truman Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 Well it does of course play a part. However, something is still wrong if insurance prices are as high as they currently are considering how rapidly they've risen out of line with the general economy. Until you know how much pay outs have risen how can you say "something's wrong"? What profit do insurance companies make out of motor insurance? Genuine question.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BarryRiley Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 Until you know how much pay outs have risen how can you say "something's wrong"? What profit do insurance companies make out of motor insurance? Genuine question.. Well if something rises in price way higher than the rest of the market then something surely must be amiss. Although I don't have exact figures to hand it is a known fact that payouts have risen in the last couple of years. News services and insurance companies were reporting this in widespread coverage in mid-2011. It seems that whiplash claims are a huge factor in this. This is something which needs to be looked at and government legislation needs to happen. A combination of people who are fraudulently claiming on personal injury and the worthless ambulance chasers who 'represent' them are adding to at least part of the problem. Maybe I'm being overly cynical but, as I said previously, I think it's unfortunately too late for any action to have a genuine effect. Even if personal injury claims go down, reducing the cost to the insurers, they have already realised that we will pay this much for insurance, so why on earth would they hand the savings back to us? In an interesting footnote: Last year an insurance company which wished to remain anonymous admitted to The Telegraph that it had increased insurance costs in line with other companies although they had to real need to as the costs of paying out had not risen as had been reported. They simply saw what other companies were doing and saw the profits that could be made. Edit: here's the article http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/yourbusiness/8955539/Car-premiums-artificially-high-admits-insurer.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barleycorn Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 Or you could cycle Doesn't cost a penny in insurance or fuel (unless you count extra food ) and I much prefer it to driving. You could, I was more making the point for distances which are not really doable by bicycles though. jb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shef_Fitness Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 I think the way car insurance is going, is putting young people at a huge disadvantage in the labour market, because unless a young person happens to live/work on a bus route, then the chances of them being able to afford to go to work is almost impossible. If someone is paid the minimum wage and does a 35 hour week, then they will be earning £212.80, less tax means they will probably earn about £185 a week, so after tax will be earning £9620 If they then have to pay £3500 just on car insurance then that leaves them with £6120 to live on (£117.69 a week after tax). £117.69 a week to buy petrol, tax the car, pay the rent (paying rent is out as you only have about £470 a month after tax), pay council tax, bills, buy food etc.....its not viable to go to work. What about a young person who chooses to go Self Employed? A hairdresser, a plumber etc..... this means they have to charge more than an older tradesperson to make up the gap of this initial outgoing. The fact is, not everyone is going to end up working in the Public Sector, have a 9-5 role and be fortunate enough to live/work on a bus route. Some people may have to go self employed, do shift work and travel at a time where buses are not available. Is it really fair to price young people from the work place, or do we simply want to force all young people to live on benefits and claim "they are a scrounging generation"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shef_Fitness Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 For all those who welcome the higher premiums for the young, be very careful. If the insurance companies can get away with charging £1000s for young drivers, then very soon you will be forced to pay £1000s for your insurance and there won't be a thing you can do to change it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
truman Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 For all those who welcome the higher premiums for the young, be very careful. If the insurance companies can get away with charging £1000s for young drivers, then very soon you will be forced to pay £1000s for your insurance and there won't be a thing you can do to change it. How much would you charge to insure a 20 year old who's just passed his test? £50, £100, £1000? Genuinely interested as to what you think a fair price is... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shef_Fitness Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 How much would you charge to insure a 20 year old who's just passed his test? £50, £100, £1000? Genuinely interested as to what you think a fair price is... If he is driving something such as a 1.1 fiesta, then I think £500 is more than enough Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
truman Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 If he is driving something such as a 1.1 fiesta, then I think £500 is more than enough How did you work your figure out? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
medusa Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 If he is driving something such as a 1.1 fiesta, then I think £500 is more than enough As others have said, it's not just insuring that person's car. It's also insuring the cars of anybody else that is involved in an accident with the insured person (and that could include £90,000 of Mercedes Benz or £150,000 of 40 tonne truck and trailer, plus £1,000,000+ of lost load) plus damage to road furniture, injury liability to anybody else involved in the crash and the cost of any emergency services involvement in cutting people out of the crash, transporting them to hospital and clearing away the scene of the crash. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shef_Fitness Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 How did you work your figure out? Because its a reasonable cost to bear. If we are taking about the damage a young person can do in a car then thats one thing, but then what about the damage any of us could do in our cars? What about truck drivers, imagine the damage they can do, what about tradesmen/tradeswomen driving around from job to job? they are more likely to have an accident because their job role involves travelling from job to job, think of the damage a van laden with tools can do. If you want to force young drivers off the road, then simply make them pay £100,000 a year for insurance -its easy. You could also force tradespeople off the road, what about old people, how about mums with babys in the back seat (distracted mum, turns round to look at the baby and ploughs into a bus stop wiping out 20 people in one go). ALl this "this might happen" or "that might happen" is health and safety gone mad. Before we know it, it will be unsafe for any of us to leave the house. Making young people pay £3500 for insurance serves no benefit to anyone, young people then cannot spend money in other businesses, they cannot get a home (unless they choose not to work) and if nobody can afford to go to work, then who is going to support all these people who cannot afford to go to work? YES - you up the taxes for all those in work. That means those who can just about afford to go to work, now cannot afford to go to work because they pay so much in tax.....to pay for the people who don't work because they can't afford to. NOt everyone works in a 9-5 job and happens to live on a well served bus route Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.