The competition watchdog are considering measures in order to achieve a cheaper car insurance yearly premium for drivers but will it work? After an accident in which your car or anyone else’s property whilst you are in your car is damaged the insurance company you pay for initially pays the bill within the claims process which is what you pay a monthly/yearly fee for. The issue with this is that after they have footed the bill they will just raise the costs of your insurance for the next year in order to get some of their money back.

The issue has been highlighted by one of the leaders of the investigation who has said “there is insufficient incentive for insurers to keep costs down” which implies that there is going to be a real mountain to climb in order to actually reduce the cost of insurance. The watchdog are aiming more towards making the drivers own insurer responsible for providing a replacement vehicle or give the one who was at fault in the accident the opportunity to take control in the management of claims.

Since it looks unlikely that any proposed plan is going to help lower insurance significantly here are some tips to help out:

1. Mileage – Make sure that you are accurate in estimating your mileage, we know its hard but if you over estimate you are effectively throwing money away, however if you under estimate it could cost you more if you need to claim.
2. Modifications – Don’t modify your vehicle it’s just not worth it, it will end up costing you a lot more on your premiums for doing so. Avoid messing with your car.
3. Third Party – If your vehicle isn’t valued high it can be more worthwhile getting third party insurance instead of comprehensive as it should be considerably cheaper.
4. What Do You Use Your Car For? – Makes you do some research around this, what you work as can change your insurance premiums significantly so slightly altering your job title may save you quite a bit of money
5. Security – Keeping your car in your garage if you have one is the cheapest place to keep it in regards to insurance

Due to kick in September 1st 2014 was a fuel rise put into place by the government which would see a 1.6 pence per litre increase, it was just another blow for people regarding the always rising fuel prices. In recent years as you are likely aware fuel prices have shot up, in the 1990s fuel prices where between 40-60p per litre but now it ranges from 126p-141p per litre, an incredible amount more and yet they were set to rise it again. (more…)

In the past it was the oldest trick in the book, people used to manually wind down the mileage of their cars and sell them on, despite this activity being illegal there where a lot of people who used to roll back the mileage on their old vehicles. As years went by and car manufacturers addressed the issue, for many years it had been almost impossible to roll back the mileage on a vehicle which of course was a good thing. The problem however seems to be back as Carfax’s new study has shown that 190,000 cars have their odometers rolled back every year.

How is this so?
New cars often now feature digital odometers when previously the ones that where almost immune to having their mileage rolled back weren’t digital. So the issue in theory is advancements in technology, as car manufacturers have turned to the digital display thieves are one step ahead with their “plug in” kit. Commonly being shipped over from China are illegal odometer correction tools which you just plug into your car and start winding down the mileage to make it appear like your vehicle isn’t as used as it is.

Why do people do it?
Mileage plays a big factor in the cost of a car, when you are buying a car to estimate the price you look at a few main things. Obviously the model is the main priority but two other major factors are the age of the vehicle and its mileage, by winding down the mileage on a vehicle it makes it seem as if it hasn’t been used as much. This massively increases the price of the vehicle and can be detrimental to the safety of those who are buying the car as they may have to pay unexpected fees in order to get in fixed and driving an unworthy car.

Avoid being scammed
To avoid being tricked by the mileage roll back issue that is plaguing used cars there is a few things that you can do.

Service History – Have a good look through the service history and each genuine deals will have a service stamp next to it and the service invoice will accompany the history giving you an insight into the vehicle.

Call The Previous Owner – If you can get in contact with the previous keeper of the vehicle so they can identify what mileage that they sold it with.

Sign Of Wear And Tear – There are other ways of telling how used a vehicle is, wear and tear. If a vehicle has low mileage chances are that the condition of everything under the car and in the car will be near to perfect with no rust or dirt on the seats with minimal damage to anything, if it doesn’t look to add up don’t risk it.

Inspect The Vehicle – If you know or can contact a trusted mechanic its worth getting them to inspect the vehicle beforehand as they will be able to give a rough estimate of how used the car is.

As of October 2014 you can wave good bye to that tax disc that has been stuck on car windscreens for 93 years. The Chancellor has abolished the car tax disc but even though this is to be scrapped people will be still made to pay the Vehicle Excise Duty however it could see huge savings on the traditional tax disc method as the change of the way tax is paid will mean a reduce in costs. (more…)