Car insurance fraud is nothing new in the UK and if you don’t want to become a victim of it make sure to learn some basics.
UK car insurance fraud is a type of problem that involves all insurance users, not just the person involved in a fraudulent scheme as a victim. Car insurance fraud always involves additional claims within the pool and when there are more claims filed the insurance company has to increase premiums for all their customers in order to transfer the risks and costs of those claims settled. So in the end it’s us, the usual customers, who are paying for every fraudulent claim settled by our providers. But what is fraud in the first place and what are the most widespread forms of auto insurance fraud in the UK?
Car insurance fraud in general refers to any activity that leads to obtaining money from the insurance company in an illegitimate manner. Car insurance fraud can involve vehicle damage, personal injury or both. There are many types of car insurance fraud out there and the schemes tend to evolve with time as insurance companies discover previous methods and make everything to prevent them. And while fraudsters think of new ways to make their scam schemes work simple drivers have to deal with increased costs and robust claim review just because a small group of people is exploiting car insurance possibilities.
The most common type of UK car insurance fraud in the last couple of years was non-disclosure of claims or convictions. There’s a reason to do that because with every claim filed and every additional entry to the driving record the car owner is charged with higher premiums. And taking the overall dramatic increase in car insurance rates just over the last year it’s evident that a lot of drivers are willing to cut their rates at all costs. Another widespread practice is “fronting”, which involves a lower risk driver such as a parent or a car owner with good driving record to be written as the main policyholder for a car whose main user is a high risk driver. It’s yet another way to pay those suits just a little bit less money.
Insuring your bar or tavern
When trying to insure your bar, tavern or any other place that sells alcohol, the most important thing is to plan everything ahead. By selling alcohol to the public your business automatically engages in a higher degree of risk that has to be assessed right from the start.
So when you’re looking for a way to manage the risks that your bar or tavern will face during operation you have to ask some questions first:
What is the approximate value of your bar, including the property, fixtures and contents?
The best way to evaluate these costs is to consider the value of replacing your entire bar, including the equipment, coolers, the décor, stock, property, building and all other things if your business would get destroyed overnight.
What part of the business turnover will the alcohol take?
The insurance company will certainly require you to provide reports of your sales. In overall, if the alcohol takes about 50% of your overall turnover or more, the cost of insuring your business will be more expensive. So make sure you know the exact percentage of alcohol sales in your bar.
Will you feature any recreational activities at your bar?
Featuring certain recreational activities may give you a hard time getting your bar insured with some companies, and if you will still manage to find a policy, the rates will be higher. Insurance companies assess recreational features such as dance poles, trampolines, pyrotechnics, rock walls, swimming pools and any other distractions as quite risky features that will raise the likelihood of an insurance claim.
Will you hire someone else?
If your bar will feature additional workers besides you, you will certainly require workers’ compensation insurance with your small business insurance policy, and it maybe even important to get group health insurance as well.
Car insurance money saving tips
Rarely do we encounter a person who is perfectly happy about their insurance rates. Most drivers often find their insurance policies to be overpriced and complain about their insurance companies. Even if the rates are adequate to the contents of the policy most people will still want to reduce the price of having their vehicles insured. If you’re one of them, we have good news for you – making vehicle insurance cheaper is possible and is perfectly legal. All you have to do is employ a couple of methods that will help reduce the rates effectively. Here’s what you have to consider in order to make your policy cheaper:
Modify your policy
One of the main reasons for insurance policies being expensive is that they carry a lot of coverage that the user doesn’t really need. For example, you’ve financed your car through a loan and were obliged to purchase an expensive fully comprehensive policy. And when you’ve paid out your loan the policy was kept intact with the same high premiums. However, if the policy would be analyzed some coverage options would look unnecessary and some coverage amounts – excessive. Once you modify your policy and exclude the things you don’t need it will apparently become less expensive. Still, you have to be cautious with your choices and make the changes only if you’re confident in your choice.
Get your discounts
There are different discounts offered by insurance company even if you don’t know much about them. Discounts are used to stimulate new sales and encourage loyal and low risk customers to stay with the same company. The extent and conditions of these discounts may vary from company to company but with most companies you will find the following discounts: good driver, loyal customer, multiple vehicle, multiple policy, good student, senior citizen, low mileage and many others. Ask your car insurance provider about the discounts, see if you can opt for any and make your policy more affordable.
Auto insurance for customized cars
The fad for custom vehicles has taken over the minds of many car owners in the US. And now you can see a lot of customized cars roaming the streets of suburbs, downtowns, highways and even rural areas. This method of manifesting own individuality is certainly very American in nature since we spend a lot of time in our cars, driving to work, university, mall or the club. But after doing some custom paint job or installing a powerful audio system and LCD screens to the car little custom car owners actually take the time to think about the insurance aspect of their new vehicle. And this can really be important.
One of the most common misconceptions people share about their insurance policies is that the insurance company makes all the adjustments on their own in case you change your vehicle somehow. It’s not only about visual customization. Installing an additional seat belt or an alarm system is also considered as modification. Truth is that you are responsible for informing the insurer and it’s your job to keep the policy up to date with all the changes you make to your vehicle. Some of you may think that it’s not a big problem to keep the policy out of date. However, there could be serious implications due to such carelessness.
When you sign the auto insurance policy the insurer takes the responsibility to cover a specific totality of parts, ie all the parts that your vehicle is comprised of. When you introduce changes to certain parts like boost your engine, improve aerodynamics or even simply change the factory installed seats with custom ones the totality of all the parts becomes different from the one you’ve purchased insurance for. In most cases custom parts cost more than factory installed ones. And the insurance company is likely to pay only for replacing the original ones. So if you do not update your policy after customization you risk lacking the necessary coverage for the new more expensive parts, losing the money you’ve invested into customization. Yet, it can get even worse.