Insurance World

Last week my wife and I booked a two centre holiday on the Scottish Isles. Seven days on Skye and then a ferry over to Steornabhagh for a further seven days on the Isle of Lewis. Wonderful scenery, plenty of walks and masses of peace and quiet.

You could have blown me over when my local travel agent assumed that I wanted travel insurance for an additional Ј27.50. Not on your Nellie the Lock Ness monster, I thought. Who needs travel insurance for a holiday in Britain? The National Health Service is free and in an emergency, my son could drive up and bring us home.

Later in the relaxing setting of my sitting room I got to thinking …………..

Holiday misfortunes don’t only happen abroad. So with my pessimistic hat on, I made a note of the risks:

Some rotter might steal our luggage

Last week I bought an all singing and dancing digital camera especially for the trip. Got it on the Internet. I might lose it whilst away.

If either of us were hospitalised we wouldn’t want to be marooned on Skye. We’d want to transfer to our local hospital in Warwickshire.

My wife’s parents are getting on. God forbid, but I’d have to cancel the holiday if something happened to them just before we’re due to go.

One of us could be taken ill before we depart and we’d be forced to cancel. As the ferries and the hotels were non-cancellable, we’d lose everything we’d paid.

There may be a major delay at the ferry going over to the Isle of Lewis. Besides the inconvenience, we have to arrange an extra overnight stay on Skye.

One of us might be called up for jury service.

Then it struck me. If I were holidaying in the Britain, my existing Home and Contents policy might cover me for loss of my camera or luggage. I dug out the policy document. Lucky I did. I was only insured for “personal possessions” if they were listed and as I’d just bought my digital camera I hadn’t got round to listing it as a valuable item on my policy.

Another aspect struck me. I’d lose my no claims discount if I made a holiday related claim on my Home & Contents policy. That wouldn’t be a good idea. I’ve got a ten year claims free record that policy and it still cost me Ј310 a year. I jotted down a another note – remember, when the policy comes up for renewal, see if I could get it cheaper on the Internet.

By now a travel policy at Ј27.50 for was looking worthwhile after all.

Now my wife says I’m a bit of an old skin flint. So keep up the image! I know, get back online and check out the travel agents’ policy at Ј27.50. Is it competitive?

Not all the web sites I surfed could offer me a single trip travel policy for a holiday within the UK but within ten minutes I’d found what I wanted - and a saving of over Ј10!

Time to study the small print to confirm I had the cover I wanted. Great, all the risks I had noted were covered. The insurer would even pay out Ј30 if my ferry was delayed for up to 12 hours and then give me the option to cancel my trip to the Isle of Lewis and get my money back.

Now what wouldn’t they pay for? I wasn’t covered if my holiday was for less than two nights or my hotel was less than 25 miles away from home. I also had to meet the first Ј30 of any claim. Seemed fair to me.

The decision was made. Simply type in my credit card details and I was insured in a CLICK.

Peace of mind restored!

They are tiny bikes that reach great speeds and make a lot of noise. But police have had enough of youths creating havoc on mini-motorbikes and now have powers to seize the annoying and sometimes dangerous toys.

What’s more, if children are riding these miniature vehicles on the pavement or road, they face prosecution just like adults. Any penalty points handed out by the court will be kept on file and activated as soon as they are old enough to apply for a driver’s licence.

For those who have penalty points, it becomes increasingly expensive to gain car insurance. And with respect to mini-motorbikes, you could have a situation where children have been prosecuted for dangerous driving on these vehicles and then struggle to find an insurance company willing to offer them a policy to insure their car once they are at the age of 17 and have passed their driver’s licence. The best case scenario is probably going to be that their premiums are sky high.

A spokeswoman for Direct Line Insurance says mini-motorbikes are now being treated as road vehicles and drivers of them have to abide by all the same traffic rules as anyone else. But while police can now prosecute youths on mini-motorbikes, they are not entirely sure yet what the nuisance makers will be prosecuted with. “You could get prosecuted for uninsured driving, paying no road tax or driving without a licence,” she says.

She also points out that just how high insurance premiums will be for those with mini-motorbike offences will depend on what police prosecute the offenders with. “It depends on what the points are for…For a speeding offence it is not going to make a big difference, but for a drink driving offence it is going to make a massive difference.”

She says for example of how prosecutions can drive up premiums, take an 18-year-old boy living in Hove, East Essex. The youth drives a 2001 Ford Fiesta car. He has been prosecuted for dangerous driving and has only had his driver’s licence for a short time. To obtain fully comprehensive cover under a Direct Line insurance policy he would pay annual premiums of Ј2473.80. Without the conviction the price would be Ј1908.90.

What is interesting about this is that if you take a female of the same age, driving the same car and from the same area, she would pay just Ј1218 without a conviction and Ј1576.05 if she had a driving conviction. So she would in fact pay less for insurance even with a conviction than a male her age without one. Why the difference in price between young men and women? The spokeswoman says that it is because statistics show that one in three young men have a serious accident within their first year of driving.

A spokeswoman at the Association of British Insurers says the chances are if you have been caught speeding on a motor bike you are going to be more at risk behind the wheel of a car than others. It’s a known fact that young men are the most at risk of having a car accident, which is why they pay so much more for their car insurance.
“I think they make up 3% of the driving population but account for over 30% of all of the driving convictions. It depends on the insurance company, but we (the insurance industry) insure on risk and therefore we calculate our premiums accordingly.”