Car insurers start penalising speed awareness courses

[randomsquid]

Pinched off the BBC. That's a bit of a shitty way for insurers to behave.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20328860

[Willopotomas]

Any excuse. Soon enough it'll be the insurers having us put little black boxes on our cars n' bikes to assess how 'good' of a driver we are. I don't think they realise that by doing all this, they're making the un-insured driver problem worse.

Greedy bastards is all they are. Legalised extortion.

[D-Rider]

Any excuse. Soon enough it'll be the insurers having us put little black boxes on our cars n' bikes to assess how 'good' of a driver we are.

Yes this is already happening with PAYD insurance - sold as an incentive to reduce young drivers' insurance premiums ..... you can see where it'll proliferate .....
Telematics boxes will proliferate quickly with the pan European requirement for e-call in 2015 - and once the boxes are there, they'll be used for other things (currently no requirement on bikes though).

The thing is, they'll log the things that they can easily monitor and base their assumptions on things such as Speed=Danger rather than whether they are texting or just a lousy driver.

.... and yes, I heard the speed awareness news on the radio - the basis being that drivers that speed might be more at risk.

[Cathcart]

I know someone with the box fitted to their car by insurers, sits behind her glove box... She's not allowed to regularly drive at peak times and I can't help thinking it must be monitoring more than just times....

[fatboy]

Further proof that the motor insurance industry are a bunch of out of conrol crooks.
Agree with Will. this is going to exacerbate the uninsured driver problem.
As insurance is a necessity item,how can they price it like a luxury item?
And get away with it ?
Who is supposed to regulate this bunch of swindling bastards ?

[lazarus]

Greedy bastards is all they are. Legalised extortion.

Rubbish! Have a look at the audited published accounts of an outfit like Admiral ( one of the more profitable insurance companies) and you will see that they made a profit margin on the premiums you pay of between 4.3% and 8.7% according to region. That's hardly extortion or profiteering. Or do you expect them to run at a loss?

And quite clearly you dont go on a speed awareness course if you havent been speeding. So its a perfectly legitimate thing to take into account when calculating premiums.

[randomsquid]

And quite clearly you dont go on a speed awareness course if you havent been speeding. So its a perfectly legitimate thing to take into account when calculating premiums.

By doing this they've removed the financial incentive for people to take the course rather than the points.
This means that the police miss a chance to educate people who are at the lower end of the speeding scale.
Strikes me as incredibly short sighted.

[Willopotomas]

The whole insurance system needs to be better regulated and claims investigated properly. In recent years the powers that be have tried to clamp down on the 'crash for cash' scammers and ambulance chasers, but do we see the benefits of that? Nope. IMO insurance should be not for profit.

Granted, there are some quite substantial payouts being handed out, but were they really necessary? Was it really that imperative that the police send the damaged vehicles to £120 a DAY storage facilities which the insurers pick up the bill for?

It is legalised extortion. They are greedy. Even 5% profit on a premium of £500 is £25.. Times that by the however many million drivers there are on the roads as an 'average'.

[Kwackerz]

.... and yes, I heard the speed awareness news on the radio - the basis being that drivers that speed might be more at risk.

yeah as they weren't paying attention to the road and didn't see the camera or car...

Seems a fair appraisal to me.

In fairness M'lud, the one time I've been done for speeding.. ever.. in UK was on a 3 car full dual carriageway road with a crafty hidden copper in a T5 up a slip road by Wymondham.
And yes I had been making very bloody good progress in accompaniment to a Porsche Coupe and a BMW M something.. in my Nissan Almera 1.4!

[D-Rider]

.... and yes, I heard the speed awareness news on the radio - the basis being that drivers that speed might be more at risk.

yeah as they weren't paying attention to the road and didn't see the camera or car...

Seems a fair appraisal to me.

.... the problem being inattention, not necessarily the speed itself. I certainly agree that speed + inattention is a potentially lethal mix but the scary thing is the inattention at whatever speed.

Unfortunately "they" seem to be far less interested in trying to enforce that than the easy target of those travelling a bit quick .... and I say that as someone who has never (yet) been done for going a bit quick. Yes that's mostly down to good observation but I'm not so naive to suggest that I'd never miss a camera or speed trap ..... not that I'd ever dream of "going a bit quick" you'll understand, officer ....

Speed limits are fairly arbitrary numbers, set for drivers of all abilities, covering a wide variety of conditions. Some going slower that that limit are much more dangerous than some going above that limit and poor ability, distraction and inattention are far more dangerous than speed itself.

[flatlander]

Aren"t companies like Admiral just brokers? When my policies come through they almost never have the name of the outfit I purchased them from.

Despite having been on these courses and also having 3 points I think that for a heck of a lot of people they are probably a good thing and wouldn't be a bad idea to have them as a 5 yearly obligatory refresher course.

The take up on them I would expect to drop a little but the issue as I see it is that you haven't been convicted of anything so there is no acceptance that you were speeding

As regards company accounts if you believe that load of Hogwash you are a hit naive IMHO. If you think of all the little fiddles you have heard of some smaller businesses doing and multiply it ??

[Gio]

I'd like to read TC's opinion on this.

[slickliner6]

I believe I've read somewhere that at 80 mph MOST people concentrate 20% more than at 70 mph.
(Unless I've just made that up?)

[blinkey501]

I got done for doing 48 in a 30 in janusry of this year.
My fault for not paying attention and i had just set off on the bike from a bike dealers not going daft through the gears, but has we are all aware how quick our bikes pick up.
My insurance for 3 points has not gone up, in fact strangely it has come down by 70 quid .
I was travelling too fast for a speed awareness course, but i would have jumped at the chance been given the option.
I do believe from what my brokers have told me that the insurers don't make much fuss at three points, its when you don't learn your lesson and start collecting more points that you get penalised.
Tbh i can see where the insurance companys are coming from.
If you don't want the high insurance premiums behave its that simple.
If young adults want cheaper insurance and want to accept their driving will be monitered via a "black box" configuration i for one agree with this.
When i was 17 my first car was a 1300 astra, it cost me 220 quid to insure. And tbh i drove like a complete twa*.
I see some youngsters that drive way beyond their capability and i encourage the insurers to moniter has i do beleive some not all are a risk to themselves and other road users.
And if you are honest with yourselves you have seen this also

[fatboy]

Audited accounts ?

There's lies,damned lies then statistics

Yes,the profit margin is shown to hover around 5 to 10%,but that is 5 to 10% on every policy.
Do the audits show profits on sideline earners such as storage,recovery,hire car costs,additionanal legal cover,contents cover ?
Sorry, unregulated financial muggers