UK Insurance Price Comparison – Not Quite What it Says on the Tin?!
As a consumer, when you visit a car insurance price comparison website in the UK, you might imagine you are equally comparing, all of the insurers on the panel delivered by the comparison website. Right? Well, maybe not!
We take a look at the latest news stories about just how independent and altruistic your comparison partner might be?
HomeApproved investigates.
It’s that time of the year again where we try and point you in the direction of what’s happening in the motor insurance sector?
Click through and see what we think will be the key talking points in 2013 UK car insurance:
Black Box Insurance
We predict a big year in the UK for vehicle smartbox technology!
EU Gender Directive
This is not a prediction! It’s already here – thanks to the EU!
Not More Comparison Websites?!
One has to wonder what these new players can really offer/deliver over and above the established players such as MoneySupermarket, GoCompare et al.
Investigation into the UK Car Insurance Market
During September 2012 the Office of Fair Trading announced that it had referred the UK’s private car insurance market to the Competition Commission for further investigation.
Tougher Laws on Drink Driving
Government proposals are paving the way to ensure individuals who drink and drive are hit harder then ever in 2013.
Tommy from HomeApproved talks to you from the other side about factors affecting your next lady driver car insurance quote. In particular the latest European Court of Justice law which will affect motor premiums for female drivers!
HomeApproved Women Car Insurance from HomeApproved on Vimeo.
HomeApproved student car insurance. Tommy from HomeApproved talks to you from the other side about student car insurance. Everything you need to know to obtain the lowest possible student car insurance premium. http://ow.ly/c2Fjm
Catch our aticle for UK car insurance predictions 2012!
Will we look forward to double digit increases in premiums in the new year?
What does the future hold for smartbox technology?
Car insurance FRAUD – Do you know how much this adds to your premium every year?
Click through and read on……………
As of 20th June 2011, there has been an important change to UK car and bike insurance laws.
Continuous Insurance Enforcement (CIE) will become law in the UK, making it illegal to own a vehicle without it being insured (unless it’s registered as off the road with the DVLA – see below). You will sometimes see this being referred to as Laid Up Car Insurance.
The law seeks to address the rise in the number of uninsured vehicles on the road. According to the ABI, it’s believed that uninsured drivers add around £30 to the average insurance policy.
The most obvious to be affected are those with convertible cars and motorbikes, who may use them only during the warmer months and insure them only when in use. It also means that insurance is needed from the renewal date, regardless of whether the car or bike will be used or not.
The new vehicle insurance law – don’t be caught out
If you’re the registered keeper of a vehicle, it must be insured at all times.
The exceptions are:
Car insurance fronting is a subject which every so often gets dragged into the spotlight.
To clarify, a fraud called “fronting” occurs when a young person has a car in their own name, but the insurer is falsely told that someone else other than the main driver of the motor insurance policy is driving the vehicle most of the time. The most common example of this is where parents are fronting policies for their children in an attempt to lower the cost of car insurance premiums.
Recent research delivers evidence that as many as one in five young drivers are complicit in what’s known as insurance fronting. As a consequence of this car insurance firms are rejecting a thousand claims a year as some parents and children lie to save money.
Fronting has been made illegal because it presents a much higher risk for the insurers than what they have quoted you for. To them, the main driver should be the one using the car most of the time and any additional drivers should be driving occasionally. It is on this basis and the fact that an experienced driver is less likely to be involved in an accident than a young driver that the premiums are considerably cheaper.
The insurance industry itself will not reveal any figures on how many claims it is turning down, but the Financial Ombudsman Service says it is dealing with between 100 and 200 fronting disputes each year, and that indicates that firms will be dealing with around 1000 such cases annually.
This will be the last time that the Homeapproved team will be blogging this year!
Many thanks to all our readers who have visited our blog and the Homeapproved UK Car Insurance website.
Our last few posts both here and on the main website have tried to drive home the need for all motorists to drive sensibly and safely over the Christmas and New Year period.
We look forward to hearing from many of our regular readers next year (and new readers) on all matters motoring and insurance.
Have a great Christams and cracking New Year!
Safe motoring
Regards
Homeapproved Car Insurance Team.
Sainsbury Motor Insurance
Sainsbury’s Motor Insurance is urging parents not to buy second-hand child car seats because it is impossible to know if they are safe or whether they have been damaged in an accident.
Latest research reveals that some 713,000 child car seats (around 14 per cent) currently in use are given by a friend or family member or even bought second-hand and that around a quarter of a million (5 per cent) may need replacing because they have been involved in an accident or minor bump.
Recent analysis of the online auction site, Ebay, confirms that trading in second-hand car seats is a reality, with some 131 “used” child car seats for sale on the website. Sainsbury’s motor policies offer new-for-old replacement seats after an accident as a standard feature, even when there is no perceived damage.
In addition to the importance of using a brand new child car seat, Sainsbury’s also warns that parents should make sure that they choose one that is compatible with their car and ensure that it is fitted correctly. Some two-thirds of child car seats are not fitted correctly. Below is useful advice when buying and installing child seats:
Is the child seat suitable for my child? It is essential that the child restraint is suitable for your child. Check the packaging before you buy.
| My Child’s Weight and Age | Suitable Restraint |
| Child weighing up to 10kg (22 lbs) roughly from birth to 6 -9 months | Rearward-facing Baby Seat (Group 0) |
| Child Weighing up to 13kg (29lbs), roughly from birth to 12-15 months | Rearward-facing Baby Seats (Group 0+) |
| Child weighing 9 – 18 kgs (20 – 40 lbs), roughly from 9 months – 4 years | Forward-facing child seat (Group 1) |
| Child weighing 15 – 25 kgs (33 – 55 lbs), roughly aged from 4 – 6 years | Forward-facing child seat or/ booster seat (Group 2) |
| Child weighing 22 – 36 kgs (48 – 79 lbs), roughly from 6 – 11 years | Booster cushion (Group 3) |
Safety Standards : ISOFIX
ISOFIX stands for “International Standards Organisation FIX”. It is a standard for installing child seats into cars and is intended to make fitting child seats quick and simple.
When cars are manufactured, ISOFIX points are built into them. Child seat manufacturers also build ISOFIX fitting points on their child seats. This will enable ISOFIX child seats to be simply plugged into the ISOFIX points in the car.
ISOFIX is an essential development because many people find it difficult to fit child seats correctly, and many surveys have found that a high proportion of the child seats are not fitted securely enough.
ISOFIX is designed to solve all these problems. The ultimate aim is that any ISOFIX child car seat you buy will fit your car simply by plugging it into the ISOFIX points.
The UK’s estimated two million uninsured drivers face an instant fine should the latest Government proposals go ahead. The IAM (Institute of Advanced Motorists) has backed the move, claiming it will protect the vast majority of law abiding motorists – as long as databases are reliable.
Under new proposals from the Department for Transport, using the 2006 Road Safety Act, vehicles and motorists will have to be continuously insured, whether the vehicle is kept and used on a road or not. The DVLA will send reminder letters to motorists whose insurance is soon to expire. If they ignore this letter and don’t renew their motor insurance, they will be issued with an automatic fine.
IAM chief examiner, Peter Rodger, said: “The proposal will help reduce the numbers of people who had genuinely forgotten their motor insurance was up for renewal. However, those who deliberately flout the law are unlikely to be fazed by the new proposals as they will continue to find ways to work the system.
It’s worth remembering that a crash involving an uninsured driver is particularly fraught. A worst case scenario is when the uninsured driver will be in an unregistered vehicle, untaxed and without a current MOT – there are a host of road safety issues when some drivers choose to simply drop below the radar.
“These illegal motorists not only represent a threat to other road users, but also place a financial burden on the remaining 94 per cent of law abiding motorists.”
The proposal entirely depends on the accuracy of both the DVLA keeper records and the Motor Insurance Database (MID). The IAM is concerned about their reliability.
Mr Rodger added: “There are regular instances where the MID has provided inaccurate information to police enforcement units, leading to mistaken action against drivers and vehicles which are in fact insured. It would be unfair for a motorist to receive a fine if the database in incorrect. We also recommend that a check against the Police National Computer is carried out, so the victim of a crime, such as theft, does not have to prove to the police that they already hold a report.”
The IAM would like assurances from the DVLA that these accuracy problems will be addressed before placing unnecessary concern onto law abiding motorists. Enforcement measures such as Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) and road traffic policing are crucial for any new scheme to be effective.
