November 19, 2009
Car insurance reviews
Story link: Car insurance reviews
The financial news portal, Finance Markets, has set up a series of reviews for car insurance that make for interesting reading:
AA Breakdown Cover
AA Motorcycle Insurance
AA Van Insurance
Barclays Car Insurance
Churchill Car Insurance
Churchill Van Insurance
Co-operative Motor Insurance
Direct Line Car Insurance
LV Car Insurance
Aviva Car Insurance
RAC Breakdown Cover
Saga Motor Insurance
Swiftcover Car Insurance
The key message seems to be that the cheaper the car insurance policy, the more likely you may suffer from support and claims issues.
So the less you pay for a policy, the less you should expect of it.
Alternatively, instead of trying to find the cheapest car insurance policy, if you instead pay a little more for a policy from a company with a strong reputation, the extra few pounds can really make a saving in the long run.
Nationwide offers car insurance discounts to current account holders
Story link: Nationwide offers car insurance discounts to current account holders
The Nationwide Building Society is offering discounts on its car insurance for its current account holders:
From earthtimes - Nationwide car insurance discounts:
Car Insurance
* 50 pounds off car insurance premium for quotes given from 1 November 2009 until 31 March 2010.
* The offer is available when eligible customers buy a new Nationwide car insurance policy and applies to the first year’s premium.
* The Nationwide car insurance product is rated 5 star by independent body Defaqto (2009) for the quality of cover.
It’ll be interesting to see how successful the Nationwide are with this, and whether other major insurers will start pushing on the upsell from other financial services into car insurance, and other insurance products, for that matter.
November 18, 2009
Young Drivers hit with big premiums
Story link: Young Drivers hit with big premiums
Young drivers have always had a problem with premiums for car insurance, but apparently the situation is getting worse:
Young motorists charged “horrendous” premiums
Young drivers feel ripped-off by car insurance firms because it is cheaper to be fined for not being insured than to pay for insurance, said Nigel Lacy of car insurance scheme Young Marmalade.
Teenage drivers can find themselves paying “horrendous” insurance premiums of up to £3,500, Lacy said.
According to Lacy, insurance companies need to make more of an effort to take care of young drivers and work with them to improve their driving skills.
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Certainly it’s a fair point to make, but perhaps any kind of push for cheaper premiums needs to go hand in hand with education and greater training.
We continually read stories in the papers about how a young driver takes friends out, shows off a bit, then loses control resulting in many of the passengers being killed.
So while reducing premiums is laudable, we need to address the issue of road safety among young drivers as well.
February 23, 2009
Cash for crash
Story link: Cash for crash
This is a roundabout that is spiraling out of control. Insurance companies need to make their money, while motorists need cheaper insurance. Motorists expect to get cheaper premiums but they rise for no apparent reason while Insurance companies get bogus claims so have to put all customers’ policies up.
Incidents like this are nothing new, and if insurance companies charge so much, then what can they expect.
Swinton, the UK’s leading high street retailer of car insurance, is warning motorists about a new scam designed to defraud insurers out of thousands of pounds.
The scam involves criminal gangs intentionally staging road accidents, usually by slamming on their breaks causing an innocent driver behind to shunt into them, and then making dodgy insurance claims for personal injury and damage to their vehicle.
17,000 uninsured drivers in Norfolk
Story link: 17,000 uninsured drivers in Norfolk
That is an extremely scary figure!
While I do agree that most insurance companies are just out to drain our wallets, I do understand that a crash could result in hundreds of thousands in hospital bills and car repairs, something I couldn’t afford with claiming off my own or somebody else’s insurance.
17,000 uninsured drivers in Norfolk
An estimated 17,000 uninsured drivers are flouting the law on Norfolk’s roads - but police insist they are winning the battle against them.
Statistics from the Motor Insurers’ Bureau (MIB) last night revealed about 3pc of the 580,000 road users in the county are trying to get away without insuring their cars.
Car insurance – Up and Down
Story link: Car insurance – Up and Down
Insurance companies are constantly changing their pricing structure around to suit themselves; this is mainly due to the fact that they take into account not just total claims, but their current operating costs as well. If insurers want to stay ahead of the game this year, then they will want to start chopping their prices back slightly.
Recent figures have revealed that car insurance premiums fell by more than 3 per cent, in the last six months of 2008.
Car insurance provider, Sainsbury’s Car Insurance, found that the average motor insurance premium, in June 2008 was, £514.16, which is 3.1 per cent higher than the figure in December of the same year at £498.22.
Motorists cut back on Car Insurance
Story link: Motorists cut back on Car Insurance
Motorists are choosing the cheaper option of Third Party, Fire and Theft, rather than fully comprehensive. The third party option will not cover the drivers own care, but will cover damages to any other vehicle.
The last few months has created a huge financial struggle, which has made around 10% more people choose this option.
Motorists cut back on Car Insurance
Cash-strapped motorists are cutting back on comprehensive car insurance to drive down costs, it was revealed.
In the last 12 months, there has been a 10% increase in the number of drivers choosing third party, fire and theft cover rather than comprehensive when they renew policies, insurance company Swinton said.
February 4, 2009
Premiums to fund holidays
Story link: Premiums to fund holidays
Its all part of a brand awareness strategy, and I suppose if the brand is the cheapest for the particular individual, then they are going to have no problems with the campaigns, insurance may be expensive, but they have their own overheads.
UK Insurance Premiums to rise … to fund Celebrity Holidays? - We have recently been perplexed by what appears to be a unique strategy among some insurers. Although we have a few MBAs on our staff, none of them recall the dons back at university talking about it, so perhaps it’s something entirely new. An outline is below for the curious.
Step One: Spend as much as possible on celebrity adverts
Despite the credit crunch, some insurance marketers have gone celebrity mad recently with several companies enlisting big name stars to grab your attention.
1/5 choose the smaller car
Story link: 1/5 choose the smaller car
The days of driving round in a huge 4×4 for luxury, the in thing to do nowadays, is to buy yourself a city car, which is not only a lot more economical to run, but they are usually in the lower end of the insurance groups, making them extremely cheap to insure.
One in five UK motorists have downsized to a smaller car since the start of the credit crunch, new research has revealed.
Car insurance provider LV= discovered that 19% of drivers have sold their car in favour of a smaller model, with each downsizing motorist saving an estimated £309 on running costs.
Snow driving
Story link: Snow driving
Driving in the snow is extremely dangerous, but drivers need to understand that the brakes on a vehicle are just asking for trouble, especially when hitting icy patches. Hitting the brakes won’t allow the driver to steer the car, and the loss of control could cause a crash and therefore a insurance claim, not good!
When pulling away in snow, drivers should try to use second gear rather than first, says the RAC.
“In these conditions, it’s all about keeping the revs down. Pull away in second gear rather than first, and do everything gently.