VAN INSURANCE NEWS ROUNDUP: 7 DAYS ENDING 10 OCT 2014:

Shedloads of car and van insurance providers are moving towards more online-centric products and services, but how positive a move is this really in the end?

I know I sound like a bit of a Luddite in running down the Internet, especially when it comes to car insurance. I mean how many of us have used insurance comparison sites to get the best deals, right? Well more insurers are going online-only; the latest to do so has been Axa’s commercial insurance branch. We’re talking things like commercial van insurance and other business-centric types of cover here.

Axa says the idea is to keep its business line fit for purpose, especially since so many SMEs prefer to do things online instead of face-to-face. I can understand that I suppose, but the downside is that the insurer is making 31 of its staff members redundant in order to do so. Bad luck for them, isn’t it?

Meanwhile, another insurer with a big online presence was actually hacked recently. Asda Car Insurance suffered a pretty serious security breach, and whilst it turns out that sensitive personal details of Asda customers remained intact and unmolested, the company took the insurer’s website down in order to plug the security holes.

Obviously I’m relieved that nobody ended up with their identity being stolen or anything like that, but it’s one of those things that we have to worry about now; are the security features of your financial service providers up to date, or are they susceptible to criminals hacking into their databases and absconding with your name, address and heaven knows what else? I suppose the danger is unavoidable in the very interconnected day and age we live in, but at the same time it makes me feel that maybe all this digital-only, online cloud computing nonsense is just more trouble than its worth if firms can’t provide enough safeguards to keep consumers safe.

No, I’m not advocating a return to the old, offline way of doing things where there were shedloads of paper records kept in some centralised location, as that’s just inefficient and expensive. Still, I can’t quell that tremor deep in my soul whenever I hear about an insurer or other supposedly ‘secure’ financial services company getting hacked into by ne’er-do-wells looking for a few identities to usurp.

VAN INSURANCE NEWS ROUNDUP: 7 DAYS ENDING 16 MAY 2014:

New evidence is emerging by the moment that every single car insurance and van insurance company out there wants nothing but your money – big surprise.

All right so let’s get right down to it: insurance companies are run for a profit. They provide insurance services to consumers, who then pay for the privilege. Car and van owners gain the security of knowing their vehicle and its contents are insured against damage or theft, and insurers make money off the premiums their customers pay.

But are insurers charging us fairly? It seems not – especially when you take into account that if you live in a particular geographical area such as, oh I don’t know, perhaps an open prison, your rates skyrocket. Think I’m making it up? Well I’m not – it’s exactly what’s happening to the residents of Sudbury, despite the fact that the accident rate in the town isn’t any higher than anywhere else nearby.

Insurers swear up and down that they’re not taking the open prison into account, but I don’t believe them. You’re telling me these poor Brits just naturally pay more than those in the town over, even though accident and crime statistics are virtually identical? Bollocks, I say.

If you need more proof though, I’ve got what you’re looking for. Did you know that loyalty means nothing to the average car or commercial van insurance provider? How can I say that? Well, it’s obvious – every time you renew your insurance for another year, I’ll wager your premium goes up slightly.

New statistics back me up on this one too – an insurance comparison site found that motorists that don’t shop around every year end up overpaying on their insurance by nearly £2 billion altogether! Don’t let these insurers get away with that; make sure you shop around every year and find the best deal for you. I mean there’s operating your business to make a profit and then there’s over-charging your customers on purpose in order to maximise your own gains, and the latter is just plain wrong no matter how you slice it.

VAN INSURANCE NEWS ROUNDUP: 7 DAYS ENDING 18 APRIL 2014:

If you’re feeling relieved that your car insurance or van insurance rates have dropped recently, better enjoy it while you can – they’re on their way back up.

Isn’t it always the way that someone comes by and completely ruins your good mood by pointing out how the best news you’ve got right now is going to be here and gone? It’s a dirty job, but someone’s got to do it – and that someone is me. Sure, insurance costs have dipped down to a four year low according to one insurance comparison website, but there’s much more sinister news looming on the horizon – especially for commercial van insurance policyholders.

So what’s going to bring about the death of good insurance rates? Believe it or not but it’s the Competition Commission! It’s painfully ironic that an organisation investigating unfair pricing practices could end up making things worse for consumers, but here’s what’s going on: the Commission is only investigating private insurance. If its investigation warrants regulatory changes that insurers have to abide by in order to keep prices low, it will only be private insurance that is affected by this – and guess where insurers will look to regain their lost revenue afterwards?

Did you guess that the commercial insurance market is going to get the short end of the stick? Well if you did congratulations: you’re now realising the same thing I did this week. It’s bloody ridiculous, especially considering that the economic recovery effort is bolstered so much by small business owners and particularly those that have their own van or truck to visit clients, yet nothing seems to be happening in order to rectify the issue in any way shape or form. It’s incredibly frustrating to see this begin to unfold and, despite the fact that you’re shouting at the top of your lungs that things need to change before it’s too late, nobody in power is listening.

Then again what else is new? The Government is one of those fantastic organisations that has the most selective hearing loss you can think of. I suppose it could be worse. Don’t ask me how it could though – I’m as flummoxed as you on at this point.

VAN INSURANCE NEWS ROUNDUP: 7 DAYS ENDING 11 APRIL 2014:

An increasing number of British drivers are staying home instead of commuting to work – though those who don’t risk running into Meerkat-toting pillocks.

Does that not make any sense whatsoever? Don’t worry, all will become clear in time – just keep a few things in mind as I go about explaining the news this week. First up it was revealed recently that Brits have had it with having to fight traffic on the way to work and have been staying home more and more by taking advantage of mobile working. Many families have even decided to get rid of one of their vehicles in order to save on things like car insurance.

What does this mean for those of us who can’t get out of our daily commute, or the white van man that actually has to keep commercial van insurance on his vehicle in order to remain employed? Well first of all there’s fewer people on the roads, and that’s a good thing as this will lead to less congestion and fewer opportunities to get into road traffic accidents. However – and this is where that damned Meerkat comes in – there’s a problem: those left on the road are also have greater chances of coming into the types of thick bastard that Surrey Road Police pulled over recently.

Get a load of this story: at a traffic stop, the man couldn’t provide proof of valid insurance but he insisted to the cops that he did indeed have the proper cover. How could he possibly prove this? Well apparently he simply didn’t have his little Meerkat toy with him, but it was at home. That’s right – he tried to argue with the police that his little toy that he received in the post from a well known insurance comparison site.

Needless to say after a quick investigation it turns out the man did not have proper cover and that he’d been motoring about for heaven knows how long without. With fewer responsible people on the roads, these are the kinds of Brits we’ll have to contend with – so be careful because there’s no knowing what these clearly unstable individuals are capable of. It’s only funny when it happens to someone else!