Posts Tagged ‘auto insurance’
Insurance Fraud Increases As The Recession Hits Hard
August 15th, 2010 | 
Author: The recession has hit people hard and forced them to re-adjust how we live our lives. Our changing lives mean that for many they have to drop their standard of living. People are certainly finding it hard to come around to this new mindset. This is giving rise to a wave of insurance fraud cases. They wish to keep their standard of living by defrauding insurance companies and driving up the price of your policy. These people look at the bankers getting away with daylight robbery and they want their own slice of the pie.
Most people think that it is only the poorer people in society that get up in insurance fraud. While this is often true there are large numbers of well off families embroiled in these illegal activities too. They wish to maintain a standard of living that they can no longer afford and in order not to ‘lose face’ with the neighbours they turn to insurance fraud to sort out their finance problems.
The IIF (Irish Insurance Federation) represents insurance companies in Ireland. They are battling this new surge in insurance fraud. According to Michael Horan the non Life Manager in IIF “there is definitely an increase in claims in the recession”. In 2009, the number of confidential phone calls that the Insurance Confidential Hotline received tipping them off to bogus claims had increased by more than 50%. Again in 2009 there were 700 new cases of insurance fraud reported. This compares with roughly 300 new cases in 2008. You can clearly see that there is something wrong here. Fraud increases as the recession hits harder.
The insurance industry really began to focus on fraud prevention and detection about ten years ago. One of the main ways insurers work together in this respect is through Insurance Link, a database used to identify repeat claimants. Nick Starling of the ABI says ‘Whether claiming against a third party for bogus personal injury or on their own insurance, fraudsters are more likely than ever to get caught, leading to more expensive and harder-to-obtain insurance and credit and the possibility of a criminal record’.
The chances of you and your family falling into financial difficulty has multiplied over the last few years. With tougher budgets to come things are likely to get worse. To many, insurance fraud will be the only solution to maintaining a lavish lifestyle. The insurance companies are aware of this situation and are battling back. Insurance fraud hurts everyone and insurance companies do not want these levels rising.
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Posted in Car Loans | 
Tags: auto insurance, automobile, Car Insurance, Car Loans, financial, Insurance, insurance fraud, Vehicle Insurance | 
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Cheap auto insurance is not always the best for you
Loans blog – You should know that for most people, especially car owners, it’s quite evident that having their vehicles insured is a required measure that will save a lot of time and money if something bad happens on the road. In most cases when purchasing a vehicle, especially with a use of auto loan, the insurance policy comes with the car itself as a requirement. But not many of those car owners know that they can simply switch to another provider or modify the policy when its term expires. And that could mean a lot in terms of money.
In fact, there are numerous insurance companies that you can buy insurance from, and their rates differ just as the prices on autos at different dealers. It all boils down to shopping around and defining your insurance needs. There are companies that will offer low rate services, but their customer support will be weak and they won’t process your claims rapidly. Other companies will have great 24/7 services but their rates will bite your wallet hard. In the end, looking for the cheapest offer might be not the best idea and you will have to take other important elements in consideration besides the price. Here are some things to think about when choosing insurance for your vehicle:
The rates you get from the insurance company are based on your age, gender and driving record. If your driving record is clean of accidents and traffic violations then you are very likely to get lower rates than your peers with accidents behind them. That is because insurance companies tend to charge less those drivers who do not pose a great risk to the and have a low probability of filing a claim. And the longer you keep your record clean the lower your rates will be over time.
For some drivers switching between companies on a regular basis is nothing extraordinary. And while there’s nothing wrong with that, as you simply don’t have a better way to find cheap auto insurance solutions, there are certain downfalls to that. Most auto insurance companies tend to reward their customers for long term relations and offer substantial discounts to those who stay with a single company for a longer period of time. So it sometimes pays to have higher rates and good services initially and then opt for a discount after you have stayed with the company long enough (usually 3-5 years).
Those who have more than one car should insure them all with the same providers. Insurance companies tend to offer good discounts for multiple car owners, especially when they get other types of insurance from them too (homeowners, health, life, etc.)
So, you must improve the safety of your car if possible. Installing additional anti-theft and safety features and telling your insurance company about them is a sure way to get cheap auto insurance. However, make sure to ask your insurance agent about the measures that are identifiable by the insurance company in order to avoid buying devices that the insurer won’t regard as an acceptable safety feature.
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