Pay Per Mile Car Insurance

A new way of paying for your car insurance has hit the Internet in the form of Coverbox. The company have on board a panel of 4 insurers at present who will provide a quotation specific to how much you use your vehicle and when you use it. They will fit a tracker to your vehicle which will then track you and charge you based on your usage of the vehicle.

There are the obvious problems with this scheme which is that a vehicle must be fitted with a tracker. The website claims this is free but we all know that, at best, the cost of this has to be factored into the insurance policy. You have then got to have the tracker fitted. I assume it won't take long but this is still an inconvenience to our busy lifestyles. I'm sure that the little tracker needs some power so that is going to be a little extra on your annual fuel cost (although this is probably insignificant).

Okay, negatives over, what is so good about this scheme? Well, this is a company built on statistics so if you are statistically a lower risk driver in terms of when you drive then this could save you some money. Obvious "peak" times are rush hours for most of us, but if you are a younger driver there is a "super peak" time which is after 10pm at night. Driving at these times will cost a lot more but if you avoid them then the cost is significantly lower.

Personally I think that your everyday driver is not going to benefit. Rush hour is rush hour because it's when most people are driving. This is therefore aimed towards the minority. The people who work unusual hours (possibly shifts) or maybe retired people who you would assume try to avoid driving at these busier times.

The biggest problem of all is the quote. It is really a quote based on a specific amount of miles at a specific time of the day. Unless you have a fixed routine for 7 days of the week that is military timed then this quote will never be accurate. Even a traffic jam or breakdown could delay a journey, pushing you into a peak time and thus changing the price.

I think that most people will be reluctant to jump on board unless the saving is pretty much guaranteed. I certainly would rather know what I'm paying for rather than think I'm paying one figure then be told I've gone over my original estimate and owe them more money!

New 20p Error Could Make You Royal Minted

The Royal Mint has made a blunder in the issue of the new twenty pence. The new design was to move the date from the front of the coin ('tails' side) to the back of the coin ('heads' side). It seems that to save time, they merely created the new front without the date and used the old back without updating it.

The error was spotted early but it is believed that around 100,000 of these made it into circulation. Such is this rare event, coin collectors believe that the coin will be worth a lot of money in years to come. Early valuations of this undated 20p are around £50 but the online auction site ebay already has some lucky finders of this coin selling them at over £100, that's 500 times there original value which isn't bad if you got it as change from you daily pint of milk down the shops.

No doubt this will cause a huge amount of people sifting through their change to see if they can find one. You may be able to earn a quick buck by selling these straight away but as more and more of these end up in the hands of collectors, they will become harder to obtain by others and therefore much more valuable. Keep it safe for a few years or maybe until the new design is updated and then get a valuation.

The Difference Between Rent Guarantee and Loss of Rent Cover

Rent guarantee cover is taken out by landlords to protect themselves from the default of rent payments from their tenant. This could be from the tenant vacating the property without notice and not paying the remainder of their contract, or the tenant being unable to keep up with rent payments due to being made redundant, something that is happening more and more in this economic crisis.

Because of this, more and more landlords are searching for this as an add-on to their landlord building and contents insurance. It is often required to have reference checks or guarantors in place for this sort of cover. This type of cover is sometimes referred to as loss of rent cover, which predominantly it is, but this is not actually the case.

Loss of rent cover is normally covered under a standard landlord building insurance policy and therefore not a separate add-on like rent guarantee normally is. The loss of rent cover under a buildings policy is for the rent that is lost from a claim for an insured peril.

For example, a flood could render the property uninhabitable and consequently the tenant would move out while the property is repaired. The loss of rent during this period is then paid as part of the claim (or in some cases the tenant would continue to pay rent and the insurance pays out for the alternative accommodation instead).

It is always therefore best to call the rent covering policies by their correct name. If contacting an insurance company, keep this in mind as if the wrong term is used, you may think you are covered for something that you later find out is not when it is probably too late.

Tips on How to Avoid Having Your Insurance Claim Refused

I recently read an article in the Daily Mail here where Halifax Insurance repudiated a claim for storm damage as the recorded wind speed was not strong enough. It is stories like this that give the insurance industry a bad name and the usual comments such as "it's not worth the paper it's written on" and "they do anything to get out of a claim" seem to come up.

I have worked in the insurance industry for several years and this scenario really annoys me. As a broker, we are caught in the middle of this argument. We are not the ones who pay out the claim, it is the insurer, and if the insurer pays out then the customer is happy so we are always on the customer's side in this battle but can often be the target of abuse if a claim is not paid out.

In the article mentioned earlier, the claim was for damage to the roof following strong winds. Each and every insurer has a threshold for what wind speed is needed to be considered strong enough to cause damage. The whole point here is that the wind did not reach that speed but damage was caused.

The roof was obviously poorly maintained otherwise you would have expected a large number of roofs in the area to be damaged also but I would guess his was the only one. Sure, you are sympathetic with the person who has suffered the damage but a line has to be drawn somewhere otherwise a tile could fall off in a 5mph breeze and that could be claimed for even though it is quite obviously a maintenance issue. The insurer even made extra effort by sending a surveyor to the property who confirmed that there was signs of faulty flashing from prior to the claim.

There are different rules for every insurer as, at the end of the day, they are a business and need to make a profit. Some are more lenient in paying claims in certain areas than others but this is normally reflected in the price you pay. If you want to avoid having your insurance claim refused, read the policy before you take out the cover.

Lie Detector Being Used on Insurance Claims

For the first time in the UK, a leading insurer is now using techniques to combat increasing fraudulent claims in the form of lie detection. The company that specialises in car insurance will be targeting claims for vehicle theft where the value is less than £5,000. This is due to the increasing number of these claims where it is believed that owners are simply "hiding" their car then reporting it stolen.

The company will use cognitive interviewing, a technique used by the police, in which variations in the tone of our voice are measured to detect minor changes that occur when we are under stress which could mean that the interviewee is not telling the truth.

If the interview detects a possible inaccuracy in what is being declared on the claim then the insurance company will look into it further. Hopefully they will reduce the number of fraudulent claims and, if proved successful, I'm sure this could be the norm with all types of insurance including public liability insurance and landlords insurance.

This is a win win situation for everyone as less fake claims means insurance companies are paying out less money which ultimately leads to lower insurance premiums for the rest of us. The owner loser here is the fraudster when they get reported to the police instead of their "stolen" car!

Norwich Union Changes to Aviva

Norwich Union, the UK's largest insurance company, has been around since 1797. Originally the [deep breath...] "Norwich Union Society for the Insurance of Houses, Stock and Merchandise from Fire", thankfully along the years it has become quite simply "Norwich Union".

If you utter these two words to almost any home or car owner in the UK, they will know who you are talking about, which begs the question, "why are you changing your name?". Despite several TV adverts telling people of this change, I think it is going to be one of those things where you say "Aviva, it's that company that used to be called Norwich Union" although I suppose it's still shorter than their original name all them years ago!

Aviva was an adopted name in 2002 by the merger of CGU plc and Norwich Union which took place two years earlier. The UK continued trading under the Norwich Union name but everywhere else it would be known as Aviva. Aviva's growth to the world's 5th largest insurer has meant that the decision to drop the UK trading name to become the same global brand was to take place today.

I'm sure that the name Norwich Union will still be unofficially used for many years to come but from now on we shall try our best to call you Aviva!

New Landlord Licence

A consultation is under way with regards to a licence required by anyone letting their property. This new scheme will require all landlords to sign up to a national register before they can rent out their property.

The idea is to keep track of "rogue" landlords for the protection tenants. Quite often tenants will move into a property and be subject to a minimum lease requirement. Upon entering the agreement, the landlord may not fulfil their end of the bargain (i.e. maintaining the property, etc).

The obvious downsides to this scheme is that existing landlords will cause an uproar on the fact that it will cost money (a figure which is yet to be determined) to be on this register. The thing is, it will hopefully make renting more lucrative to tenants who can be more sure that the landlord they are about to rent is reputable.

Landlords who fail to do what they should be doing will be blacklisted from the register and will then be unable to rent their property out. I think this is a good idea but they cannot make the costs to high, if anything at all, as it will do more harm than good with another extra cost to people who are probably renting their property and only just breaking even on their costs.