Driving down insurance cost - the NFU

[GBMUD]

I know a number of people have been alarmed by the increase in premiums with the NFU. I stopped using them for Landrover cover a few years ago but I still have a quad insured with them. The renewal arrived last week and as usual it has gone up, this time to just under £340/year so I called and asked if they could do anything to help.

The girl and I had a bit of a chat and adjusted the value of the vehicle to reflect the fact that it is now nearly three years old and we also adjusted the excess up one level. This all served to bring the premium down by just over £100, a pretty worthwhile saving.

So, it may be worth double checking to see if the value is correct and that the excess is the same level as any potentially cheaper quote from another provider.

HTH

Chris

[pat_pending]

After being with the NFU for years I was staggered by last years increase, so much so I was going to remove all my insurance business with them.

However, after ringing round I couldn't get the same level/quality of cover any cheaper. Quotes started cheap, but then after adding in everything I have with NFU the cost was the same or more expensive.

So, back to NFU and, as above, a bit of playing with the excess and we had the cost for two vehicles down to not much more than it was the year before.

[CwazyWabbit]

Sadly insurance is just getting more expensive in general Helped along by the fact that we are the whiplash capital of Europe..... The money has to come from somewhere and you can be certain it will be our pockets.

[Happyoldgit]

After being with them for many years for both vehicle and other things I came away from NFU at last renewal and have got similar cover cheaper from another source. NFU are very good and you can often drive a good deal with your local branch but the premium increases meant that, for me at least, they were simply no longer competitive.

[reb78]

NFU in particular are funny ones though. My last renewal came in almost to the penny the same as last year, yet others have had massive increases. There is no consistency to it at all.

[simonr]

I designed a nice simple whiplash tester after seeing a Panorama programme about how many of the claims are fraudulent but there is no way to diagnose it quantitively - so they just go on a Medic asking some questions.

The idea is just to use an accelelrometer such as you might have in a mobile phone which you attach to the patients head. If you have a genuine injury, it will cause discomfort in exactly the same place every time. You ask the patient to move their head forwards & backwards, then side to side then twist. An injury will show up as an acceleration / deceleration in the rate of movement at the place where it is most sore.

If the position measured by the accelerometer is the same over multiple movements in different directions, the injury is genuine. If the position changes, it is fraudulent. The reason I say this is because the positional feedback from your limbs is actually very poor. Your muscles are much better at measuring force than position and you need visual or other cues to correct the drift in where you think a given limb is. It's a bit like the test where you touch the tip of your nose to see if you are drunk / impared.

I tried this on myself - and it's near impossible to fake. One of my knees clicks sometimes so I measured the acceleration of that knee versus the other one. The click always happens in the same place - and the result was very repeatable. Trying to fool it with the other knee showed a surprisig variability in acceleration and position.

Anyway, I took this to the person on the programme: Rob Cummings Policy Adviser, Motor

General Insurance & Health Directorate

Who (unfortunately) said the insurers are not interested in a solution like this. Their reasoning was that they would have to provide the testing kit and training for GP's which will cost them and that the GP's will not want to invest in a quantitive test because it's a nice little earner for them.

I guess the insurers are not really interested in stopping the fraud because it's us that pick up the bill at the end of the day.

I thought about forcing their hand by writing an iPhone App which you could use to 'train' yourself to exhibit the symptoms of whiplash - so you can guarantee a big payout. Then offer a 'professional' version which will spot the fraudulent claims. The insurers will only listen to their wallets at the end of the day. It's probably illegal though!

(Cynical) Si.

[mad_pete]

Dragons Den ! Although you only need a testing kit for speicalists and then only check some of the claims, seeing as whiplash is £2 K + payout surely training isn't that difficult ?

[simonr]

The problem is, each of the parties viewed it as somebody elses problem! They don't want to shell out for something that someone else is paying for - i.e. us!

I wasn't even asking for a return on the idea - just lower insurance premiums in the long run. But still, there was no interest!

Si

[greenstream]

Hi Si

What a brilliant idea !

I hope that you are not leaving it alone ?

Overhere in Denmark a lot of people suffer from whiplash as well and are haveing problems getting some kind of insurance or other economic support as they are not able to prove their whiplash and therefore there is always a doubt and this is of no benefit of the injured parti.

Here we have a nationwide "forum" for people with whiplash. If you something like that, wouldnt it be of interest to them to get your idea tested and "certified" ?

I do see the problem with the insurerancecompany etc. as to wether they will benefit from it, but the injured parti certainly will.

Well just my thought, hope that you will keep at it - its to good an idea to leave in the drawer.

Cheers

Morten

[UdderlyOffroad]

Si,

Excellent idea, and I suspect you might gain more traction with it now, as "whipcash" has gone political! If I were you, I'd write to your MP (theyworkforyou.com) and send a copy into 10 Downing St and the DfT.

What with 'Dave' Cameron now holding summits* on the cost of motor insurance, if this doesn't generate interest from your local MP at the very least I'd be surprised. As you said, the two parties concerned deemed it not in their interest to do anything about it (though that may not be the case now), but surely a motivated MP should take this up like a shot?

(a slightly less cynical) Matt

*honestly, asking the insurance industry how to drive costs down = asking turkeys to discuss the benefits of Christmas

[simonr]

I'll try that Matt.

I suspect my MP (Francis Maude) is sick to death of my 'helpful suggestions' on how to put the world to rights through technology though! Another shot across the bow probably won't hurt!

Morten - why don't you post the idea on there? Like I say, I'm not claiming any IPR over the idea - I hope I will get my reward in the long run from my Insurer!

Of course, if someone would like to give me a nice shiny Lab to work in with free Diet Coke - then I'd be happy to turn it in to a product and accept a modest royalty!

Si

[mickeyw]

What an fantastic idea Si. And I can't imagine it coming from anyone other than yourself

It really is a shame no-one has shown any interest. Let's hope the recent attention this is receiving from the politicians brings a change to that attitude.

[JST]

i was with the NFU for 15years with a range of vehicles, this year i have moved away, some of the policies had doubled. alot of it is to do with the fatalities they had to pay out on last year.