Why is car insurance compulsory?

[Wanda]

I know this may sound obvious but bare with me.

I read an article on BBC website about speed awareness courses being considered the same as points on your licence http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20328860

The fact that it is compulsory and heavily regulated means you or I can not start a car insurance company tomorrow. This in turn means only large established companies can afford to become insurers.

Following on from this the insurance industry seems to be based on risks which rely heavily on statistics. Statistics do not take into account rarities of one off cases i.e over take someone who is driving 60 mph on the motorway, for some reason he speeds up to 70 mph to prevent you from overtaking, you speed up to 75 mph to overtake and get caught. Suddenly as a result you are deemed to be more of a risk than before.

Because of profits, it is in the insurers interest for things to be more "risky" than not. Which means prices tend to go up, plus we are at their mercy.

What the government doesn't seem to take into account is that life it self is a risk. Surely the best thing to do is to leave it up to individuals to insure their cars. If the argument is safety then I would understand if they took M.O.T failures more seriously than driving without insurance.

If car insurance was voluntary then insurers would be forced to compete for us as the market would be driving them rather then the other way around.


What are your thoughts. Do you think it should be a must?

 

[Fernandez]

So what happens when I get taken off the road by an uninsured driver and end up paralysed from the neck down... Who's gonna pay for my round the clock care and my specially adapted bungalow?

 

[GrumpyTwig]

Only third part insurance is mandatory, if you were left paralysed you'd want you medical and care bills paid. Most people don't have a few million to spare.

Insurance is a good thing imo BUT its the calculation of premiums that are a joke and the 'statistics'they claim to use for instance making me pay more to garage a car than park it in the street. Now they seem to want to charge more for speeders? Fine by me providing people wihout have their premiums go down........ but hey wont.

1000 excuses to charge more and nothing encouraging them to charge less.

I think insurance should be more flexible as to what you want. I would rather just insure it for thirdparty and total loss.

 

[Willis]

Insurance is a good thing, anybody who usese the road should need it and not just us motorists. Horses and cyclists should have to have it too though.

If some gimp on a bike rides into the side of my car, breaks their neck and smashes my door up then who pays for his care? That's right, my insurer.

It's a complete f?cking farce.

 

[Wanda]

So what happens when I get taken off the road by an uninsured driver and end up paralysed from the neck down... Who's gonna pay for my round the clock care and my specially adapted bungalow?

If I was prime minister and had this rule, it would have been individuals own choice to be responsible for themselves. I am not trying to be mean but follow my logic.

At the moment we are forced to. Insurers say "we must put up the prices because more un insured drivers are causing accidents". Then again you never hear them say we will put down prices because of xyz.

If there was an accident and someone was responsible they would still be viable for compensation, even if it means bankruptcy. In the meanwhile the victim would have had the choice to be insured or not.

The idea behind this is to say when things are compulsory or forced upon us by governmental restrictions, things become un necessaries expensive, i.e electricity providers, if foreign companies where allowed to come in and under cut everyone then no one would waste time with the current crooks. In the end should others go bust and they put up prices the next company could come in and undercut. In this way it would not be in the companies interest to put up prices un reasonably.

I still think if it was not compulsory it would be cheaper.

 

[Mentalpen]

Sorry but insurance is totally needed.

I don't think it's a lot IMO.

However i think it's a rip off for young/new drivers and some of the premiums are a total joke. EXAMPLE, got a quote for my 17year old kid on a twizzy (thinking it would be cheap) £17,300 fully comp!

Yes thats a car/quadracycle that you can't pack full of your mates and only goes 50 down bloody hill.

However I pay £538 fully comp, with all the extras for 2 RS's.

IMO it shows they are insuring against risk. Even if they are taking it to extremes.

 

[Willis]

£17,300!?! Christ on a bike!!!

 

[Wanda]

Sorry but insurance is totally needed.

I don't think it's a lot IMO.

However i think it's a rip off for young/new drivers and some of the premiums are a total joke. EXAMPLE, got a quote for my 17year old kid on a twizzy (thinking it would be cheap) £17,300 fully comp!

Yes thats a car/quadracycle that you can't pack full of your mates and only goes 50 down bloody hill.

However I pay £538 fully comp, with all the extras for 2 RS's.

IMO it shows they are insuring against risk. Even if they are taking it to extremes.

I agree, insurance is very important but when you force it by law companies take us for a ride.

I think if it was up to us then they would have to lower their price as ultimately the option of taking the risk yourself is there.

 

[Mentalpen]

£17,300!?! Christ on a bike!!!

Exactly!!!!! i thought it would be £1000 tops

Which when put with the cost of the twizzy and running cost (£200 pcm inc twizzy) it would be far better than a car.

As way of an example for me to insure its £180.

I agree, insurance is very important but when you force it by law companies take us for a ride.

I think if it was up to us then they would have to lower their price as ultimately the option of taking the risk yourself is there.

i would disagree, there are 100s of insurance companies but most check only a handful.

As has been pointed out what would happen if you are hit by someone with no home and on benefits etc and uninsured. You would have to pay your self, as it it you are paying now for uninsured drivers as part of your premium goes to it now. Think how much that would go up if 75% of people didn't insure...........

 

[Wanda]

i would disagree, there are 100s of insurance companies but most check only a handful.

As has been pointed out what would happen if you are hit by someone with no home and on benefits etc and uninsured. You would have to pay your self, as it it you are paying now for uninsured drivers as part of your premium goes to it now. Think how much that would go up if 75% of people didn't insure...........

I dont mean to sound harsh but in this scenario everyone would be responsible for themselves, therefore people there would be a new market created to be insured for this kind of event. As long as you allow free market this shouldnt be too expensive.

 

[Mentalpen]

So are you saying an uninsured driver can plough into you (by accident not breaking any law), kill your family and cripple you and it's up to you to pay for it all?

Sorry but your premium would go up massively imo

 

[Plinz1]

I pay less for the 200 insurance than i do for my cycle insurance which i agree should be compulsory. You can get Cycle insurance with £500 cover and £1 million public liability for about £50. Unfortunately mines a lot more as my bikes a tad more expensive

 

[sideways danny]

insurers actually in general make a nominal loss on premiums/payouts, the money they make is from investing your premiums in stock markets while they have it. (not including brokers)

if insurance wasn't compulsory, the country would descend into havoc

 

[Wanda]

So are you saying an uninsured driver can plough into you (by accident not breaking any law), kill your family and cripple you and it's up to you to pay for it all?

Sorry but your premium would go up massively imo

What I am saying is that if I had the choice to have car insurance instead of being forced, I could get cheaper.

So it would be my choice to have insurance, and if I didn't chose to have it then I would be responsible if someone else bumps me when its not my fault.

 

[Mentalpen]

No it wouldn't!

above all else an insurer would have to view your policy that you are the only one on the road insured and will always be responsible for any accident be it your fault or not so will always have to pay out.

 

[Robo_#1]

I see your logic, but theres a few flaws. If you make it personal choice to pay for it, what you'll end up with is a lot of morons driving **** cars and driving them like idiots, crashing in to everything in sight with no consequences. If they have no insurance and their car is a **** bucket, why not just bump in to your nice fully insured Clio? Its not their problem.

Your problem then is that, because YOU are insured and YOU need YOUR car fixing, and claim now from YOUR insurance, then its YOUR policy that goes up.

When you look at it that way it makes how it works now quite fair (legally you only need third party to pay if you choose to bump into someone else).

Premiums can be a joke though, and its similar to the way Fuel pricing seems to be, really quick to find a reason to bump up the price. Not so interested in bringing it down though.


I'm looking forward to the on-going investigations in to repair price inflation. Now there's somewhere we can all stand to save on our premiums.

 

[Wanda]

No it wouldn't!

above all else an insurer would have to view your policy that you are the only one on the road insured and will always be responsible for any accident be it your fault or not so will always have to pay out.

I think everyone knows having car insurance is a good thing. The problem comes when we are forced, then the insurers don't have to offer cheap prices to get your custom.

My view is that if we were left to it we would insure ourselves because we wouldn't want to have our cars written off by someone who can not afford to replace our car. On the plus side it would be cheaper and stay cheaper.

 

[Fernandez]

Wanda.. You're a good bloke and you have a nice car but unfortunately this is not enough to secure my vote if you ever run for parliament.. Sorry