My renewal quote arrived in August as two lines: agency repair AED 2,080, non-agency AED 1,680. AED 400 apart, and the whole conversation with the broker was about that gap. Nothing in the email mentioned the excess, the depreciation schedule, or what the policy pays if the car is written off. All three are in the policy wording, because every comprehensive policy in the country is built on the same Unified Motor Vehicle Insurance Policy Against Loss and Damage, issued under Insurance Authority Decision 25 of 2016 and now kept by the Central Bank. What follows is that wording, read the way I read it.
How a UAE car insurance premium is actually priced
The tariff table attached to the regulation sets a floor and a ceiling. For a saloon the minimum comprehensive premium is AED 1,300 and the maximum is 5% of the vehicle’s value. For a four-wheel drive it is AED 2,000 and 7%. The insurance period in that table is 13 months, not 12.
Between floor and ceiling, insurers compete. Khaleej Times reported in June 2025 that agency-repair cover on a Land Cruiser was running around 2.6% of value against 1.8% before the pandemic, and non-agency cover 2.1% against 1.4%. Those two rates are the ones I used above: on an AED 80,000 saloon, 2.1% is AED 1,680 and 2.6% is AED 2,080. Third-party-only cover starts at AED 750, per the same article.
Two things about the rate are easy to miss. First, it is applied to the agreed insured value, and that value is also the base for the total-loss payout, so a low value cuts the premium and the payout together. Second, the regulation phrases the no-claims discount as a share of the minimum premium, not of the price paid: 10% after one claim-free year, 15% after two, 20% after three. On a saloon that is AED 130, AED 195 and AED 260, whatever the actual premium is. The same 2017 amendment obliges the insurer to hand over a free certificate of insurance experience, immediately, which is the document that carries the record to a different insurer.
What the excess and the depreciation table cost on a real claim
The excess is fixed by value band in Schedule 3 of the unified policy, as a maximum per accident:
| Agreed value of the car | Maximum excess per accident |
|---|---|
| Up to AED 50,000 | AED 350 |
| AED 50,000 to 100,000 | AED 700 |
| AED 100,000 to 250,000 | AED 1,000 |
| Above AED 250,000 | AED 1,200 |
| Above AED 500,000 | AED 1,400 |
On top of that, the policy lets the insurer add a percentage of the compensation when the insured driver caused the accident: up to 10% if the driver is under 25, up to 15% for sports and modified cars, and up to 20% for cars modified outside the factory.
Then there is the line almost nobody reads. If new original parts are fitted instead of used ones, Schedule 1 says the insured bears a depreciation percentage of the parts invoice, by the car’s age from first registration: nothing in year one, 5% in year two, 10% in year three, 15% in year four, 20% in year five, and 30% from year six.
Run it on the AED 80,000 saloon in its third year. A rear-end bump needs a AED 6,000 repair, of which AED 4,000 is parts. The excess is AED 700. The depreciation on new parts is 10% of AED 4,000, which is AED 400. Out of pocket: AED 1,100 on a AED 6,000 repair, and that is before next year’s renewal. Khaleej Times quoted brokers in January 2025 saying rates rise by 10 to 15 percent after a claim, which on AED 1,680 is another AED 168 to 252. A single small claim can cost more than the AED 400 the broker and I spent twenty minutes on.
The premium is the number the quote shows. The excess and the depreciation table are the numbers the claim shows.
That is not an argument for agency repair or against it. Agency cover buys dealer labour and parts, and the unified policy only addresses it for cars past their first three years on the road, where the insurer may agree to it at a premium within the tariff cap. It is an argument for pricing the claim, not just the policy.
What the policy pays when the car is written off
The unified policy calls it a total loss when the car is lost, irreparable, or when repair costs exceed 50% of its pre-accident value. The payout is the agreed insured value minus a 20% depreciation deduction, then adjusted for how far into the insurance period the accident happened. The excess is not applied on a total loss.
On the AED 80,000 saloon, that is AED 64,000 at most. For anyone who bought on a car loan, the number to place next to it is the outstanding balance on the loan, because a written-off car does not write off the loan, and whatever the payout does not cover is still owed. At the trading company where I work, the fleet renewal crosses the finance desk every year, and the comparison there is never on premium alone; the excess per vehicle and the total-loss basis go into the same sheet. A household car deserves the same sheet.
The four numbers, then, for a quote on an AED 80,000 saloon in its third year:
| Number | Where it lives | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Premium, non-agency at 2.1% | The quote | AED 1,680 a year |
| Excess per accident | Schedule 3 | AED 700 |
| Depreciation on new parts | Schedule 1, year three | 10% of the parts invoice |
| Total-loss deduction | Chapter Two | 20% of AED 80,000 = AED 16,000 |
The renewal is the one line that lands in an inbox. In my own tracking, the premium sits as a monthly sinking-fund amount, AED 140 a month for that AED 1,680, and the excess sits in the emergency fund as a known figure rather than a surprise. Swap the value, the age and the rate for the actual car, and the four numbers fall out in five minutes. They are all in the policy PDF that arrived with the quote and was never opened.