insurers are worried about are the risks that you
know about already that you take anyway, because those are
never going to be covered. No.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
But if you've got a warren of fitness, a recently
issued warren of fitness, and your tires are there's a
bit of tread lost on them, they're a bit baled.
You might not know that, but they can still decline
you on that. Is that right?

Speaker 2 (01:31):
Yeah? And I think that the word that you use
there is an important one, recently issued WAFF because in
most cases that we've seen through the ifso scheme, it's
usually a WAFT has been issued, you know, sort of
nine months earlier, and somebody's done probably hundreds of kilometers
since that time. They know that their tires were sort

(01:54):
of a bit borderline when they got the WAFT, and
they haven't done anything to get new tires in the meantime.
That's that's the sort of thing that you know that
there's a bit of a risk there and you don't
do anything about it. And that's what an insurre is
not prepared to pay for.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
Right if you are so. Lots of people are going
on there summer roadies in the next couple of weeks,
next couple of days. Even if you've got your war
and a fitness you know you've recently serviced, you've got
no other reasons to think there's something wrong with your car.
Do you have to or should you go and get
it checked anyway by a mechanic, because I mean, it
is expensive to get it done, and they are busy

(02:30):
at this time of year.

Speaker 2 (02:31):
Not if there is nothing to alert you to the
fact that there's a problem. I think that's probably going
above and beyond. Most people will check their tires before
they go away and make sure that you know everything
is fine. If you look at your tires and you think, oh,
this one's looking a bit bored or or there's a
bit of a problem with this one, then that's when
you should do something, not think, oh, she'll be right

(02:53):
and leave it. It's the sort of thing that you
think about before you go. It's not taking the risk
that most of us wouldn't take in that particular circumstance,
and that's what insurers don't want you to do. You know,
most of the time, you know, we can be a

(03:14):
little bit careless, we can be a little bit negligent,
but if you take it that step further and then
you're positively reckless about Oh well, look I don't care.
I know that you know Matthias are a bit dodgy,
or I've got a problem with this, or you know,
I'm leaving the house but I've left a window open
to the cat.

Speaker 1 (03:32):
It's not something you're You're in different territory than Karen.
Thank you for that. Karen Stevens, Insurance and Financial Services
on Boodsman. On your road trip before you take off
this summer, make sure you've got no worries. Twenty four
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