Cheap car insurance is what all motorists look for. There are many reputable low priced car insurance companies, such as https://www.prudentplus.com (who incidentally provide excellent motor trade insurance), or https://www.co-opinsurance.co.uk where you can try to find the very best value quotes. But is the very cheapest policy the best one for you? Low-cost premiums may appear to be bargains but are they good value for money?
Car insurance is not just there to help you comply with the law, but it also indemnifies you in the event of a motor accident which is your fault. Without it you could find yourself paying out hundreds, thousands or even tens of thousands of pounds from your own pocket for just one tiny mistake. So, it is vital that you make sure that you are fully protected financially.
There are four ways that you can have problems with your cover. These are:
Many people look to buy third-party only car insurance because they believe it to be the cheapest possible option. This is not always the case however. Many insurers are very wary of customers who buy the lowest possible level of cover; experience has shown them that statistically these clients are the most likely ones to be involved in claims. Just applying for third-party or third party fire and theft cover can raise red flags and result in higher quotations. Increasingly often a comprehensive policy offers better benefits at a lower price! It not only covers you for damage to other people and their property, but also, usually, damage to your own car as well. If you have a valuable car this could be a substantial benefit.
There is just one disadvantage of comprehensive car insurance; and it is that there is inevitably an excess to pay in the event of a claim. Sometimes this can add up to many hundreds of pounds. A third party only policy on the other hand involves no excess; in the event that you are judged to be responsible for damaging someone else's property, or even injuring anybody, with your car, the policy should settle claims in full. If fire and theft cover is added to this, however, there is usually an excess to pay in the event that your car is stolen or damaged by fire.
Deciding on which type of policy to buy is therefore not just a matter of how expensive the premium is, but just what your own needs are.
A substantial minority of motorists, either by accident or deliberately, submit false information to their insurers when filling out a proposal form. The most common errors are omitting to mention previous accidents or convictions, or claiming to live at a different address.
This is often picked up straight away, because most companies carry out background checks before issuing a policy, but there have been cases in the past where this has not been done. However checks have been carried out following a claim and discrepancies have led to the claims being refused. This can leave a motorist in a very difficult financial situation so it is absolutely imperative that the correct information is given to insurers right from the start.
There is no way in which they can be misled anyway; they all share information amongst themselves about their clients so any errors on the proposal form will eventually be found out.
On every proposal form the motorist is asked how much voluntary excess he or she will agree to pay in the event of an accident. very often, the higher the voluntary excess, the lower the premium is going to be.
What many people fail to realise is that there is also a compulsory excess to pay, and this can be several hundred pounds! By the time the compulsory and voluntary payments are added together the policyholder may find that an extremely high payment has to be made following an accident, that has not been budgeted for. Also, the average cost of a car accident in 2019 was approximately £1200. If the total excess is more than this sum, then following an accident the policyholder will not only lose some no claims bonus, and face higher premiums in the future, but will also have to pay 100 percent of the claim! False economy indeed.
During the last few years a number of criminals have offered insurance policies for sale at very low prices. Often these thieves have claimed to represent reputable insurers. They have taken the money and issued policy documents; but these have been worthless.
The first the unlucky motorist knows about this is after an accident has occurred, and a claim is submitted; or when the motorist is stopped by a police officer who has been informed, via numberplate recognition technology, that the car is not insured.
Not only would the motorist face having to pay out the full cost of any claims, but would also face charges of driving without insurance. The fact that a fraudulent policy was paid for, and that the motorist genuinely believed that cover was in place, would make no difference to the magistrates; driving without insurance is known as an 'absolute offence'; in other words either the driver was insured or wasn't! There is no defence that would justify a plea of innocence.
These fraudulent companies often advertise on social media or by buying adverts on search engines such as Google and although strenuous efforts are made to block them many of them still manage to find victims who they can cheat by offering seemingly bargain premiums. The moral is; if it is too cheap to be true then be very very suspicious!