Hastings Direct has been fined GBP735,000 by the FSA (Financial Services Authority) for treating its customers unfairly. The car insurance company was found to have cancelled over 4,500 policies following a pricing error.
The problem was caused by the Hastings Direct car insurance quotation system, which generated quotes that were lower than the market rate. The insurer then decided to cancel these policies, a step that was not acceptable according to the FSA.
Although a cancellation clause was included within the policies the FSA felt that Hastings Direct should have considered other options first rather than invoking the cancellations. They believe that it is not acceptable to cancel cover because of what is simply a pricing error.
After a study of the data gained through the Tesco car insurance comparison site it has been found that car choice is determined a lot by the age of the driver.
The typical Jaguar driver, for example, is 47 years old, whilst if it is a Mercedes then they will be, on average, 43. Moving down a little on the age groups, Volvo drivers tend to be around 42 whilst Porsche drivers, specifically of the 911, Boxster and Cayenne will be around 40 years old.
These marques are only a small sample from the full list, but one thing that is immediately apparent is that, with the average value of these cars higher than the general runabout drivers may well need to be 40 plus in order to get car insurance cover at a reasonable premium, from Tesco Finance or anyone else.
Admiral car insurance has warned car drivers that they could see their premiums 5 percent higher by the end of this year.
In the first half of the year insurance premiums have risen by around 2.5 percent according to data collated by Admiral, with a similar level of increase expected in the second half of the year. On the back of all the other price rises that are hitting consumers there appears to be no escape from rising costs.
What seems to be happening is that the cost of car insurance is going up even though the number of claims is relatively unchanged. Admiral suggest that it may be the increasing cost of repairs that is forcing premiums up.