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Car
Insurance does not pay out as much as i thought!!
I was dumbfounded to realise that, although everyone
in any car I hit, and the passengers in my own car, can get millions
of pounds in compensation for horrible injuries, the same does
not apply to me, as the driver, if I am at fault in the accident.
Under my policy I would get about £1,000 compensation.
I was so shocked, I immediately took out the first £500,000 personal
accident policy I could find on the net, in case my wife or I
get injured tomorrow in a crash that we cause, or if fate overtakes.
The latter was well illustrated four years ago when a deer jumped
a six-foot hedge and landed on our bonnet. The crash is recorded
as my "fault". If it had landed on the windscreen and broken my
neck, I would have received peanuts. Why does the industry permit
this state of affairs?
GC, Canterbury (The Observer sunday 25 Jan 2009)
This
isindeed
a little-understood aspect of car insurance. If another driver causes an accident, you are covered by their third-party insurance
for millions of pounds for your injuries. Some motor policies have no limit for the amount they will pay if a driver
causes death or horrendous injuries to others and will pay millions of pounds for the rest of those people's
lives.
But the driver who is held responsible for the accident might get £2,500 or even less. And, as
you have found out, you can suffer an at-fault accident through no fault of your own. Car insurers should make
this discrepancy more obvious in their policy wording.
Instead, they offer increased personal accident
cover as an optional extra but it still takes the maximum payable to drivers to perhaps just £40,000. Norwich
Union says the take-up, unlike legal expenses insurance, is low and suggests this is because customers never
consider themselves bad drivers. I think it is more likely that customers are unaware of how little they would
get if they were badly inured.
You can buy separate accidental disability or personal accident insurance, but
realistically only for amounts way below the millions of pounds available for other people. A £100,000 accidental
disability policy with Norwich Union costs £60 a year and personal accident insurance, which includes a death payment, is
£125 but benefits are halved when you reach 65.
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My other half left his insurance document at work. We have trade insurance and had just collected a car when he was stopped by the police. He hadn’t been able to put the car on the insurance register as it was a Sunday (and have 14 days to do so anyway), and he was asked to produce his insurance. He had the MOT and his driving licence on him but his work was closed and he was unable to get the insurance, but was able to produce his policy number and several letters from our insurance suggesting we had insurance. As it was a Sunday and the MID was closed, so the police couldn’t call to check our insurance, his car was seized (with £120 fee plus £20 a day storage). Does this mean that I mat as well not be insured on Sundays? This is so unfair as we tried to produce evidence to support our claim and as an innocent, law obiding citizen but have a £170 fee for being so. Were told we should have our certificate on us at all times? There are 2 of us on out policy, how are we meant to do that? Does anyone know where we stand here? Apart from not having a piece of paper on us, we have done nothing wrong in my eyes?
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| Anon,Coventry |
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ok i tell you one thing if you have an insurance cover ad god forbid you have an accident they will look for petty excuses not to pay you out so personaly i don’t think its worth taking cover out i think its just scam becuase people doing so many fraud and thats including insurance comany itself we end up paying extra cost people who doing scams they are so clever that you cant actualy trace them and who get shafted us lottt
trust cheese you have thats why i decided not to pay penny extra to any company coz i personaly belive its not worth it but every1 entitled to have thier own opnions
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| sunshine,manchester |
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I have been driving with an un blemished License for 20yrs but during a short break in Somerset I have managed to incur 3 speed fines NOT ONE over 36 in a 30 Zone. The cost to me is £180 & 6 points but when you consider the road conditions ie Bright, Clear, and low traffic flow am i now a serial speeder. I Know that i am paranoid about my speed possibly to the detriment of watching the road & being fully aware of what is happening around Me. This license to print money is virtually unchallengeable & they certainly DO NOT make roads safer.
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| Jon Dyke,Plymouth |
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I got a fixed penalty for exceeding a speed limit. 35 in a 30 zone and could only have broken the speed limit by a few yards. I’ve been a carful driver for 40years and this is my first endorsement. But suddenly my insurance company think I’m a high risk driver and increased my premium. I really think this is just prifiteering by the insurance companies.
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| Dave,Cheadle Hulme |
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Hi there, my name is kevin and i was done for drink-drive in 2007, silly me. Since then i have found that i can no longer drive an HGV 1 Truck. Cos all the employers say they cannot get insurance which i know is a load of rubbish.I have done some work on the internet to find truck insurance for somebody like myself, and guess what? there are a few insurance companies that will insure me and to prove my last employer wrong i am now selfemployed with three tractor units on the road. So too all you big boys that said no think again with a little bit of paitence and know how lets keep on trucking.
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| kevin Harkus,Barry s.wales |
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I am a self employed parcel courier delivering goods on behalf of a large home shopping delivery network .
For this I get paid at a standard rate per item only .
I use my own car to carry & deliver the goods .
I understand that it is down to me to arrange the correct insurance(the goods in transit are already covered by the company that supplies my work) but I have struggled to learn exactly what type of insurance I need as a minimum .
I would be grateful if someone could clarify the law in what appears to be a very grey area .
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| Michael French,Bournemouth |
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