VAN INSURANCE NEWS ROUNDUP: 7 DAYS ENDING 27 JUNE 2014:
No one is safe when it comes to increased vehicle insurance rates – in fact, new evidence shows that every single class of driver is getting hit hard.
While increased rates is nothing new for the white van man – commercial van insurance premiums seem to be spiraling ever upwards – now other types of vehicles owners are getting slapped with heightened car insurance premiums as well. In fact, classic car owners are the latest breed of drivers that are feeling the heat – even if your classic car isn’t even in fantastic condition.
New reports are rolling in that rates for classic cars are out of control. In fact just this week a story broke that one car owner’s Porsche 911S, which was valued at a measly £8,000 less than twenty years ago, is now valued at ten times its original estimate. That’s right, the same car that’s aged – and possibly not all that gracefully – over the course of eighteen years is now supposedly worth £80,000.
Do you know what that means for someone who ends up in an accident, but only has cover commensurate with their original £8,000 valuation? It means that if the damage exceeds that original figure, you’re out of pocket for the rest – and with the vehicle now valued so high this could mean tens of thousands of pounds that you would have to fork over to get your vehicle back in working order. It’s a bloody travesty if you ask me!
So what do I care, you may be asking. My van isn’t a classic car by any means. Well you may be right, but it’s not just classic car owners that are getting the piss taken out of them. Regular run of the mill car insurance and van insurance policies are becoming more expensive, and it’s all because the amount of fraud in the UK is supposedly going through the roof.
Think it’s just a bit of balderdash? Its not. Insurance giant Aviva said this week that the amount of fraud that they encountered last year was astronomical. In fact, more than 800 accidents – and the 2,200 personal injury claims that arose from those accidents – were fraudulent. These were of course only the faked auto crashes that they discovered; the true figure might be even higher. Whatever the actual number of car crash scams going on, it’s bad news for honest drivers because all the extra costs generated by fraudsters and then absorbed by Aviva and other insurers makes it more expensive for these companies to do business – and what does that lead to? Well, heightened premium prices of course!