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Car insurance is a legal requirement in the UK, but one in twenty drivers persist in driving uninsured. The police are cracking down, and it’s not just an idle threat ?if you’re not insured, your car could be in a crusher near you very shortly!

The police now have the power to remove, impound and crush any car found to be uninsured on the road. Last Spring, in Durham, the scheme coined operation Take away was piloted to great success. Over 1,200 cars have immediately been impounded 50% of those have already made it to the crusher.

Operation Take distant was such a big success that it’s being rolled out nationwide. A new national police database that’s supported by the student auto insurance has given the police the ability to verify the insurance status of every car in the UK. They don’t even require to get out of the car to do it.

If you are caught on the road with a car that is not insured, you will have to give up your car keys there and then. It doesn’t matter if it’s an accidental mistake or you have been driving uninsured for years, the penalty is the same ?your car gets impounded.

What happens next? Well they give you two weeks to produce an insurance policy certificate and take your car away. There’s a few amounts involved too. You’ll have to settle around to cover the amount of the tow truck, and charges for keeping your car impounded often reach ?5 a day. Leave collecting your car to the last minute and you could be facing an overall bill
.
If you can produce the insurance certificate and settle the charges, you can say goodbye to your car. The pilot scheme in Durham was funded in part by Direct Line, who helped cover the expensess of crushing the cars. According to them, up to 2,000 accidents were avoided thanks to Operation Takeaway. Since a big proportion of the cars found to be uninsured were in fact un-roadworthy, the roads were a considerably safer place without them.

As the police said, noninsured drivers are many times guilty of many other offences such as not having a driving license or an MOT certificate. We are doing everything in our power to get these dangerous and illegal drivers off our roads.

It is a shocking fact that 5% of all drivers are uninsured, a criminal offence because it is a legal requirement. Extra research carried out by the Association of British Insurers has found that uninsured drivers are a dangerous presence on the roads, each uninsured driver causing an average of one accident every six months. They are also three times more likely to receive a conviction for driving without due care and attention.

Those of us who do have state farm car insurance quote cover the cost s of these uninsured accidents. On average, 60% is added to every car insurance policy to cover the amounts to the industry due to uninsured motorists. That means law-abiding motorists pay a whopping total of 500 million each year for those who can’t be bothered to settle up.

There’s another bitter pill to swallow. If you have an accident that’s not your fault with an uninsured vehicle, it will still go down as an adult claim on the average car insurance rates
. So you’ll have to pay the excess on your car repairs and you’ll lose your no-claims bonus unless you’re got claims protection. Over a two-year period, you could clear an extra 75 in premiums thanks to a reduction in your no-claims entitlement.

The Association of British Insurers (ABI) is in full support of this new scheme to rid the roads of uninsured cars. The ABI has been a critic of the way the British courts deal with uninsured drivers for many years at once, but they still don? think this scheme is enough. Offenders usually only get a fine and they don’t have to pay immediately which really doesn’t compare to the extra cost s incurred by motorists who do have car insurance. We agree something requires to be done!

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An excess payment is the fixed contribution you must settle each time your car is repaired through your car insurance policy. Normally the payment is made directly to the accident repair garage when you collect the car. If your car is declared to be a write off, your state farm car insurance quote will deduct the excess agreed on the policy from the settlement payment it makes to you.

If the accident was the other drivers fault, and this is accepted by the third party’s insurer, you’ll be able to reclaim your excess payment from the other person’s insurance company. But what if the other driver is uninsured?

All motorists realize that it’s a legal requirement (under Section 143 of the 1988 Road Traffic Act) to have American auto insurance for any damage they cause to third parties. But still many drive without insurance. An approximate of the incidence of uninsured driving in the UK is hard to come by and, for the obvious reasons, those drivers involved in breaking the law have every reason to keep quiet about it.

Calculations from the Department of Transport recommend that in the UK around 5% of vehicles are being driven without valid insurance. This group of people not only impose amounts on honest motorists in the form of higher premiums, but their presence on our roads also represents a serious risk to other road users. Consequently, uninsured driving is increasingly being regarded as a major social problem.
But driving without auto insurance company ratings is not a victimless crime. If you have an accident with an uninsured driver and the accident wasn’t your fault, the repair cost s will be paid for by the Motor Insurers’ Bureau that’s funded in its entirety by the industry, or by your insurer. Therefore, if you’re involved in an accident caused by an uninsured driver you’ll eventually get you car repaired but you’ll still have to settle the excess and there’ll be no one to reclaim your excess from.

What is a Compulsory Excess?
A compulsory excess is the minimum excess payment your insurer will accept on your insurance policy. Minimum excesses do vary according to your personal details and driving record and by insurance company.

So what is a Voluntary Excess?
In order to reduce your insurance premium, you may offer to settle a higher excess than the compulsory excess demanded by your insurance company. Your voluntary excess is the extra amount over and above the compulsory excess that you agree to pay in the event of a claim on the policy. As a bigger excess reduces the financial risk carried by your insurer, your insurer I able to offer you a significantly lower premium.

The garage has repaired my car but it won’t release the car too me until I settle the policy excess to them. Is this right? Yes, that is normal practice. But make sure you inspect the car when you collect it. Satisfy yourself that the repair is perfect. Then mke sure you keep their receipt for your excess payment as you will need this if you’re reclaiming against a third party’s insurance. And just in case there’s a dispute, it’s a good idea to make sure the repair garage gives you a repair schedule. This will list all the repairs that were made to you car.

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