It’s really nice to be able to get your car repaired after an accident without incurring any further expense but it will not always be in your interest to submit that claim to your insurer and ask them to meet the repair costs.

That is not to say that you shouldn’t inform them of the accident, irrespective of fault.

In short, you need to consider the future financial implications of actually claiming from your insurer.

Unless you have protected your no claims bonus, your insurer will knock at least 20% off your no claims bonus when your policy next comes up for renewal. They may even load your premium or increase your excess for any future claims when it comes to renewal. You just never know as insurers change their underwriting strategies all the time.

Take a 25 year old male with an Astra Convertible. He is employed in an administrative job, enjoys maximum no claims bonus (not protected) and has no medical conditions. He has had a minor incident and damaged one of the headlights.

He has a policy with no excess or even £50 excess. The cost of the part may be say less than £100, and with fitting the total repair costs will be in the region of £150-£200.

The best insurance premium he managed to obtain at last renewal was £369 but if he claims via his insurers, that premium at next renewal would increase to £575, some £206 more than the previous year and that’s before taking account of any annual premium increases imposed by the insurer or possible premium loading for the incident.

The premium differential will increase further for younger drivers, particularly if they only had 2 years no claims bonus at the time of the incident. They risk losing up to 40% no claims bonus.

The recommendation therefore is to check with your insurer when you inform them of a very minor accident to establish how much your premium will increase by before instructing them to meet the costs.

Travel and car insurance customers will, in all likelihood have to endure higher insurance premiums if the Equality Bill affects the way insurers can use age to help them assess insurance risks.
This is the recent warning issued by the Association of British Insurers (ABI).

The bill, introduced in the Queen’s speech last last year is intended to prevent age discrimination but may have a negative impact for some, particularly the elderly.

It is highly possible that by restricting the use of age as an underwriting and risk aid for insurers, could lead to some deciding to pull out of the older customer insurance market, thereby restricting their choice.

Insurers remaining in the market, could well find themselves having no alternative but to increase their premiums accordingly, which completely contradicts that which was intended, namely ensuring that fair prices are available to all, including the elderly.

It is feared that restricting the use of age for underwiriting assessment would result in insurers being unable to take account of differences in risk among older customers.

Given we are an aging nation, insurers may need to change their approach, such as requiring individual medical assessments, the costs of which would ineveitably be passed onto the customer resulting in higher premiums in all probability.

It is possible that the reading of the Equality Bill could start shortly, but any regulations relating to financial services could be delayed for a little while yet.

Always check the small print, make sure you are comparing like with like!

Make sure you get the same benefits under each quote. It’s worth remembering that some insurers don’t offer a courtesy car under their comprehensive policies and this is quite a valuable add-on nowadays.

Think about increasing your policy excess in the event of a claim. £100 buys very little nowadays and mst people can absorb this amount of excess without any problem ata all. Think about increasing it to £150/£250 and see how much it saves you on your insurance premium,.

All these can help reduce premiums but what about premiums when you purchase a modfied car or even do the modifications after you have purchased the car.

Modifications to a car can prove costsly for insurance purposes. Even just fitting alloy wheels!

If you were a potential car thief, which car would you attempt to steal if there were 2 identical makes of car next to each other?

The first car being just a standard model but the second has been modified with alloy wheels, side skirts and a nice fancy paint job.

The chances are that the modified version would be the one you would have a crack at stealing.

The risk is increased, the cost of that risk is passed on to the policyholder.

It’s a common theme and thought at the moment for many people in the current economic climate.

Downgrading to save money on fuel, insurance premiums and road fund licence fees makes sense. Cars are luxuries that few of us can afford to be without nowadays, but luxury they remain.

With this in mind, rather than do away with the car completely many are turning to downgrading their car for smaller, less expensive models, albeit a short term decision for the lovers of the big SUV’s and hot hatches etc. hopefully.

Here are a few that aren’t quite as hot but still offer performance of note that you might like to consider:-

The Mitsubishi Colt Ralliart is a good smaller, hot hatch offering 147bhp from its 1.5 litre engine. With it coming from the same stable as the Evo, there is some real pedigree. It’s quite a lot cheaper than the Golf GTI and Focus ST, lower insurance grouping and turns in 40.9mpg.

The Ford Fiesta Econetic is arguably the best supermini on the road and is now more eco-friendly. It turns in a staggering 76.3mpg enabling you to travel some 755 miles on a tank of fuel. Even greater news is the fact that it is only group 4 rated for insurance and with only 98g/km of CO2, you pay absolutely no road tax.

Driving around in town and needing a small car to park in those oh so tight spaces and you could be a lot worse than the Toyota iQ. It may be small and only around one foot longer than the Smartcar but you can still fit 3 adults in it.

Again, with CO2 emissions of only 99g/km means no road tax to pay.

Any person involved in a rear shunt is probably going to have suffered some kind of whiplash, even if they did not feel the need to make a claim previously.

Irrespective of whether you did, or did not, make a claim previously, and again, irrespective of whether you were successful or not on that occasion, makes no difference.

You are in fact entitled to make a claim for damages for the personal injury you have suffered from this second accident as the fact that you have had a whiplash injury before does not preclude you from claiming.

You need to be aware however that it may affect the amount of compensation you may receive. It s for this reason that you should always get yourself checked out by your doctor or your local Accident and Emergency Department following an accident where there is suspicion of an injury. It is also a prerequisite that you inform the police of any accident involving personal injury.

Most motor insurers now offer legal protection as an add-on to their policies, so get in touch with your insurer and submit your claim. Failing that, there are many legal advisors offering no win, no fee services.

There will be occasions when, following a car accident, the injured need to be taken to a hospital and undergo medical treatment.

There may also be occasion unfortunately, when that medical treatment provided will not meet the exacting standards expected/demanded, or some of the actions and treatment taken causes other complications.

It is with this in mind that The Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) has launched PEOPLE First offering people injured by negligent parties a free advice service for help.

People First will be guided by an independent consumer panel made up of specialist professionals which includes former chairman of the Health and Safety Commission, Sir Bill Callaghan and Neal Stone of the British Safety Council.

The service will provide information, support and guidance to victims of negligence, through a new resource made up of easily understandable fact sheets and a new website to help victims of negligence when they are at their most vulnerable.

The fact sheets will offer advice on issues such as what to do after an injury at
work or hospital, who to contact after an injury, how to find rehabilitation, who to turn to after an injury and how to navigate your way through the insurance small print.

There have, over the years been many incidents whereby insurers have deemed it more financially prudent to concede a claim and make an out of court agreement to settle a claim that fight the case in court.

High Court Litigation can cost an extortionate amount of money and even insurers think twice before taking such action.

There are however such instances, when priciples are involved, and it is from this angle that some peole are now pushing for a fighting fund to be set up and managed by the Association of British Insurers (ABI) to avoid settling test cases too soon.

The man behind the request, Declan Treanor, chief executive of Garwyn Loss Adjusters has called on insurers to build a “fighting fund” to avoid settling test claim cases prematurely.

Mr Treanor is coming at it from the position of ensuring all companies, irrespective of their size, should have access to money to allow them to challenge any case, particularly where winning a relatively small case, there will be a long-term benefit to the industry.

Mr Treanor also said that at the moment, whilst smaller insurers had less money to take a case to the High Court, the larger companies had sufficient resources to pick their fights.

In the UK, there are probably more adults that drive than do not.

Whilst car insurance premiums tend to lower as one gets older, there comes a stage when age starts to have a negative impact on premiums, particularly when medical conditions start to manifest themselves, affecting our well-being.

As an aging nation, the proportion of older drivers that are likely to give up their licences either compulsorily or voluntarily, whilst upsetting for the drivers is inevitable and it is important to understand their reasons for making such decisions.

Medical professionals have guidelines which must be followed and if a newly presented condition or a change to an existing illness/disability or its treatment, in particular with medication, is likely to impair driving either temporarily or in the longer term, you need to be informed.

Deciding whether a driver needs advice about fitness to drive requires the health professional to understand the capability requirements for driving, and the conditions and treatments that may impair it.

Health professionals need to be just that, professional and unbiased when considering fitness to drive and therefore need to avoid making vague or insecure recommendations about fitness to drive. Such decisions will be for your protection as well as other drivers and 3rd parties as if too lenient, could lead to a crash where their advice may be questioned, particularly when issues of liability for injury or damages arise.

It is of course, not an exact science as medical conditions can manifest themselves in many different ways but some groups of medical professionals, such as those treating diabetes or epilepsy, and optometrists are reported to have a more consistent approach give advice more consistently.

You are looking at buying that tidy little motor but have a tidy little problem – the cost of your insurance premium.

The reason is that your car insurance is due for renewal just before your birthday!

Consider waiting to renew your policy until after your birthday. For drivers under the age of 25 years old this can save you quite a bit of money.

Basically, the younger you are, the better the chance of saving more money.

So when your policy is next coming up for renewal or you are buying your first car, check out some of the aggregator websites. Have a look at comparethemarket/beatthatquote or moneysupermarket and get some insurance premium quotes based on your current age and another based on your age after you have had your birthday.

That said however, it is important to remember that it is illegal to drive a car on the public highway without a valid insurance certificate and anyone caught breaking the law can look forward to getting some penalty points on their licence, so please do not be tempted to drive your car whilst it is uninsured.

If need be, lay your car up from the date your current policy expires but remain disciplined and don’t use the car. If you are caught driving it without insurance, the loading your insurers will impose on your policy will, in all likelihood, absorb any saving you were expecting to make.

Just like in the UK, Americans have been looking at ways to cut their expenditure in these difficult times and one of the biggest casualties has been that of car insurance.

Even in the USA, the number of uninsured motorists nationwide has doubled in the past 12 months from 10% to 20%, according to the online agency Insurance.com.

It should be acknowledged that everyone would like to save money on their insurance premiums, but no one wants to be financially out of pocket should the unexpected happen.

Car insurance exists because accidents happen, and rather than driving around completely uninsured, risking prosecution and points on your licence, consider reducing your liability coverage and drop to Third Party Fire and Theft, or even, Third Party Only.

Accepted, there will no longer be any cover for damage to your own vehicle in the event of an accident or cover for goods stolen from your car in the event of a break in, but this risk has got to be better than driving around uninsured.

Dropping your cover is a bit of a gamble but it’s a decision you may find yourself needing to make. You never know, financial recovery may arrive soon, whereupon you can reinstate your comprehensive cover again.