Surely car insurance does not have to cost so much
If you are a driver, you may have noticed that there are a lot less student drivers on our roads and those you do see tend to be a bit older than in the past. This is mainly due to the fact that when a young driver now passes their test, irrespective of whether they have their own policy or are a named driver on someone else’s, you will need at least a couple of thousand pounds to be insured for a year.
There has been a huge outcry about this of late, and also the increase in the policy prices for drivers across the board. The simple fact is that as a nation, we are making so many claims on our car insurance that the costs are simply going up and up. It’s not exactly complimentary to hear that the rest of Europe refers to us as the whiplash capital, due the sheer volume of claims for this injury, even after the most minor of bumps.
As this is a hard injury for an expert to dispute, and with the symptoms readily available online for anyone to read, it can be an impossible task for any doctor to dispute the claim, thus the insurance company has to pay out. All the money for these claims have to come from someone, and this is invariably our pockets when the renewal notices drop the through the door or ping into our email inboxes.
The domestic driver is being hard enough hit by the increasing cost of car insurance, but those who have the likes of van insurance are being hit even harder. This already carries a higher premium due to the size of the vehicle, the miles it travels etc., and with the ever increasing cost of petrol too those who are self employed as a man with a van are really feeling the bite.
So what can be done to stop this trend and make car insurance more affordable? Well, it has been reported that young drivers could be fitted with a ‘black box’ type piece of technology that maximises the amount of hours they can spend on the road, with the theory being that the less they drive, the less accidents they will have. This does nothing, however, to stem the flow of insurance claims for non-existent injuries.
The sad fact is that we have become a nation that has gone claim crazy. A few years ago if we had a little bump we would shrug it off and get on with life, now, if a passenger hurts their finger they are carried off to hospital weeping and wailing with acting skills akin to a premiership footballer. It hurts everywhere they yell, and 99% of these will leave the hospital with a diagnosis of whiplash and bang in a claim within the hour.
There is no disputing that those who have received a serious injury should make a claim, that’s part of what your cover is for after all, but to stop prices shooting up people have to start being honest with themselves, and stop putting in claims just to make a few quid, as they will not only lose their own no claims bonus, but will also see their own premiums go sky high, costing them more in the long run than that claim was worth in the first place.
