Cover Types
Comprehensive cover is a bundle with edges, not a guarantee of everything
The word describes a wider set of promises than the alternatives, but the exclusions and conditions are the…
· 4 min read
Insure Before Driving — Cover, claims and the cost of a car
Cover Types
Third party, fire and theft is a narrower promise than its name suggests
The three things in the name are three separate mechanisms, and none of them repairs your own car after a collision you caused.
By Vaishnavi Rao · · 4 min read
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Cover Types
The excess is two numbers added together and only one of them is yours to set
A compulsory excess is the insurer pricing a slice of risk it will not carry; a voluntary one is a trade…
· 3 min read
Cover Types
Why a motor policy is written around a driver as much as around a car
Two risks are rated at the same time — the vehicle and the people permitted to use it — and most cover…
· 3 min read
Cover Types
The extras sold beside a motor policy are separate contracts with their own rules
Breakdown assistance, legal expenses, courtesy vehicles and excess reimbursement are distinct products…
· 4 min read
Claims
The first call after a collision decides more than most people expect
Almost everything an insurer will ever know about an incident is fixed in the first hour, and the file that…
· 3 min read
Claims
Why an insurer wants to hear about an incident you have no intention of claiming for
Notification and claiming are separate obligations, and the reason for the first has nothing to do with…
· 4 min read
Cover Types
More →What each level of cover pays for, and what it quietly does not.
Cover Types
Third party, fire and theft is a narrower promise than its name suggests
The three things in the name are three separate mechanisms, and none of them repairs your own car after a…
· 4 min read
Cover Types
Comprehensive cover is a bundle with edges, not a guarantee of everything
The word describes a wider set of promises than the alternatives, but the exclusions and conditions are the…
· 4 min read
Cover Types
The excess is two numbers added together and only one of them is yours to set
A compulsory excess is the insurer pricing a slice of risk it will not carry; a voluntary one is a trade…
· 3 min read
Claims
More →What happens after an incident, in the order it happens.
Claims
The first call after a collision decides more than most people expect
Almost everything an insurer will ever know about an incident is fixed in the first hour, and the file that…
· 3 min read
Claims
Why an insurer wants to hear about an incident you have no intention of claiming for
Notification and claiming are separate obligations, and the reason for the first has nothing to do with…
· 4 min read
Claims
How liability gets decided when both drivers are certain they were not at fault
Fault is a legal conclusion reached by negotiation between insurers on the evidence available, and the…
· 3 min read
Premiums
More →The factors behind a price, and which of them you can actually change.
Premiums
A premium is a share of a pool, not a price attached to your car
Everything about how motor insurance is priced follows from one structural fact: the money to pay next…
· 3 min read
Premiums
Which rating factors you can move, and which are locked in for years
The variables behind a motor premium sort into three groups by how quickly they can change, and only one of…
· 4 min read
Premiums
What a protected no-claims discount actually protects
Protection preserves the number of years on your record after a claim; it does not preserve the price, and…
· 3 min read
Young Drivers
More →Why the first few years cost what they do, and what genuinely reduces it.
Young Drivers
Why the first years behind the wheel are priced the way they are
The premium a new driver is quoted is built from claim frequency, claim severity and an almost total…
· 3 min read
Young Drivers
Telematics prices the driving rather than the driver, and that cuts both ways
A monitored policy replaces guesses about a group with measurements of one person, which is why it can be…
· 4 min read
Young Drivers
Naming a parent as the main driver is fronting, and it can leave a young driver with no cover at all
Describing an experienced relative as the principal user of a car that a new driver actually uses is a…
· 4 min read
Vehicle Costs
More →Depreciation, servicing, tyres and fuel — the bill around the policy.
Vehicle Costs
Depreciation is the largest bill and the only one that never arrives
For most vehicles the loss of value over a period of ownership exceeds fuel, servicing and insurance…
· 3 min read
Vehicle Costs
Official fuel economy figures and real ones diverge for reasons built into the test
A published consumption figure is the result of a standardised laboratory procedure designed to make models…
· 3 min read
Vehicle Costs
Servicing is two different jobs sold under one word
A scheduled service is a manufacturer’s prediction about wear; the work that follows an inspection is a…
· 3 min read