Latest Car Insurance News

Posted March 2006

Shop around for car insurance and claim your share of £1.4 billion

Nearly half of UK drivers are still not shopping around for a better car insurance deal at renewal time according to recent research from Privilege. This is costing drivers a cumulative £1.4 billion, which averages out at over £127 each.

These savings are being missed by the 45% of the 11 million drivers that have accumulated 4 years or more no claims bonus (NCB) who don’t obtain competitive quotes when they receive their annual car insurance renewal notice. Although there remains a large volume of accidents, around 75% of UK drivers have the treasured 4 years NCB that heralds the maximum savings with most car insurers.

The research was regional and found that Scottish drivers were the most loyal to their existing car insurance company with only 48% of drivers checking their premiums against competitive quotes and 9% that have never used the financial advantage afforded by their careful driving. They were passing up an average of over £110 savings. The savviest were motorists in the North West where 72% sought competitive quotes at renewal. The largest average savings remain to be made in the Midlands where 42% of drivers were missing out on approximately £143.

Privilege pride themselves on their service and car insurance pricing for safer drivers with a promise to beat any renewal quote for drivers with 4 or more years NCB. Their managing director said of the findings, that drivers that have invested in their no claims discount with years of careful driving, should benefit from the bonus they have conscientiously earned but it was concerning that so many were missing the opportunity to save considerable amounts on their premiums.

Posted March 2006

Smile as you collect your driving ban, you were on camera.

With over 6,000 speed cameras on our roads, including permanent and those in vans, we now have almost a million drivers that are just one motoring conviction away from a driving ban according to recent research carried out by Direct Line car insurance, with the vast majority of sentences resulting from speeding.

Since their initial use in 1992, motorists being caught by speed cameras now accounts for over 90% of driving convictions (averaged over the last two years) and Direct Line car insurance calculate that the fines have amounted to over £120 million in the last year alone.

The easy answer is that motorists should observe the speed limits at all times and there would be no convictions, however, the research shows a surprisingly cavalier attitude to the limits from large numbers of drivers. 56% of drivers surveyed admitted that speed limits alone would not affect the speed at which they traveled and a worrying 74% said that the level of fines would not induce them to keep within the limits. Drivers saw speed cameras not as a road safety feature, but as a way to raise revenue for the Government.

More concerning still is the fact that many drivers not only fail to comply with speed limits, they not aware what the relevant limit is. Even though nearly 95% of motorists boasted a sound knowledge of speed signage in the UK, sadly, half could not correctly identify the basic speed limit for a dual carriageway being 70 MPH.

It remains the case that speed is a factor in a third of road deaths and love them or hate them, speed cameras could be the cause of a large number of bans in the coming weeks and months for those who choose to ignore them.

Posted March 2006

EDI is the way forward for the Highway

Highway insurance have improved the service to their broker network by introducing a full cycle Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) enabled product covering their commercial vehicle insurance range. This means that with live rates and product information together with full policy acquisition and servicing available, their brokers can provide a more efficient service to their many existing and potential commercial customers.

EDI is becoming the required technical standard for any insurance company wishing to attract the most professional brokers. Highway have selected Insurecom as their provider.

Already a highly profitable insurance company, Highway view the EDI development as key to maintaining a low cost base by removing the movement of paper from the commercial vehicle and van insurance process.

Highway have tried to make their commercial policies as applicable as possible to most small to medium carriers as it covers not only rigid, covered and flat back vehicles but also refrigerated and tipping vehicles up to 7.5 tonnes. An any driver option is available and named drivers may be added aged from 19 years to 65 years, making it a very versatile product.

They are so confident that the EDI benefit will encourage a significant increase in their commercial market share that Highway have offered discounts to those brokers that transact their business entirely electronically.

Highway have also included EDI renewals for their Choice car insurance product and have taken the opportunity to stop the old paper renewal process on all applicable policies.

Posted March 2006

Wolf Whistling – Apparently today’s women quite like it.

Following a poll carried our on behalf of Budget Van insurance shows that a staggering eight out of ten women have encountered the attentions of van drivers and workmen, receiving cat calls and wolf whistles.

Surprisingly, almost half the respondents found it an acceptable experience saying that they felt flattered, and nearly 42% of those said that it improved their mood. 3% of those that felt flattered even took the situation one step further by going on a date with the wolf whistler!

To support the fairly obvious assumption, the younger the woman, the more likely she is to receive wolf whistles. But the youngest group of 16 – 24 year olds had the most difficulty dealing with the vocal interest and were more likely to feel embarrassed or threatened, and consequently enjoyed the experience the least with 34% finding it flattering. However, of the 45 – 54 year olds, 57% were pleased with the attention and of the occupation groups, housewives enjoyed the situation more than those working with 54% feeling flattered.

A spokeswoman from the van insurance company said that the results demonstrated that a large percentage of women feel better about themselves as a result of wolf whistles and cat calls, and such salutes are pleasant to receive and along with many respondents she would probably react with a smile and a wave provided they were complimentary.

It remains the case that over half the women in the survey were less than flattered by the experience, but that today’s females are more empowered and confident and most are more than match for this primitive behaviour.

Posted February 2006

Named Driver No Claims Discount has arrived from Direct Line

To date anyone taking out their first individual car insurance policy had to start from scratch with a zero no claims bonus, but a leap of faith by the innovators at Direct Line has applied common sense to the insurance risk represented by additional drivers when they take out their own policy.

Similar to the reward offered to drivers coming off a company car insurance policy, from January 2006 anyone previously named on a Direct Line policy as an additional driver can accumulate a no claim discount against their own new Direct Line car insurance policy, and the amount of their discount is not affected if the main driver or any other additional driver has had a claim.

The insurer has calculated that there are around eighteen million motorists driving on other peoples’ insurance, all of whom could benefit from this promise if insured with themselves.

Dependant upon age and the length of time claim free as an additional driver, there is a potential 70% saving available. Those thought most likely to benefit from the scheme are young drivers who can be hit with potential insurance bills into four figures and because of this have to put off car ownership. Under the existing regime they could be driving on a parent’s policy for two years and still have to pay full premium, with Direct Line they could save up to 30%.

This advantage can be back-dated up to 5 years for existing additional drivers and named driver no claims discount can be used to ‘top up’ any earned no claim discount. So for drivers that had a couple of years as a Direct Line additional driver followed by a year on their own car insurance policy with that company, they would be able to claim 2 years discount.

This is a welcome improvement to the net cost of insurance for the careful driver that has been proving their experience and degree of safety as a named additional driver.

Posted February 2006

New Multicar insurance from Admiral

If you have two cars in your household that you wish to insure the standard answer is two policies. But Admiral car insurance have recognised a gap in the major insurers’ marketplace, where individual households have several cars and possibly many drivers and have come up with their new Mulitcar policy.

Multicar offers discounts against their standard rates for multiple cars and is an attempt to gather complete households under one car insurance policy where each vehicle has a separate schedule of drivers and the main driver for each vehicle retains their own individual no claims discount.

There are no restrictions to the relationships between the drivers as they can be family or friends, provided they are resident at the household (but can include cars used by young drivers away at university). The benefits are that you can place up to five cars under one insurance policy provided they are all registered at the same address. Each car will have a main driver and additional drivers, all of whom may drive that vehicle. The renewal dates must be the same, but Admiral will facilitate the merging of any that don’t coincide and even suggest there may be a saving in the process. The premium can be spread over twelve months.

You can, of course, change cars at any time and may be entitled to a refund if the new vehicle is of a lower insurance group. You can also add cars at any time up to the maximum of five.

Admiral are trusting that the discounts available for using the multicar policy will outweigh the possible lower premiums available through sourcing individual policies and the annual hassle of searching out the best deal for each car.

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