Car insurance- personal injury add ons- worth it?

xxdeebeexx

Hi my 18 yr old son has just taken out his first car insurance with Bell. He was contacted the other day to see if he wanted to upgrade his policy with an 'add on' that will increase his personal injury cover.
Are these upgrades 'worth' it, are there other ways to get better cover ?


many thanks


dx

arcon5

Depends what the max payout is currently and what they want to raise it to.
Depends what the PI excess is.

Bearing in mind they will only payout on his policy if he's at fault - if another party is at fault they pay the PI claim.

I guess it also depends on his job and how an injury would affect his ability to work. If he's is a courier then probably worth it more than say a telephone operative.

dacouch

It's more likely to be a "Personal Accident" Policy which as it's name only pays out for injuries that are caused by an accident. It's also important to realise that they almost certainly only cover a list of specific injuries eg broken finger, broken arm etc loss of a finger, eye or limb. Or death or permanent total disablement.

The amounts of cover for say breaking a finger could be worth £500 where as a broken arm maybe £2500. Loss of a finger / toe could be £1000 but a limb maybe £5k. Death / Disablement could be £10k.

These types of policies make Insurers big profits as the amount of claims are surprisingly low but with a big profit margin in the premium hence why they took the time to cold call your son.

You need to remember that it will almost certainly only cover him whilst driving or on public transport with a possibility of also whilst he's a passenger. If you think this type of cover is something you're interested in then it could be better to think about a policy that covers him 24/7 including whilst at work, socialising and playing sport etc. A decent full policy will probably not cost much more

Ectophile

It's worth looking around to see if you can get something better. I have a Personal Accident policy that covers all accidental injuries, whether or not I'm driving the car at the time. It's a scheme offered through my employers.

It only covers serious permanent injuries. I may never make a claim on it - but I took it out so I would get a lump sum to help out if I ever become permanently disabled.

xxdeebeexx

Thank you for your replies.


It's so tricky as it's such an emotive subject.
My son asked the call operator to phone me as I was the credit card holder that paid for the original insurance.
He tried to sell it to me as a 'mother' and wouldn't this be best if 'the worst happened'.


The salesman spoke so fast and even said something like.. " it includes broken nose, broken leg ..... blah blah blah"
I asked him what blah, blah, blah meant!
I simply couldn't understand him and eventually had to shout over his 'script' to tell him to slow down.


It's probably not the best way to buy an 'add on'


dx