VAN INSURANCE NEWS ROUNDUP: 7 DAYS ENDING 20 JUNE 2014:
Whether it’s having to deal with rampant fraud or rumours of new regulations it will be facing soon, the car insurance and van insurance industry is reeling.
However, the true problem here when it comes to insurers being battered left and right is that there’s always the fear that regular Brits end up taking it on the chin in the form of heightened insurance premiums. Even using insurance comparison websites might not be much of a help if things keep going as they are, if you ask me – and that’s bad news indeed.
First of all, there’s new evidence from major insurer Aviva that the number of fraud instances are rocketing upwards. The insurer – which handles one out of every ten policies in the UK – said that it had uncovered more than 800 accidents that had been completely faked in order to create an opportunity for fraudsters to generate some undeserved income. These so-called ‘crash for cash’ accidents resulted in more than 2,000 claims – and that’s just the scammers they caught in the act!
Needless to say Aviva wants much harsher punishments for fraudsters caught red handed in order to discourage criminals from this behaviour. However, there’s hardly going to be much movement here – scammers will just get more and more crafty in order to keep defrauding insurers, and as the costs go up for insurance companies guess who’s going to pay the price? We are – with higher premiums.
Meanwhile some insurance companies may be in on the whole fraud thing, if you can believe that! The Competition and Markets Authority – the successor to the Competition Commission – is delving deep into reports that some insurers are drumming up excessive repair costs and charging their rivals for work done to repair cars. Signs are pointing to evidence that this is actually going on quite a bit; big surprise, eh?
Good news is that if the CMA decides to recommend new regulations to cap the amount of money insurers can charge each other for repair work, which should make it much easier for anyone with a car or commercial van insurance policy since in theory it should result in lessened costs. Of course this may not actually be the case once put into practice, as insurers can always find ways to line their pockets; if they can do it with our money then even better.