It's time something was done

kev.s

car insurance is becoming more and more expensive to the point that some quotes are over and above the cost of the car. Surely these proffiteers should become regulated by a goverment body. Maybe even the government should supply 3rd party insurance (via taxes) to everyone who owns a car, as they do iin south africa etc. this way the companies would not be able to use the excuse "its because of uninsured drivers" that the costs have risen.. everything is the way of the insurance companies nothing favours the customer..god forbid you have to claim:mad:

scheming_gypsy

Yes... something should be done. Quite often it's to check up on the facts before ranting and calling people proffiteers (sic) without taking the time to check up on the reason why insurance is so high.
Yes it's stupidly high but the insurance companies have been making losses and not huge profits.

whatmichaelsays

kev.s wrote: »

car insurance is becoming more and more expensive to the point that some quotes are over and above the cost of the car.

Largely irelevant. The losses that could be incurred by a third party as a result of a car accident can easily exceed the cost of a car. The Land Rover that caused the Selby Rail disaster was not worth in excess £10m but that is the bill that the driver's insurers were facing.

Surely these proffiteers should become regulated by a goverment body

They are. It's called the Financial Services Authority.

Maybe even the government should supply 3rd party insurance (via taxes) to everyone who owns a car, as they do iin south africa etc

So how much more tax would you be willing to pay to cover this?

this way the companies would not be able to use the excuse "its because of uninsured drivers" that the costs have risen..

Uninsured drivers, along with increased PI claims, is just one of several factors behind increases in insurance. If you want to find the main reason, look at the collapse in the financial markets. The reality is that for several years, car insurance has been incredibly cheap.

everything is the way of the insurance companies nothing favours the customer..god forbid you have to claim:mad:

If you don't like it, set up your own insurance business.

dtaylor84

kev.s wrote: »

car insurance is becoming more and more expensive to the point that some quotes are over and above the cost of the car.

So? In what sense does the value of the car limit the insurer's liability?

InsideInsurance

Repairing the cars are frequently the cheapest part of claims in comparison to personal injury or legal fees.

Just because your car is only worth £500 doesn't make it any less dangerous if it runs into a group of school kids.


Whilst the idea of a centralised TP cover is one of interest and is used elsewhere in the world the question will always be how to calculate it? The ones I know of tend to be fairly flat rate or linked to fuel and so the irresponsible teenager with a hot hatch who has had a dozen accidents and just hanging on to their license ends up paying the same as the 45 year old woman with a 6 year old sensible small family car... some would argue this is much more unfair.

thenudeone

kev.s wrote: »

Maybe even the government should supply 3rd party insurance (via taxes) to everyone who owns a car, as they do iin south africa etc.

Whilst there is some merit for an idea like this in a country with a patchy record on law and order (and vehicle registration), it's a ridiculous idea in a developed country with good (although not perfect) vehicle and driver registration procedures.

I have a clean licence and haven't had an accident in years. Why should I pay towards a general fund to pay for damage and injuries caused by everyone else's accidents?

What do you think would happen to the accident statistics if every driver knew that their insurance costs wouldn't increase if they drove more carelessly or broke driving regulations?

Hint: When the compulsory seat belt law was introduced, the number of pedestrians injured in accidents INCREASED, arguably because drivers drove more dangerously as they felt they had less to lose because of the protection offered by the seat belt http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1564465,00.html et al.

pendulum

thenudeone wrote: »

I have a clean licence and haven't had an accident in years. Why should I pay towards a general fund to pay for damage and injuries caused by everyone else's accidents?

Isn't that exactly what you're doing when your forced to buy insurance every year?

dunstonh

car insurance is becoming more and more expensive to the point that some quotes are over and above the cost of the car.

The cost is not your car. Its the person you kill or injure where the cost is.

Surely these proffiteers should become regulated by a goverment body.

How can they be profiteers when they are largely loss making?

Maybe even the government should supply 3rd party insurance (via taxes) to everyone who owns a car

Just what we need. even more expensive civil servants forcing us to pay more tax than the car insurance would cost.


Personally, I would like to see the fraudsters and uninsured drivers dealt with more harshly as the penalties are typically far less than the benefit of crime.

vaio

dunstonh wrote: »

.....How can they be profiteers when they are largely loss making?......

I never quite understand the "largely loss making" bit, I have family in both Germany & France and insurance costs in those countries are considerably cheaper than the UK despite both of them having much higher accident rates than the UK.

Maybe the French & German companies are making even bigger losses than the UK ones but my feeling is more that UK price are so high because there are too many fingers in the pie with most adding costs but not value.

dunstonh wrote: »

........Personally, I would like to see the fraudsters and uninsured drivers dealt with more harshly as the penalties are typically far less than the benefit of crime.

I'm sure no-one would disagree with that but given that the last figures I saw suggested that whilst uninsured drivers added £30 to my policy the credit hire/repair industry added £80+ so it seems clear where the best results would be achieved in terms of enforcement/reform.