Tag Archives: car insurance

FOXY Lady Drivers Club doesn’t sell car insurance but it does provide lots of independent information to help women drivers make a foxy choice – it also encourages members to share feedback to help others, especially where there has been a problem

female friendly, garage services, women drivers, women's car insurance

Sisters can DIY car maintenance for themselves

A recent survey by Churchill Car Insurance confirms that few women drivers are very good at car maintenance.

When asked about specific garage-type chores nearly half the women asked claimed not to know how to top up their oil or check their brake fluid levels. You really should know how, said Churchill Car Insurance as they gave away free breakdown cover to help sell their car insurance to women drivers before the end of September.

Unsurprisingly, more men than women considered themselves to be experts in this field (one in three marvellous men compared to one in 20 critical women ;-)) whereas an occasional honest man (one in ten) considered himself to be poor at doing this compared to one in three women.

Clearly much salt must to be taken with most gender research but I am always amazed at the expectation that we should all know how to do our own car maintenance when it comes to today’s highly computerised engine systems.  Fair enough we should glance at our tyres everytime we approach our car to spot any defects or potential flats because these are fundamental to our personal safety.

But do we really need to know how to change a tyre or top up specialist oils or brake fluids in today’s modern cars?

If my car breaks down I call a breakdown recovery service and expect to get rescued pdq.

Yes I can check my car’s lights, oil, coolant and brake fluid levels in between regular car services but I’m happiest when a female friendly garage professional checks these and my CO2 emissions for me afterwards.  I would always have my car checked before a lengthy holiday journey anyway.

Fortunately members of FOXY Lady Drivers Club and their family can take advantage of free seasonal car checks, each worth £15, carried out by handpicked and female friendly garages across the UK. At this time of year the checks include brake fluid, oil, coolant, tyres, lights, windscreen and emissions.  At other times of the year these include air conditioning systems, battery and anti-freeze levels.

I know that many female friendly garages and car dealerships kindly arrange for Ladies evenings where they teach women drivers the maintenance basics and how to cope with road rage, for example. I particularly like the courses called Safety at the Wheel (as offered by many Vauxhall dealerships) and the car maintenance evenings offered by Unipart Car Care Centres – I went to an excellent one at SB Motors in Hove last winter. Thank you Caroline.

But the truth is that men and women drivers don’t have to do it for themselves on their own but if they do, they must get it right, choosing the right  specialist oils to maximise the performance of their cars.

Yes sisters can DIY car maintenance for themselves if they want to but just to be sure, they can also pop into their nearest female friendly FOXY garage and get their maintenance  checked on a regular basis. All it takes is 20 minutes and a professional eye is more likely to see problems arising than we are, before they become extremely expensive to fix.

Yet another FOXY moneysaving tip for free…

FOXY

buying a new car, women's car insurance

Unintended scrappage consequence (Part 1)

I am interested in the outcome of the industry scrappage scheme.

Generally I am in favour of anything that can help UK dealers maintain employment levels even if this means their selling cars that were produced overseas and benefiting overseas economies. The aftermarket industry after all is a future beneficiary that few people think of, worth c£6.5bn, so not to be sneezed at.

But I didn’t think that the motor insurance industry would be able to muscle in their, charging amendment fees to car insurance policies for women drivers, in addition to higher premiums in most cases.

So far, says the Telegraph, motorists who have bought a new car and taken part in the scrappage scheme have paid up to £697,000 in admin fees simply to have had their policy amended.

Fast forward to February 2010 when the scheme is likely to end and this figure is estimated to have reached near £6 million says uSwitch.com.

The highest reported fees range from £35 for a mid-term amendment to £75 for a new policy with the average creeping up from £19.40…

To add to car insurance information for women drivers…

FOXY

“When one door closes, another door opens.” Alexander Graham Bell

women drivers, women's car insurance

Car insurance information for women drivers

Stats from the ABI (Association of British Insurers) show that 107,000 fraudulent insurance claims were detected and exposed in 2008 and that their value, £730m, was up by 30% over 2007

£360m of this referred to fraudulent motor claims, about 4% of total car insurance claims.

In a separate survey of 3,000 adults carried out by YouGov, one in five people, including women drivers, admitted that they would not rule out making a fraudulent claim in future. That seems extremely high to me although I haven’t seen the question asked.

Nick Starling, the ABI’s director of general insurance and health added the following car insurance information for women drivers stating that

“Fraud thrives in a recession, so insurers are intensifying their crackdown on insurance cheats.  Fraud adds an extra £40 a year to the average premium, which is why the harder we make it for the cheats, the more competitive premiums will be for honest customers.”

Examples of bogus motor claims affecting car insurance premiums for women drivers who may well be members of FOXY Lady Drivers Club include

1     A policyholder claimed that his car had been stolen from a car park. His car was found at the bottom of the cliff, with no signs of forced entry however his local newspaper had carried a photo of the wrecked car two days before the alleged theft. Finally he admitted that he had pushed the car over the cliff, and planned to use the insurance payout to pay off his debts.

2     A woman reported her husband for exaggerating his injuries following a car accident, and after he received a compensation payout of £385,000.

As always it’s the good eggs that pay for the bad ones.  I’d have no hesitation in shopping someone I knew was cheating the rest of us.

How about you?

FOXY

PS: If you know of an insurance claim that is dishonest, please do the rest of us a favour by reporting it to the Insurance Fraud Bureau’s Cheat Line on 0800 328 2550.