Avoid these car insurance blunders!
Robert Powell hits the streets to debunk four car insurance myths....
Rob Powell hits the streets to find out what you know about car insurance
Car insurance is one of life's annoying costs.
You know it’s essential – but there’s a million other you things you’d probably rather spend your money on!
So today I’m going to reveal four car insurance myths to help you get the right cover for the best price...
If I get a speeding ticket, my insurance rates automatically go up
Getting a speeding ticket will not definitely push up your insurance rates. Providers will usually take a number of factors into consideration – such as the speed you were travelling and whether it’s your first offence.
They may occasionally also give you the benefit of the doubt if there was a valid reason why you were speeding on that particular day.
You best bet is to be honest with your provider about any driving offences and - of course - just avoid speeding all together!
My car insurance is valid abroad
Most car insurance policies won’t cover you for overseas trips.
If you are planning on taking your car on holiday with you make sure you inform your insurance provider before you leave.
They’ll probably move you onto another policy or extend your existing agreement to cover you while you’re abroad.
Getting 'driving other cars' cover means you can drive anyone else’s car and be fully covered
If you have a fully comprehensive car insurance policy you’ll probably be covered to drive other cars. But that doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be fully insured.
Most driving other cars (DOC) cover is third party only. This means that if you were to crash someone else’s car, your insurance would only cover the cost of the damage to the other vehicle – not the one you were driving.
The colour of your car affects your insurance rate
The colour of your car can’t affect your insurance rate.
But many people think that red cars cost more to cover!
In fact, insurance providers will base your rate on the age, make, model, price and engine size of the car as well as your driving record and address.
Colour plays no part in the rate you’ll get.
As I say every week – you should always make sure you thoroughly read the small print of any policy you take out. That way you’ll know exactly what your policy covers and for how much.
Check out our car insurance centre right here at lovemoney.com to compare prices and get the best deal.
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"Getting a speeding ticket will not definitely push up your [url=../../../../carinsurance]insurance[/url] rates." - not definitely, but most likely. Insurers usually ignore the first offence. However, they ask for the offence code in order to make the quote and give no room for 'excuses' - there may be a slight difference to them if your offence was an SP30 (speeding on a normal road) or and SP50 (speeding on a motorway), but it is the courts and not the insurance companies who are interested in the scale of the offence. Avoid telling the insurance company about any driving offences at your peril. They will almost certainly void your insurance in the event of a claim and you could face prosecution for fraud. "Most [url=../../../../carinsurance]car insurance[/url] policies won’t cover you for overseas trips." - maybe if you are leaving the EU, but standard policies will always give you the minimum cover required for the country you are in within the EEC. However, this is usually inadequate for most people and insurance companies will usually provide a short-term extension (two-week holiday for instance) to your cover for Europe for free or a nominal admin fee.
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car colour does affect your insurance costs. I worked for British Telecom, who were Post office Telephones and GPO before, all the vehicles were green and had a higher rate of accidents than other colours, so we changed to yellow to reduce the cost and accident rate
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Myth number 5 - Insurance companies are interested in whether you have a pass plus certificate or not. They aren't - in fact they wish the whole issue would go away! They wish to be seen as being competitive so they have to fiddle with quotes to make it look as if you're getting a discount!
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28 January 2011