insurance companies don’t ask if you have Immobiliser or Dashcams

StanOfSaxons

Why is it that motor insurance companies don’t ask if you have Immobiliser or Dashcams’ (Front & Rear cameras) fitted when you fill in your car insurance quotes form?
Having them fitter (as an extra) as I do must make your car more protected from theft and cash from crash.
Just asking?
Regards
Stan.

ButterCheese

I'm pretty sure that Alarm/Immobiliser is an option on all the comparison sites I have been on for cars and bikes.  I remember one of the options is "Thatcham approved alarm", or "Factory fitted alarm/immobiliser"

For dashcams though I don't know why they don't ask.  Probably because they don't want to make your premuim any cheaper, and they can't verify the reliability/quality of your chines emade dashcam of which there are hundreds.  They wouldn't want to make your insurance cheaper, only to find out that your dashcam didn't work or wasn't switched on, or ran out of space, or out of battery.  That's my guess

facade

Most cars have a factory fitted immobiliser nowadays.

There is usually an option to declare additional security when you are getting your quote.

Be careful what you wish for with dashcams. They are highly stealable, so the risk of your car being broken into increases, and if you said you have a dashcam the insurer will get all huffy & puffy should you not have footage of your accident available.

Best to play your cards close to your chest with a dashcam, only admit you have one and produce the footage if it is advantageous to you. (Keep shtum if the accident was your fault and the dashcam will prove it )

DullGreyGuy

StanOfSaxons said:

Why is it that motor insurance companies don’t ask if you have Immobiliser or Dashcams’ (Front & Rear cameras) fitted when you fill in your car insurance quotes form?
Having them fitter (as an extra) as I do must make your car more protected from theft and cash from crash.
Just asking?

Most cars have a factory fit immobiliser which the insurer will already know about. Secondary security is awkward as if you are going to give credit for it you are likely to want to include an endorsement to say there is no cover for theft if the secondary security wasnt in place at the time. When a car is found burnt out in a field it's going to be hard to say if the wheel lock was actually on when the thieves stole it or not. They also dont help so much for thefts from the vehicle rather than the whole vehicle being stolen. 

Dashcams can go either way too... more people have windows smashed and cameras stolen plus sometimes they show your client was at fault for the accident whereas had there been no footage it may have gone 50/50. Again you get into endorsement territory of no cover if its not turned on but thats a much bigger thing when it comes to potentially leaving you uninsured for an accident because you'd taken the memory card out and forgot to put it back in.


Adding new questions to quotes is difficult... your data probably has cars with and without these things already but you cannot identify them to do the statistical analysis to see what impact they should have on pricing. You can spend time and money adjusting your rating engine and your PAS to capture and rate on these questions and then 18 months later find there is no correlation at all. 

Finally asking questions in the call centre adds time to the process, we all know time is money. It's likely you'll spike calls for a year as people get their renewal quotes and the new questions are there with blanks and so people call to tell you that they do actually have a camera etc. Similarly the more questions you ask the more likely people are to abandon the quote part the way through so unless there is a very strong correlation and a material difference in premium losing another 5% of customer in the quote process isnt worth refining the price by 1-2%

Ayr_Rage

Just done 3 online quotes and every one asked about an alarm and/or immobiliser and who fitted the items.

None asked about dashcams.

Hoenir

Dashcam installation isn't going to stop you having an accident or making a claim for damage to your vehicle or somebody elses property. . 

DullGreyGuy

Ayr_Rage said:

Just done 3 online quotes and every one asked about an alarm and/or immobiliser and who fitted the items.

None aske about dashcams.

Confused.com does ask about dash cams, or at least one of the aggregators does. Aggregators are different though, consumers are willing to put up with longer questionnaires because they get back 50 different quotes potentially -v- when dealing directly with an insurer.

Hoenir said:

Dashcam installation isn't going to stop you having an accident or making a claim for damage to your vehicle or somebody elses property. . 

No but it does reduce the number of hit and runs where there is no evidence of who the third party is. With the registration captured on video your insurer has reasonable prospects of getting their money back. 

It can also highlight where the TP was at fault... the classic crash for cash where a car changes into your lane and immediately slams on the breaks so you go into the back of them and they then deny changing lane. Could go 50/50 or may be 100% your fault as you went into the back but with video you can prove they manufactured the incident and again your insurer may get their money back and certainly won't be paying out for the injury claims that comes from the other driver and their 4 passengers. 

As noted before however this is double edged sword as sometimes it proves your PH was at fault whereas it may have gone 50/50 without video evidence.

Car_54

DullGreyGuy said:

Ayr_Rage said:

Just done 3 online quotes and every one asked about an alarm and/or immobiliser and who fitted the items.

None aske about dashcams.

Confused.com does ask about dash cams, or at least one of the aggregators does. Aggregators are different though, consumers are willing to put up with longer questionnaires because they get back 50 different quotes potentially -v- when dealing directly with an insurer.

Hoenir said:

Dashcam installation isn't going to stop you having an accident or making a claim for damage to your vehicle or somebody elses property. . 

As noted before however this is double edged sword as sometimes it proves your PH was at fault whereas it may have gone 50/50 without video evidence.

But would 50/50 be an improvement? It's still an at-fault claim.

Mildly_Miffed

DullGreyGuy said:

Most cars have a factory fit immobiliser which the insurer will already know about. 

They've been a legal requirement on all new cars since 1998.

DullGreyGuy

Car_54 said:

DullGreyGuy said:

Ayr_Rage said:

Just done 3 online quotes and every one asked about an alarm and/or immobiliser and who fitted the items.

None aske about dashcams.

Confused.com does ask about dash cams, or at least one of the aggregators does. Aggregators are different though, consumers are willing to put up with longer questionnaires because they get back 50 different quotes potentially -v- when dealing directly with an insurer.

Hoenir said:

Dashcam installation isn't going to stop you having an accident or making a claim for damage to your vehicle or somebody elses property. . 

As noted before however this is double edged sword as sometimes it proves your PH was at fault whereas it may have gone 50/50 without video evidence.

But would 50/50 be an improvement? It's still an at-fault claim.

Yes, for the insurer a 50/50 means they pay 50% of their insured's repairs less the excess and 50% of the third party' s losses including repairs, injuries, hire car etc. For a fault claim they pay 100% of both so it doubles the cost other than the unallocated expenses. 

For the consumer the difference is that they can recover 50% of their uninsured losses from the third party insurer, eg half their excess or compensation for whiplash etc.

35har1old

Ayr_Rage said:

Just done 3 online quotes and every one asked about an alarm and/or immobiliser and who fitted the items.

None asked about dashcams.

If the dashcam is hard wired it could fall into the category has the car been modified