You wonder why Insurance is dear

[***Mr D***]

Originally Posted by entwisi

IMHO you should be given an insurance 'disc' that should be displayed alongside teh tax disc with its expiry date etc on. Any cars without a valid disc should be crushed and teh owners put inside for 6 months. That would scare a few.

The MID is the way the industry is dealing with this problem as Disk could be copied.

The MID will soon be entering stage 2 this means that if you own a vehicle it has to be insured even if it stays in your garage.

I have seen recently a lot of car being take away because they are not insured, so it is working slowly.

Originally Posted by WillowTheWhisp

We should also get tough on those who submit fraudulent claims.

Not car insurance but we had interesting little experience some years ago when we had a roof blown off type flood. We contacted the insurance company, as you do, and they gave us a number to phone to get a firm out who would sort out ALL the required repairs and then bill the insurance company. Sounds good doesn't it? Far less hassle for us. We thought so too.

Then they came. We could apparently get an interim payout so we could buy immediate necessities - the repair company suggested that we add onto that some details of work that they had already done - like replastering the dining room ceiling and reflooring the bathroom. Pardon? What replastering? What flooring? They hadn't done anything! They were expecting to get paid for something that didn't even need doing!! This was the company which had the insurance approval, nay more than approval. The insurance company had sent them to us!

I phoned the insurance company and told them what had been suggested - they told us to send the repair people packing and to get in some workmen of our own and send them the bills.

Its true that some companies will try and claim for every little ting you can, these are usually Loss Assessors (work for you) they get a % of the claim settlement.

But exagarated claim is also a commen problem. Mainly on Household claims.

Chav, If insurers didnt invest in other things they wouldnt be able to keep insuring, as I said earlier I have read that insures somethime operate a motor accout at a loss - ie for ever pound gained in premium income they payed out £1.06. IIRC it was Royal & Sun Alliance.

When you see and deal with the people who are unfortunate to have a claim, then you realise the value of insurance.

[chav1]

Originally Posted by entwisi

They whole idea of insurance from both sides is a gamble. They have a right as a business to make money, like it or not. Infact if they didn't there wouldn't be any companies left for you to take insurance out with.

theres a big difference between making a proffit and pure greed though , if a bookies has a big payout he dosnt demand that his next customers gamble more money and he cant give worse odds to his customers because they will go elsewhere and there definatly isnt a law that says his customers have to pay more

[entwisi]

No, but he has teh opportunity to 'insure himself' by offsetting the bet somewhere.

Profit or pure greed, depends on your standpoint. as a shareholder, I expect the companies I invested in to try and make as much money as possible for me. thats how it works in a capitalist society.

[chav1]

making money implies that you earn it , insurance companies dont have to earn it because insurance is somthing you HAVE to have so they in theory have guarenteed income where as any other buisness man has to actualy earn his money and give the customer value for money or he wont succeed and definatly wouldnt get away with victimising his laoyal customers for other peoples mistakes

[WillowTheWhisp]

Look at it this way Chav - if you paid into an insurance company and they didn't cover their losses how would you feel when you came to make a claim and they said "Sorry but we haven't any money left, you'll have to wait until a few more premiums come in."

[chav1]

Originally Posted by WillowTheWhisp

Look at it this way Chav - if you paid into an insurance company and they didn't cover their losses how would you feel when you came to make a claim and they said "Sorry but we haven't any money left, you'll have to wait until a few more premiums come in."

what i am saying is that they have enough money coming in considering how many cars are on the road and how many have accidents they just put up premiums so that they dont have to cut into PROFFITS and upset share holders , they simply cant loose and its wrong

if they have 10 million proffit coming in and 1 million goes out in payouts that leaves 9 million proffit but rather than accept their loss despite still been 9 million in proffit they get that 1 million back from people who havnt claimed

if a normal buisness man has the same proffit and losses he has to accept it but insurance companies get away with pure greed because it is law that you have to have insurance

yes everyone shoudl have insurance but they shoudl be limited as to how much they can charge

[WillowTheWhisp]

Without actually auditing the accounts of the major insurance companies I can't comment on that.

[chav1]

Originally Posted by WillowTheWhisp

Without actually auditing the accounts of the major insurance companies I can't comment on that.

it was theoretical they make a lot more money than that

[entwisi]

I think if you read other posts and look into this further you will find that some branches of insurance lose money. There is always teh competitive aspect of the market to take into account. Companies will go through phases of offering 'cheaper' insurance to certain demographic groups depending on their view of risk at that time. this naturally keeps prices down as there are legal protections in place to stop cartels forming to fix prices. therefore its a free market that if there was such 'profit' that you seem to think there was then a company would cut its prices to gain a greater market share which would trigger other companies etc

You need to start quoting actual figures from companies if you want to start pontificating about X profit vs Y payouts.

[chav1]

they can show me all teh figures they want i refuse to believe people would set up an insurance company if they didnt tink there was good money to be made and an easy way to regain losses

2 dead certs for buisness and thats death and car insurance

peopel will always die and peopel will always have to have car insurance

you would have to be either a very bad buisness man or very very unlucky to fail in car insurance

edit:

please refrain from using words like "pontificating" i have enough trouble typing words never mind understanding them

gobbing off woulda been better

[***Mr D***]

Originally Posted by chav1

what i am saying is that they have enough money coming in considering how many cars are on the road and how many have accidents they just put up premiums so that they dont have to cut into PROFFITS and upset share holders , they simply cant loose and its wrong

if they have 10 million proffit coming in and 1 million goes out in payouts that leaves 9 million proffit but rather than accept their loss despite still been 9 million in proffit they get that 1 million back from people who havnt claimed

if a normal buisness man has the same proffit and losses he has to accept it but insurance companies get away with pure greed because it is law that you have to have insurance

yes everyone shoudl have insurance but they shoudl be limited as to how much they can charge

You dont have a clue about insurance really if you believe that a loss ration is 10/1

Insurance companies make Profit on other avenues, just like Normal businesses.

If you want an example of Money for nothing - look at Road tax.

And limited as to how much they can quote?? Have you ever looked through the yellow Pages, it might as well be Insurance Quote pages with the amount of adverts. This meaning Competition and many different Prices, if you put the work in you will usually save somewhere.

[***Mr D***]

Originally Posted by chav1

they can show me all teh figures they want i refuse to believe people would set up an insurance company if they didnt tink there was good money to be made and an easy way to regain losses

2 dead certs for buisness and thats death and car insurance

peopel will always die and peopel will always have to have car insurance

you would have to be either a very bad buisness man or very very unlucky to fail in car insurance

edit:

please refrain from using words like "pontificating" i have enough trouble typing words never mind understanding them

gobbing off woulda been better

Seach For a companies called Independant & Drake - see how much Profit the made.

Obviously there is profit but is it from a motor insruance account?

Oh and whos paying for the tanker thats emptied its load on us I wonder.

[chav1]

Originally Posted by ***Mr D***

Oh and whos paying for the tanker thats emptied its load on us I wonder.

it realy wouldnt surprise me if they put it down to an act of god

[chav1]

if you had an insurance company and you took on somone with previous accidents and points etc you would naturaly charge them more than somone who hasnt but when that person crashes again you put the expense of the payout onto customers who havnt had accidents or points

it would have been your risk in taking on this customer not mine so why should my policy go up , ime pretty sure if he didnt have an accident then you will be in proffit from him as he paid extra because of his driving history and would be very happy at your nice proffit but when it goes bad its us that pay

if payouts are such a problem then maybe insurance companies shoudl be asking questions of teh govenment as to why such ridiculous amounts of money get paid for minor injuries and not simply pass teh cost on to the innocent motorists, its just easier to get money from joe public than get the govenment to put limits on how much can be awarded for minor injuries

ime not sure but hasnt the maximum payout for whiplash been reduced , just somthing i heard so not sure but if true then maybe payouts on other other accident types should be capped to

one way to reduce claims would be to abolish teh rule that the person infront is never in teh wrong because as long as that law is there people will slam on infront of peopel for a quick claim, that alone would probably reduce over half teh claims that go in

[***Mr D***]

Originally Posted by chav1

if you had an insurance company and you took on somone with previous accidents and points etc you would naturaly charge them more than somone who hasnt but when that person crashes again you put the expense of the payout onto customers who havnt had accidents or points

it would have been your risk in taking on this customer not mine so why should my policy go up , ime pretty sure if he didnt have an accident then you will be in proffit from him as he paid extra because of his driving history and would be very happy at your nice proffit but when it goes bad its us that pay

if payouts are such a problem then maybe insurance companies shoudl be asking questions of teh govenment as to why such ridiculous amounts of money get paid for minor injuries and not simply pass teh cost on to the innocent motorists, its just easier to get money from joe public than get the govenment to put limits on how much can be awarded for minor injuries

ime not sure but hasnt the maximum payout for whiplash been reduced , just somthing i heard so not sure but if true then maybe payouts on other other accident types should be capped to

Yes a loading would normally be applied to the motorist who had adverse details like a Conviction/Accident.

You would not be saying that if you was unfortunate enough to have made a claim or two deemed as fault and you premium has only increased £50.

Example how a premium is worked out (only rough)

Base Figure - This is usuall rated on Postal Code & Vehicle group
Then loadings and discount apply Ie
Age Of Car Discount
Over Nite Parking
Age of Main Driver
Age Of Youngest Driver
Accidents
Annaul Mileage
Driving Restrction Discount
Convictions
Alram
No Claim Bonus
Then IPT (Insurance Premium Tax) 5%

Each Individual client is rated as just that an individual.

I agree the injury compensation is hurting the business, thing are happenening soon to try and come to some resolve.

An Idea of this is Quick Claim Settlement, you are injured instead of just a pay out they will provide medical treatment very soon at there cost to help you get better quicker and after care. ther fore hopefully reducing Compensation Payouts and still treating the injured person fairly.