Wednesday, 3 February 2010

How Where You Live Affects Your Car Insurance Premiums

If you want to save money on your car insurance, then the best thing to do may be...
To Move!

One of the most important rating factors used to calculate your car insurance premiums is your postcode, or risk address of where your vehicle is kept overnight. If you live a a 'bad' postcode area your premium will be hammered!

Endsleigh have just released their annual motor theft index, based on analysis of claims over the last three years from tens of thousands of policyholders.

Endsleigh Car Insurance




The report, ranks towns and cities by comparing the frequency of claims against a National Average rather than the total number of incidents.

Endsleigh Car Insurance Report

Click to enlarge


The report shows that Swindon is the safest place in the country for claims, with another West Country town Cheltenham coming in second. Incidently, Endsleigh just happens to be based in Cheltenham.

Hull fared the worst with 85% more claims than the UK National average.

A spokesman for Endsleigh said: "Recent Government statistics have shown a national reduction in car crime by almost a fifth over the past year, however, some towns and cities are riskier than others.

"Endsleigh's statistics show that eight out of the top 10 riskiest places for motor theft are in the Midlands and North of England, with four cities in Yorkshire making the list.

Only two cities in southern England, London and Reading, are named in the top 10."

The Coppers from Humberside have challenged the findings and produced other statistics to show vehicle crime was falling in Hull.

Det Chief Insp Scott Young said: "Vehicle crime is an area of success for Hull and it is difficult to gauge how Endsleigh Insurance captures its data.

"I am very pleased to say,however, that using official sources, Hull performs exceptionally well in the area of vehicle crime and I would gladly counter any other argument in relation to that.

"Hull is a safe place to live and work and Humberside Police works very hard to ensure that it stays that way."

Whether the Police feel they are doing their job in your area or not, is at the end of the day irrelevant, as the Association of British Insurers (ABI) produce the postcode tables from aggregated claims data, which is used by the major UK car insurance companies for rating.

If you are fortunate enough to live in Swindon, Cheltenham, Solihull, Southampton, Bangor, Norwich, Exeter, Maidstone, Preston or Lincoln we suggest you definitely check out Endsleigh for Cheaper car insurance.

If you are unfortunate enough to live in Hull, Nottingham, Manchester, Doncaster, London or any other place that has a high degree of joy-riders, we suggest you compare car insurance using one of the many excellent comparison websites you will find on Car Insurance Television.

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Friday, 7 August 2009

Uninsured Drivers Cost Car Insurance Policyholders Dear!

Are you paying too much for your car insurance?

Are you fed up with the prices that you are being quoted - wherever you go?

It is more than likely that you will not be able to find cheap car insurance anywhere - because of where you live. All motor insurance rates are largely determined by the risks associated with the Postcode of the premises at which the car is kept overnight. If you live in a high risk postcode area there is little you can do to reduce your premiums short of moving!

One of the factors that affects the postcode rating table is the number of uninsured illegal drivers in your area.
The Motor Insurance Database (MID) which was founded in 2001, keeps records of all the uninsured drivers that have been caught by the Police.
The MID has recently reported that police seized over a hundred and fifty thousand cars last year which were being driven without insurance, and over forty percent of these were destined for the crusher!

So who are the bad boys who are costing us all more in insurance premiums, but particularly if you live in the following postcode sectors?

Well, the UK's worst is Bradford with proportionally more offenders than anywhere else in the UK. BD3 or Barkerend Bradford is the worst offending postcode, a poor area with high levels of asian immigration. Police have suggested that the problem is actually worse there than has been suggested but it is sometimes difficult to catch all the criminals as many drive using their relatives legal details. BD8 Whitefield and BD9 Frizinghil and Heaton are also at the top of the list.

Following close behing Bradford are certain postcodes in the West Midlands in particular B21 Handsworth, B20 Small Heath and B8 Saltley.

Be particularly careful if you have to drive in any of these postcode areas because if you are hit by an uninsured driver, chances are you may have a torrid time seeking compensation and justice!

Car Insurance blogger supports the moves for much tougher remedies including longer prison sentences for those who flout the law by driving uninsured.
Not only are these people putting us all in serious danger, they are costing this country a fortune.
An estimated 20 million pounds per year is paid into the Motor Insurers fund by the car insurance companies to cover some of the costs of claims against uninsured drivers.
This is being added to all of our car insurance premiums!


The weak British Judiciary and Magistrates need to tackle this problem head on and hand out exemplary custodial sentences for those found driving without insurance! Often the fines are less than the car insurance premiums!

A GBP 150 fine and a six month ban is really taking the piss out of the majority of us who scrimp and save to find the car insurance premiums every year!

Wake up you old fart Judges and get a sense of perspective!

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