Car insurance is becoming a major in factor in determining what car to buy, according to Swinton, the UK’s leading high street car insurance retailer.
New cars valued at more than £1 billion are sitting idle in parking lots around the country as sales slump. Sales are so bad in fact that next years motor show in London’s Docklands has been cancelled.
As sales of those expensive sports cars and 4 x 4 gas guzzlers drop due to the current financial climate, motorists are searching for more economical cars, and this includes those cars attracting lower insurance premiums.
A recent survey of 1,000 Swinton customers found car insurance premiums was their second highest consideration when looking at buying a new car.
There are many things to consider before buying any motor, and being able to find cheap car insurance which meets your requirements and offers the benefits you are looking for is not always easy.
It’s always wise therefore to ensure you obtain a quote before entering into any agreement to buy.
Don’t simply accept the premium your current insurer quotes. Have a little shop around, make sure you know what your current insurer would charge you if you cancelled your existing policy before the next renewal date and take this into consideration when deciding whether it is worth your while to switch immediately, or wait until your policy is next due for renewal.

With everything else going on in our lives it is very easy to forget the MOTs for our cars.
Whilst it may not be considered much of an issue for most, driving a car without a valid MOT certificate in force is an offence under the Road Traffic Act and attracts prosecution, fines and points on licences if caught.
It is said that as many as one in five motorists renew their MOT more than 1 month after it last expired and with as many as six million drivers having admitted to driving their car without a valid MOT certificate because they simply forgot their MOT renewal date, the problem is significant.
A car with an expired MOT is fine if it is laid up and kept off the public highways/roads but use it and you face the possibility of invalidating your insurance. Have an accident and be found to be at fault and your problems really start to mount and have some serious consequences.
You will find yourself having to settle the other person’s costs personally, face the fine, have your licence endorsed with penalty points and expect to see an increase in your next insurance renewal premium.
In an effort to help people remember, Kwik-Fit has announced the launch of a new service that could help drivers in the UK their renewal date by sending their customers email reminders when their test are due.

Tesco is hunting for an insurance expert to help expand its financial services division.

Tesco Personal Finance (TPF) is already well established in the insurance field, offering personal lines insurance products as well as it’s credit card and other financial services.

The majority of their marketing for their personal lines products has so far been through the leaflets found at their sales points near check out counters, but following a pilot in Glasgow, it now plans to open 30 “walk-in” branches of Tesco Personal Finance in some of it’s stores around the UK by the end of 2009.

The first stores to introduce the service are due to those in Coventry, Blackpool and Bristol.
Tesco also plans to extend it’s finacial services further by launching a current account within the next couple of years as soon as they have the relevant technology in place. 200 new jobs are expected to be created in Edinburgh to support the roll out.

A Tesco spokesman denies that the creation of these walk-in financial centres has any connection to the current turmoil in retail banking sector.

Tesco Personal Finance secured authorisation from the Financial Services Authority in 2001 and has since developed successful insurance products protecting the home, pets, travel, dental, life and health insurance as well as their well known competitively priced motor insurance policies.

The car insurance market is tough, and whilst motor insurance premiums may be rising, insurers still have to maintain their market position.

As a customer, you may well be asking how on earth these insurance companies continue to need to increase their premiums.

Well, there could be a number of reasons for this, one of which is extremely likely to be the heightened awareness of consumer price comparison sites.

With so many households now having access to the internet and TV’s being literally saturated by aggregators promoting their comparison websites, the previous onerous task of shopping around by making numerous telephone calls to insurance companies and brokers is pretty much obsolete. A few clicks on your PC or laptop and in a few minutes, you have access to quotes from up to 100 insurance providers.

The internet has in fact been deemed to be a major contributory cause for a lot of the insurance industry’s difficulties. The web’s impact has been such that some underwriters are even reviewing how they price and underwrite policies purchased over the internet.

Those providers keeping pace with technological advancements and listening to what their customers want, have a good chance of maintaining their market profile and continuing to prosper.

For the others, there is a good chance they will either fall by the wayside or be absorbed by the bigger companies at some stage.

The illegal activities of car accident fraudsters continues to attract the attentions of police forces across the UK.

Two men were recently jailed for more than three years each following their part in attempting to defraud more than 20 motor insurance companies out of an estimated £3 million.

18 months of investigation conducted by the City of London Police, Insurance Fraud Bureau have linked the two and their gang to more than 300 suspicious car accidents, most of which were thought to be staged accidents in London during 2005 – 2007.

It’s never nice to be involved in any accident and a drivers emotions take a while to recover, particularly if someone was injured in an accident, no matter how serious the injury.

If you however, find yourself involved in what you consider to be a suspicious accident, contact your local police authority with your suspicions as soon as possible.

Remember, unless you have protected your no claims bonus, any fault accident is going to affect your no claims bonus by a minimum of 20% and result in a significantly increased premium at next renewal. For younger drivers, this could equate to literally hundreds of £s.

Something that no one wants at any time, let alone during this economic downturn.

Patrick Smith is stepping down from the post of Chief Executive at Swinton in order to become chairman.

Peter Halpin, the current deputy chief executive is taking over the reins.

From humble beginnings back in the late 50s, when Swinton opened its first branch in Salford, introducing a new way to buy insurance, the company grew rapidly throughout the 1960s.
They were also the first insurance broker to advertise on TV.

Profits were up 4% over 2007’s performance with profits for 2008 coming in at £50 million and premium income rising 15% to £763.9m.

Even though Swinton are now the largest high street insurer, they continue to grow from strength to strength.

Peter Halpin, Swinton’s new chief executive, says:

“The company as a whole has an ethos which sets us apart from others in the financial services sector. That ethos is one centred around a strongly-held belief that consumers appreciate having a clear and fair choice with regard to how and where they purchase their insurance. Customers will always be able to pick up the phone and discuss their insurance matters with our advisers”.

Swinton continue to look to build on their success of being named “Personal Lines Broker of the Year in 2008” receiving praise for it’s personal approach to customer service and their strategy of integrating online growth and call centres supporting it’s extensive network of high street branches.

The trend continues as Insurance giant, Aviva plans to axe over 1,000 jobs following improvements in operational efficiency.

Another nice thank you from an employer for the workers that helped them achieve what was probably thought not possible, and considered it more aspirational than achievable, when the improvement strategy was announced.

Union officials advise that they have been told that offices in York and Norwich will be worst hit by the cuts, but other sites across the country will not be exempt for cuts in their workforce.

This announcement follows closely on the heels of RSA’s recent announcement to cut 1,200 employees in an effort to help shave £70m off of their operating costs.

This constant hammering of financial and insurance industry workers must be leaving everyone employed in those industries on edge.

Mark Hodges, chief executive at Norwich Union Life, said: “Our strategy over the last three years has seen us transform and simplify our business, leaving us well placed to face the challenges ahead.
Most of the job cuts are said to be in the areas of “business change” and IT and not related to the current economic downturn.

There is no clue as yet how this will affect actual insurance premiums. Hopefully, some good will come out of this and Aviva will bring premiums down.

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.

Like everything else at the moment, finding cheaper car insurance is at the top of most peoples list. While there are plenty of savings to be had, it is worth taking a look at the free business gifts being given away with some of the deals out there.

The free items themselves come in a range of types and amounts, some simply offer you an immediate £50 cashback, others offer you actual business gifts as an incentive.

One insurance company was even giving away laptops with certain insurance policies, granted they were at a higher price tag, but it is certainly an enticing offer none-the-less.

Other companies try to push their own business gifts on you, like Tesco, regularly offer clubcard points or shopping discounts as an extra incentive. it is worth taking any included gifts or perks into account when you are searching through the different insurance quotes.

Sometimes you get things like free MOTs or free breakdown cover included, which you can actually then count as a deduction from the insurance price as you may have opted for these services anyway.

So, while you are shopping around for your car insurance make sure you keep your eyes peeled to get hold of some great bargains.

Recent research commissioned by comparethemarket.com has revealed that the female fraternity are more likely to use the internet or shop around when their car insurance comes up for renewal.

Why?

Well, its because they are very keen on looking to make savings in such areas as their car insurance to free up money for other things.

Its young female drivers using the comparison websites to shop around for the best deals that are the reason for such sites growing at such phenomenal rates. It is forecast that comparison websites will double in size before the end of 2010.

With marketing activity by these sites probably at its highest for years, its no wonder people are checking them out and recognising the benefits comparison websites can offer.

The research also revealed that 80% of people looking for car insurance search the internet for quotes and compare an average of four quotes before deciding whether to switch or stick.

Another surprising finding from the reaearch was that even though many people are very much aware that they can save lots of money by switching insurers, 56 per cent of people still don’t.

With the possibility of being able to realise savings of £00’s per annum against renewal fees, it’s a little surprising really!