Research by a major price comparison website has shown that redundancy can prove particularly expensive for motorists suggesting that losing a job can also lead to a dramatic rise in the cost of your car insurance.

Occupations and the usage of the car have always been major underwriting factors considered by insurance underwriters but according to uSwitch.com premiums can increase by around 20% on average for jobless people.

It isn’t all bad news however as the older, more experienced drivers who have earned no claims bonus will probably find their premium to remain the same or possbily reducing.

If you are young however, say 20 years old, with only 1 years no claims bonus, uSwitch reported the insurance premium increasing by 45%.

Even a 40 year old male without any NCB could find their premium increasing by up to 22%.

Underwriters assess premiums and risk on the assumption that in the event of an individual become unemployed, then their car usage will increase, either because of the need to drive to interviews or because the insured has more free time.

If you are unfortunate enough to find yourself jobless at any time, please do not forget to inform your insurers.

Fail to do so and you could be risking your insurer refusing any claim on the grounds of non-disclosure of a material fact which could have affected your insurance policy and premium. 

In this second article, we will deal with the technical aspects if you are unfortunately involved in an accident overseas.

Try not to admit liaibility.

You may be asked for, and should be prepared to produce your driving licence, the registration document for the vehicle to prove ownership although other evidence may be acceptable and your insurance certificate or Green Card (which has for many years been the most widely accepted evidence of insurance for foreign registered vehicles).

It is ok for you to complete and sign European Accident Statement as it is simply a method of ensuring that the parties to an accident exchange the relevant information and details of the accident. Make sure that you retain a copy and you understand what the other person has written.

If the police are involved, again, stay calm, listen carefully and if you experience difficulty in understanding them, try and explain that you need an interpreter.

In some countries drivers may be arrested and their vehicles impounded, when the accident is serious, to allow time for fault to be determined. If this happens, ask to contact the British Consul or equivalent as soon as possible.

If your car is immobilised, notify your insurers as soon as possible. If it is driveable, then it is usually acceptable to wait until you return to the UK but check with your insurers before embarking on your trip, particularly if you are going to be abroad for more than 14 days duration. You should have been provided with a name and contact details of a representative for your insurer when you advised your insurer of your intention to go abroad.

In the run up to Valentine’s day, it is perhaps appropriate to remind readers about what you should expect in the event of an accident when driving overseas to ensure you know what to expect and any interruption to that romantic few days is not affected too badly.

This article therefore lays out some basics:

It is of course, important to remember to ensure your insurance is valid for driving in the countries you intend to visit.

Under EU law, all car insurance providers are obliged to offer third-party only cover when driving abroad. This level of cover will only pay out for damage sustained to another vehicle or driver - it does not protect against theft, accidental damage, or personal injury.

It may be possible to extend comprehensive cover for the duration of an overseas trip, but drivers need to check the small print, as some insurers will charge for this.

Before setting out, it is important to confirm that your insurance policy provides adequate cover for the countries you will be driving through as the road traffic rules can vary from country to country rules are different.

There may come a time when you find yourself involved or caught up in an accident of some kind.

If this happens, you should stop as soon as it is safe to do so, and place your accident warning triangle at a distance far enough away from your car or the scene of the accident to allow passing traffic to take avoiding action.

Try not to admit liability, say as little as possible and remain calm, especially in any dealings with the local police.
The only document you should sign is the European Accident Statement or “Constat Amiable”.

The subsequent article will offer guidance on the technical aspects.

If you find yourself going to your car one day and realising that your car has been damaged by another car or road user but they have not left you any contact details, depending on the extent of the damage, you may find yourself exploring avenues to recover your repair costs.

The Untraced Drivers’ Agreement 2003 includes compensation for property damage resulting from accidents occurring on or after 14 February 2003.

In order to be able to make a claim though the Motor Insurance Bureau (MIB) you need to be aware of the following and take the following steps:-

Claims for property damage must be made within 9 months of the accident date and subject to a £300 excess.

Personal injury claims must be made within 3 years of the date of the accident.

To make a claim:

•    You firstly need to report the incident to the Police. This must be done within 14 days of the accident occurring. If it is damage to property, they must be notified within 5 days.

•     Secondly, make enquiries to see if you can identify the driver, check any information you may find out with the Police. You could even try making contact with the motorist in person, and/or tracing the registered keeper via DVLA and contacting them. Their failure to notify you may have been accidental. They may not even know that they caused damage to your vehicle.

•     If you have been unable to identify the driver, next try to identify the vehicle involved through any registration number you may have obtained from any passer-by or witness to the incident. 

•     Finally, contact your own insurers as your policy conditions will demand that you report all accidents. They may be able to trace the other party’s or his/her insurers. Your insurer also has access to the Motor Insurance Database which may contain details of the motorist’s insurers.

Rightly or wrongly, the no-win, no-fee system has proven a success - at least for personal injury solicitors and the companies created to support the ever increasing compensation culture developing within the UK.

There are most definitely benefits for the customer as compensation claims are now escalating to frightening financial levels costing insurers and policyholders more than £1.5 billion per year.

Companies set up purely to offer Accident Management and compensation recovery from guilty parties is big business and many solicitors, having recognised the lucrative earnings on offer, spend a great deal of money setting up such companies and advertising across all media’s.

However, no matter how good an idea, it is important to ensure you read the small print of any contract you sign up to.

Whilst acknowledging that these accident management companies and solicitors will work through a table to establish the likelihood of recovery before pursuing a case, the “no win, no fee” offer may not always ring true.

What they mean is that if they don’t win, you will not have to pay them anything. However, this doesn’t mean to say that you will not be responsible for the other person’s legal fees if you lose and everyone knows, this can be quite substantial.

The recommendation therefore is explore the possibility of insuring against liability for any third party legal costs just in case you lose your case otherwise you could end up even worse off. Most solicitors or accident management companies should be able to offer such insurance or point you in the right direction.

The UK is now the ‘whiplash centre’ of Europe with claims in the UK some 40% higher than the European average.

The Association of British Insurers (ABI) advise that whiplash claims have increased by 25% over the past 5 years with more than 430,000 people claiming for whiplash injuries in 2007. That equates to more than 49 people every hour claiming whiplash injury every day of the year.

Whiplash is now the biggest injury claim category accounting for two-thirds of all personal injury claims made in the UK.

Anyone who has suffered such an injury will offer testament to the fact that these injuries can prove extremely painful, debilitating and can often take some time to recover so if the consultancy costs and NHS services are added to these costs, the true cost escalates even higher.

In 2007, the insurance industry paid out a staggering £1.9 billion in compensation with an average payout reputed to be around £4,000 per claim the cost is now equivalent to £66 for every car insurance policy held in the UK.

There are many inferences that a percentage of these claims are fraudulent in one way or another (either by exaggerating the extent of the injury or completely faking it) and this claim for compensation culture has not been helped by the ever growing number of solicitors, companies and organisations offering the American style “no win, no fee” schemes which has encouraged many claimants who may have perhaps either settled for a lot less or not even claimed otherwise to appoint legal representatives to fight their case on their behalf.

To avoid your insurer having to pay out for such an injury putting your no claims bonus at risk is to take precautions when driving and avoid driving too close to the person in front and allow plenty of stopping space.

Britain is recognised as being quite a safe place to drive around with reasonably good quality roads.

However, The UK’s reputation is starting to suffer due to more and more foreign drivers venturing onto our roads without knowing or understanding the meaning of our road signs and the Highway Code and our general traffic regulations.

Frequently, there are accidents caused by foreign drivers driving on the wrong side of the road, but more worrying is the fact that the number of foreign drivers arrested for drink driving offences has increased significantly in recent years.

This escalating problem may be due to poor knowledge of UK traffic regulations or just the fact that we drive on the left hand side of the road, but neither can said to be acceptable excuses and address the arrest records surrounding drink driving offences.

A lot of the eastern European workers arriving in the UK are of the younger generation who are statistically more likely to be involved in serious crashes. 

East Europeans are  also twice as likely, compared with other drink-drivers, to be serious offenders and get arrested for exceeding the legal alcohol limit by 2½ times or more.

Some local authorities have now started to issue information leaflets to drivers in Polish and other eastern European languages. The driving theory test is now even available in Polish and learner drivers are now permitted to take a friend or interpreter with them during the practical driving test.

It is said that some councils have even tried using road signs in Polish.

Roadsafe, creators of Intelligent Speed Adaptation (ISA) are claiming that their system could reduce the number and associated cost of car insurance claims.

The system, which is capable of automatically preventing drivers from exceeding speed limits forms the basis of their argument for trying to encourage manufacturers to start equipping their vehicles with Intelligent Speed Adaptation (ISA).

It is well proven, reported fact that speed is one of the biggest causes of accidents and fatalities on the UK roads.

There are of course opponents to manufacturers fitting it as a matter of course. The Association of British Drivers quite rightly warned that ISA could lull drivers into a false sense of security.

Of course, any business would like to have their product installed in every car manufactured, so perhaps a compromise can be reached whereby manufacturers offer the system as an extra.

Insurers can also do their part and perhaps acknowledge the effectiveness of the technology by offering those drivers with such a system installed and operating in their vehicle, a discount on their insurance premiums, just like they do for someone holding the advanced driver qualification.

Any discount on insurance premiums would be welcome, but to offer a discount for something which could save lives would be more than commendable and also show insurance companies doing something to help keep insurance premiums down.

Fraud and uninsured drivers are costing each and every car insurance policyholder £30 per policy. That is the amount car insurers add to our renewal premiums just to pay for these claims. One must ask that if they know how much these claims cost, they can identify the fraudulent claimants so why do other policyholders have to pay for it?

It’s the insurers fault for paying it out, not the policyholders!

Personal injury claims have risen 22% and are adding a further £66 to each and every policy with whiplash injury claims, in particular rising sharply.

It is suggested that insurers pay out £105 for every £100 they receive in insurance premium. Before the recent credit crunch, this shortfall was considered manageable with insurers able to offset this apparent loss by investing in stocks and shares, but given the substantial falls in global stock markets, this can no longer be considered viable and safe.

Insurers therefore have no option other than to pass recovery of the shortfall onto policyholders.

The AA is allegedly planning to increase their premiums by 10-11% in 2009 with other insurers rumoured to be considering even bigger increases.

Not good news. Perhaps insurers could consider investing more time and effort into mitigating their losses by investigating claims more thoroughly rather than simply passing these unnecessary losses directly on to the customer.

Do they do this because of incompetence, lethargy, because it’s the easiest thing to do, or are they including their compulsory obligation to contribute to the Motor Insurance Bureau funding from which uninsured compensation payouts are made?

There is one thing for certain, no Government or Council department would get away with it without having to undergo some seriously strong questioning via the house and the associated adverse publicity, so how do they get away with it?

Come on insurers, start publicising what you are doing to protect us, or is it that you simply aren’t doing anything?

You have always been prepared to spend millions in your efforts to get our money, now start spending some on telling us how you are trying to keep insurance premiums down please.

Motorists deliberately causing road accidents with the intention of lodging fraudulent car insurance claims against an innocent third party continues to receive police and insurance companies attention.

The incidents are predominantly caused by a driver stopping quickly for no apparent reason, hoping the driver of the car behind them will not be able to stop in time and collides with the fraudster’s vehicle.

These fraudsters do not always work alone and have colleagues in a separate car who manoever themselves into the spot behind the driver they are trying to catch out and drive very closely to their back bumper.

Once in place, the driver of the first car brakes sharply, the innocent victim in the vehicle behind, being aware of how close the car behind them is to their own car and fearing they themselves will be shunted, fails to brake quickly enough and collides with the fraudsters vehicle.

The driver of the first vehicle will appear uninjured at the time but subsequently claim for personal injuries from the victims insurance policy affecting their no claims bonus.

The only comfort these innocent drivers can take from the experience is that:-

1. Police forces across the UK are always on the look out for this kind of activity and the number of prosecutions for such activity is increasing.

2. Insurance companies record all claims on a central database which will alert insurers to possible fraudsters which the insurance companies can then pass on any suspicions to the police for further investigation.