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
20 articles
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
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
Claims
Why the other driver’s insurer telephones you before your own does
Third party capture is a deliberate commercial strategy in which the liable insurer contacts the victim…
· 4 min read
Premiums
A proposal form is a set of questions the price is built on, not paperwork
Every answer given at quotation becomes a statement of fact the contract rests on, which is why an…
· 4 min read
Premiums
A claim keeps affecting the price long after it has been settled and forgotten
Claims history is asked about over a multi-year window and it feeds the rating model separately from the…
· 3 min read
Young Drivers
A conviction weighs more heavily on a short driving record than on a long one
Licence endorsements are rated as evidence about an individual, and where there is almost no other evidence…
· 3 min read
Vehicle Costs
A car that is not being driven is still spending money
Standing costs continue regardless of mileage, and several forms of deterioration are actually accelerated…
· 3 min read
Cover Types
An exclusion and a condition precedent both end a claim, and they do it from opposite directions
One describes an event the policy never promised to cover; the other is a requirement placed on the…
· 4 min read
Premiums
Occupation and address are rating factors because of what they correlate with
Neither question is about who you are, and both are best understood as compressed descriptions of where a…
· 4 min read
Premiums
When you buy cover changes the price as much as some of what you tell them
The gap between the day a quotation is taken and the day cover starts is itself information about the…
· 3 min read
Young Drivers
The second year of driving moves less than most new drivers expect it to
One clean year adds a year of age, a year of licence and usually a first discount, but the largest part of…
· 4 min read
Vehicle Costs
An older car eventually costs more because of what you cannot buy than what you can
Running costs on an ageing vehicle are governed less by wear than by whether the parts still exist, who…
· 4 min read
Vehicle Costs
Breakdown cover is priced by how far the recovery truck might have to go
Roadside assistance is a service contract rather than an indemnity, and every tier of it is really a…
· 3 min read
Cover Types
When a garage or a valet has your car, your policy is usually not the one at work
A business that takes a vehicle into its custody normally carries its own road risks and custody cover…
· 3 min read
Cover Types
When two policies cover the same loss, the insurers settle it between themselves
Overlapping cover is ordinary rather than exceptional, but the rule against profiting from a loss means…
· 3 min read
Young Drivers
Extra training after the test lowers a price only where an insurer recognises it
Post-test driving courses genuinely change how a new driver handles a road, but the pricing effect depends…
· 3 min read
Vehicle Costs
A documented service history is worth money on the day the car is sold
Maintenance records are evidence rather than paperwork, and a buyer who cannot see what was done has to…
· 3 min read
Vehicle Costs
The climate a car lives in sets part of its maintenance bill
Cold, salt, heat and sunlight each attack different components on their own timetable, which is why two…
· 3 min read
Vehicle Costs
Losing a car key is a far larger bill than it used to be
A modern key is a coded security device tied to the vehicle’s electronics, so replacing one involves…
· 3 min read