Report: Consumer perspectives in South Africa – Insurance

Research shows that South Africa leads in sub-Saharan Africa when it comes to insurance adoption rates. Many people own a range of products and, as insurance businesses continue to develop more innovative solutions that better suit the needs of the population, and education around benefits becomes more widespread, adoption rates look likely to rise further.

Up-to-date research on insurance customers in South Africa is generally hard to come by. Growing bank account adoption, usage of online payments and e-commerce are fundamentally reshaping the economy, but it’s not yet understood how this has affected the insurance industry.

We commissioned a consumer survey to better understand South Africans’ attitudes and perceptions around the insurance industry, their reasons for choosing one provider over another and how they think about premium payments and claims payouts.

Download the full report to see our findings.

Spending on insurance is starkly divided

Consumer spending on insurance appears to be barbell-shaped. Respondents typically either spend R500 - 1,000 per month on their premiums, or R4,500+. People across four different income brackets clustered around the lower spending limit, all the way up to those making R34,499 per month. Interestingly, the second most common spend level for that income group was R4,500+, with relatively few falling in the middle.

Most policies also cover a number of dependents

Only a very small minority of customers purchased policies solely for themselves. The largest group of respondents had 3 other people on their policy, and a sizable proportion had even more.

Interestingly, the number of respondents on a policy did not seem to correlate strongly with spending on monthly insurance premiums, indicating the main driver of monthly spending was likely product selection.

Almost all premium payments are automated

The vast majority - almost 95% - of respondents used recurring payment methods to pay their premiums. This implies a desire to “set it and forget it” when it comes to insurance payments. Our findings show that the majority of these are paid via debit order, but one reason for this could be that this was the only option available.

While this is undoubtedly convenient, we found that people also expressed interest in optionality of additional payment methods for added flexibility - especially in cases where they had missed premium payments.

Explore more findings

What are the most common types of insurance South Africans purchase? Who are their preferred providers? What do consumers look for in an insurance provider, and how loyal are they?

Read our full report for more.