Latest Car Insurance News

Welcome to Expert Car Insurance News. Here you will find all the latest information concerning the motor insurance industry.

No more premium hikes for speeders

Swinton car insurance has broken ranks with its competitors and stated that speeding fines and penalty points are now such a common occurrence that they aren’t a true guide to the risk a driver poses to a car insurer, and, drivers that have accumulated up to nine speeding penalty points may be assessed as if they had an unblemished record.

This position by Swinton has been developing for some time, they recently issued a press release which stated that 56% (2006) of the cars on our motorways broke the speed limit, citing the Department of Transports own statistics. Although this is a poor reflection on our desire to keep to the law it is a reduction of 2% over the previous year.

Similarly 49% of cars in built-up areas with a speed limit of 30 mph also exceeded the limit, but this figure is showing a long-term trend downwards with a reduction of 23% over the 1996 statistics. However the 40 mph urban roads indicated a 28% level of drivers ignoring the limit, up 4% on 2005.

The use of speed cameras which has escalated in recent years has led to the higher detection of speeding offences.

Although the numbers breaking the law is high, the figure is reducing and conversely the number of speeding fines has increased from 200,000 to 2 million over ten years. The inclusion of speeding points as an arbiter of driving safely appears to be of little statistical value to Swinton.

Utmost Good Faith - a forgotten principle?

Admiral car insurance have issued a press release suggesting that approximately 10% of individuals applying for car insurance lie by giving false information or by omission, not telling the whole truth. They warn that insurers are getting far better at spotting the signs where motorists are not telling a true story when they apply, and even better at investigating these cases and cancelling cover where necessary.

Every contract of insurance is a legal document and is subject to the principle of utmost good faith which obliges the individual to disclose ANY detail which may be of importance to the insurer WHETHER IT IS REQUESTED OR NOT. Surprised? Many people whose claims are denied or whose cover is cancelled are! You have tell the whole truth or that contract of car insurance can claimed to be invalid and summarily cancelled. Even if the lie isn’t found at the time of applying, if your untruth is found at the time of a claim, you can find that you have been driving around without valid insurance, and it’s all your fault. Increasingly motorists are bending the truth (lying) in order to reduce their premiums. It’s easy now you can just tweak an online quote to see the effect on the cost. Some of the favourite lies told to insurers are:

Holding back information about motoring convictions. You must disclose information about any convictions in the last 5 years because statistically convicted drivers are worse drivers and pay higher premiums.

Insuring a modified car as standard. If your car has been made to perform or look different then the risk to the insurer is different and has to be assessed. Premiums are calculated on the basis of any vehicle being standard, modifying it is likely to increase the cost.

Hiding a young main driver as an additional driver. Formally known as ‘fronting’ this is usually where a parent insures a car with a child as an additional driver, when the child is actually the main driver, in the hope of paying less. This is illegal because the child will be driving on more than an occasional basis and the car insurance premium should be higher.

Failing to inform the insurer of previous claims. If you have had a claim(s) in the previous three years, whether or not the claim was found to be your fault or was settled your insurer is entitled to know your insurance history in order to assess your application.

Undisclosed license details. Insurers each have a specified list of countries that they will accept as providing an adequate full driving license. Also use of a provisional license must be disclosed and often a named full license holder must be named on the policy.

A spokesman for Admiral said that insurers are not trying to deny cover or claims and honest drivers have nothing to fear, but applicants must realise that they legal obligation to be truthful and investigation methods are more effective than ever before. People may think a little white lie won’t hurt but they may wind up with a massive bill to pay if their claim is denied.

White Van Man, don’t you Love him?

After all, 93% of them claim that their driving style is nothing short of impeccable and they definitely don’t deserve the loathing that has been heaped upon them. The term ‘White Van Man’ was first coined by Ms Sarah Kennedy, the early morning radio presenter, ten years ago and ever since that description has been associated with the rudest and very worst driving practices.

A poll was held amongst White Van drivers, in celebration of their anniversary, revealed that around 75% of them held the firm belief that they were all tarnished with the same brush due to the actions of a small percentage of their number who were inconsiderate of other road users.

Amongst the tricks of the White Van trade refuted by those surveyed was, parking on double yellow lines, 93% said they never did it. 90% also said that they never use a hand held mobile phone whilst driving and 82% reported that they have never used a rude and inappropriate hand gesture as a reaction to a circumstance on the road. Only 3% said they have jumped a red traffic light Of their pet hates, those polled said that people driving BMWs are the worst of all road users, followed closely by women driving “Chelsea Tractors”, young drivers (boy racers), and old drivers who poodle around as if every day is a weekend and they have all the time in the world to drive at 20mph below the speed limit. Also 31% said they were irritated by children scribbling messages in the dirt on their vehicle.

Cornhill Direct insurance, who carried out the poll, said that stereotyping such an obvious target is easy but these drivers, who are driving for long periods, are mostly knowledgeable and experienced with normal claims records. And a van driver stated that if his driving were bad enough to obtain points on his license or even a ban he would be sacked instantly, loosing his livelihood so it makes good sense to drive well.

Why insure your old banger, man? It’s cheaper not to!!

A piece from MSN’s motoring correspondent Tom Evans has questioned the relative costs relating to owning and running a car and has concluded that for a large number of our motorists operating at the lower end of the socio-economic scale, the high cost of insuring a car is not worth it, because the penalty for failing to insure is not a sufficient deterrent and he goes so far as to call it a farce.

Whilst insurance is a requirement both legally and financially necessary, (being sued for huge sums of money if you cause damage to property or persons would put most of us into bankruptcy were it not for insurance) there are a growing army of motorists who lack such foresight. When the priority is putting a car on the road as cheaply as possible, and you can pick up a roadworthy car for around £500 nowadays, spending anything up to three times the cost of the car just to insure it seems to have become a step too far for many young drivers. These youngsters see cases of drivers prosecuted for driving without insurance going through the courts and the perpetrators leaving with fines of around £200. The balance of whether to get car insurance is not a legal/moral one but simply do I pay £1,500 or stand the chance of a £200 fine, a fine that only needs to be paid if I get caught. Unfortunately, many are choosing the latter.

The uninsured drivers’ levy picks up the tab for the claims against uninsured drivers so that the victims are not penalised, and this costs around £600 million per year, or put another way 6-10% on the insurance bill of every law biding motorist.

Mr Evans suggests that it is time to get tough on these reprobates and use the motorists’ friend, the Traffic Warden, as well as the police to check for current car insurance. It is true that the uninsured are more likely to drink and drive by a staggering ten times, and three times more likely to be convicted of dangerous driving activities captured by the boys in blue, but with the centralised insurance register Traffic Wardens could check for current insurance on any illegally parked vehicle.

Whilst it remains cheaper to pay a fine than to act properly there will be a minority who choose not do the responsible thing.