Cheap Car Insurance Could Land You In Jail! or Banned for Life!
LONDON - UK
Car Insurance comparison website Car-Insurance.tv is warning drivers to be very careful when applying for cheap car insurance.......
Car Insurance Fraud has been on the rise in the UK for the last few years.
One could argue disproportionately due to the influx of Eastern European criminal gangs staging road accidents, however the current recession has seen suspected cases of car insurance fraud rise to unprecedented levels, sometimes in very unusual areas.
One worrying factor is the trend to obtain cheap car insurance by 'lying' on the online proposal form or over the phone. Much cheaper car insurance premiums can be obtained by those who lie, omit, or deliberately falsely declare information when applying for cover.
Insurance Blogger has even seen some websites encouraging this type of behaviour!
The savvy public looking to save a few pounds will bend the truth to obtain cheaper premiums as a recent case that appeared before Bridlington Magistrates in Yorkshire demonstrates..
A driver of green Ford Fiesta, a Mr Pears aged 24 of Bridlington was found to have been behind the wheel of his car without valid business insurance and was using the vehicle for business purposes without the appropriate insurance cover in place.
The court heard that when police routinely stopped the vehicle, they noticed that
Pears had a number of insulated pizza bags on the front passenger seat. He explained he had just begun working as a pizza delivery driver on a trial basis that day.
Although he was able to produce a valid insurance policy for the car, a quick search of the Motor Insurance Database by the police officers at the scene revealed that the policy had a usage type of SDP and only covered him for social, domestic and pleasure use of the car and excluded business use, the bench heard.
Pears was fined £525 and had his driving licence endorsed with six penalty points.
Costs of £40 and a £15 victim surcharge were also imposed.
What this goes to show is that if you are caught.. and you will be! Your car insurance for the future will never be Cheap!
Indeed you may not even be able to get cover again once you have commited Insurance Fraud!
It could amount to a lifetime Driving Ban!
Cheap car insurance can be obtained legally by comparing car insurance quotes from many suppliers and by answering the questions truthfully, on one form.
Labels: car insurance, car insurance fraud, cheap car insurance, cheap motor insurance, cover, insurance fraud, Motor Insurance DataBase
Payment Protection is the solution to National Debt management
InsuranceBlogger was calling for an overhaul of the way the Government manages unemployment back in November last year. The recent global economic events have seen record levels of unemployment in the UK. Now one of the UK's leading experts on the cost of Unemployment and lobbyist for the prevention of the mis-selling of
Payment Protection Insurancehas stepped in with some interesting comments....
PPI Should Have Been Included in Government's Debt Management White Paper Says BurgessLast week's Government announcement that consumers are to get their own 'champion' in the form of a consumer advocate and benefit from a raft of measures to help them better manage their debts is to be applauded says Payment Protection Insurance lobbyist Sara-Ann Burgess from specialist firm Burgesses, but time will tell whether the theory works well in practice.
Braintree, Essex (
PRWEB) July 6, 2009 -- Last week's Government announcement that consumers are to get their own 'champion' in the form of a consumer advocate and benefit from a raft of measures to help them better manage their debts is to be applauded says Payment Protection Insurance lobbyist Sara-Ann Burgess from specialist firm Burgesses (http://www.burgesses.com), but time will tell whether the theory works well in practice.
In its White Paper 'A better deal for consumers - delivering real help now and change for the future' - the Government is proposing to appoint an advocate who will raise awareness of national issues and represent groups of consumers in court to help them seek compensation and refunds.
It's banning credit card cheques - blank cheques that are sent to card holders who are encouraged to use them as an alternative spending tool. These involve handling fees and contrary to credit cards, there are no interest free periods and no protection if something goes wrong.
Other debt-management measures include; preventing card providers increasing limits without their customers' consent, launching a new online credit card comparison tool, courtesy of the Financial Services Authority, assessing whether monthly card minimum repayments are too low (and so allow debts and accrued interest costs to spiral) and reviewing high cost credit providers (50% + APR) who offer credit over the doorstep or via payday loans.
There are also plans to assist people who are at risk from rogue traders - they will be supported by a team formed to tackle internet-based scams and a review of protection for consumers who pay for goods but are not delivered due to the company going into liquidation.
"All of these recommendations sound great," says Sara-Ann, "but unless the advocate has real power, he or she will not deter credit card providers from encouraging customers to plunge deeper into debt and it will probably take years to implement as there will be a consultation period."
The Government predicts its advocate will be in post early next year, but concedes the appointee will have no legal power as consultation and a new law would be needed to allow this to happen.
Sara-Ann comments: "I'm interested to see how fast the Government will tackle rogue trader issues as it's done little to address widespread mis-selling in the PPI sector for years. As a result of its sluggish response, consumers have sunk further into debt via prolific sales of single premium PPI, where the cost of the premium is included in the final loan amount and interest added onto both, complaints to the Financial Ombudsman Service have escalated, group actions are now being undertaken and providers have a free rein to increase their prices and restrict their cover.
"I wonder how long the White Paper review period will last for? The PPI sector has been under scrutiny for around four years now and the deadline for the Competition Commission's remedial measures isn't until April and October next year - some five years after the Citizens Advice Bureau first identified that features of the PPI market were seriously harming the interests of consumers."
She continues: "Given the continued failings that have been allowed to occur within the PPI sector, I'm sceptical about how effective these measures and the role of the advocate will be. I hope I'm proved wrong and sweeping changes are made to stop consumers being encouraged to spend beyond their means, but I would equally like to see greater PPI mis-selling clampdowns and more advice on how to shop around for cover."
Sara-Ann believes PPI is an effective debt prevention tool as it will repay monthly credit card bills for up to a year in the event the holder loses an income due to accident, sickness or unemployment and would have liked to see reference made to this product in the White Paper.
She concludes: "It only takes a couple of months of missed credit card payments to build up debts which is why this cover is so useful. Credit card providers should be pressurised into offering this cover free of charge to their customers or allow them to purchase at reduced rates.
"It's a shame the Government didn't consider
Payment Protection Insurance in its measures to tackle indebtedness - instead it's left to online independent providers such as
Burgesses and
British Insurance () to ensure quality cover is affordable and accessible to all. Premiums are calculated per £100 of monthly benefit and firms such as these two charge £1.90 per £100 for accident and sickness cover, £3.40 per £100 for unemployment and £3.90 per £100 for all three - well below other providers' premiums."
Anyone looking for Credit Card Payment Protection should opt for a policy that pays off all or part of the credit card debt, dependant on the amount of benefit purchased. Older-style policies tend to only pay a proportion of the total credit card bill, usually the outstanding minimum payment. "
........and while we are on the subject of Credit Cards. Lord Mandelson - please bring the extortionate rates charged by the UK banks into line with the other forms of credit in the UK. The credit card debt is stopping the so called green shoots of recovery!
Labels: income payment protection insurance, insurance news, PPI, redundancy insurance, UK government, unemployment, unemployment insurance
