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        General >> Off Topic Subjects >> Insurance and Big Brother!
        
(Message started by: julie_quaife on Oct 7^th, 2006, 1:22pm)

Title: Insurance and Big Brother!
Post by julie_quaife on Oct 7^th, 2006, 1:22pm

I am getting really annoyed with people trying to dictate how I live my life! The latest little gem is the future fitting of a 'little black box' for insurance calculations, by one of the main insurance groups. I live as far west as you can almost go and being a mum of six, whose children are spread out at schools and colleges from lands end to camborne(middle of cornwall) do one hell of a lot of driving! If one of my kids requires hospitalisation in the childrens ward I have to travel 38 miles to truro and the same back every day (this has been a regular occurance during the last two years!) fingers crossed that run of bad luck has finished!! I am also disabled and have to use a car, so have no alternative. What I am trying to say is that I do a huge amount of driving, 30,000 miles in my scorpio alone last year!! the buses down here are few and far between and cost a fortune, they are also unreliable as we have some of the oldest buses in the country regularly breaking down!! If this insurance box scheme is enlarged and taken up by the other insurers i will be financially b*****ed!!! Apparantly the box will be useful in assessing speed for accident claims, this would be a good idea on it's own but will the powers that be stop at this inconjunction with the travelling charges or will they just do away with speed cameras in the future and be ever ready to post that fine whenever their system finds a problem? I am not condonning speeding but at times have needed to in order to get my car out of a potentially dangerous situation! The box will also mean that we can be 'found' and monitored, true to a degree already with all the cctv's everywhere! but where will it all stop ???

Title: Re: Insurance and Big Brother!
Post by taliban on Oct 7^th, 2006, 2:06pm

'Apparantly the box will be useful in assessing speed for accident claims, this would be a good idea on it's own '

no it wont be a good idea, it sounds sensible on the face of it but you cant judge accidents on speed alone, there are lots of other contributing factors and a lot of the time speed is not a contributor.

getting back to your point of the thread, i couldnt agree more and i think it or similar was disscussed on here not long ago.

Title: Re: Insurance and Big Brother!
Post by craig on Oct 7^th, 2006, 2:34pm

DISAGREE

for the elderly/disabled and the people who do a small ammount of mileage in a year,these would benefit greatly,there will always be a bone of contention on this one,but on a personal note i think if it is "policed properly" it's a gem of an idea..

Title: Re: Insurance and Big Brother!
Post by taliban on Oct 7^th, 2006, 3:31pm

so, exactly how will it benefit them Craig?
if you're talking about keeping insurance costs down by yearly mileage, well thats already in effect ( i agree a maximum yearly mileage on my bike to get cheaper insurance, if i exceed that, then crash, my insurance will not pay out) and can be checked through MOT's.
if you're talking about speed and the elderly, well i dont see that as a real risk factor, sight, hearing, thinking speed, the ability to drive round corners etc etc yes ::)

Title: Re: Insurance and Big Brother!
Post by craig on Oct 7^th, 2006, 3:52pm

well from how i decipher it,it would work like this from what NU have informed me.....

i pay a fixed price each year to drive my car (i have a 10,000 per year limit and get a discount for this),now if i drive 10,000 miles in that year,i pay that price,if i cant drive for say 6 months,and only do 3,000 miles,i still pay that price,i think the term "pay as you go" is being bounded about,surely this is an improvement,if you drive your car you have to buy petrol,if you dont,you dont have to visit the filling station,like wise with insurance,you only pay for what you use,so people who only do say 5,000 miles a year will now pay less as you are only paying for the mileage you cover....

Title: Re: Insurance and Big Brother!
Post by TiberiuS on Oct 7^th, 2006, 4:26pm

Makes me angry too, the insurance companies like Norwich Union are in cahoots with the Government which means they can get away with murder. You either drive illegal, or legal, opressed and out of pocket...

If they're going to make this pay as you go thing the norm in the next few years then at least they should scrap road tax and the duty on fuel, me thinks I'd be naive to think that way though.

Not even 23 yet and I'm fast becoming a grumpy old codger :)

Must go, off now to declare Jihad against Norwich Union and the DVLA.

Bruce ;).

Title: Re: Insurance and Big Brother!
Post by taliban on Oct 7^th, 2006, 4:45pm

craig craig, you will never pay less....

so you dont need a black spy box thing, all you need to do is send your mot certificate, or as the mot is all on line now, the insurance companies could download the mileage.

Title: Re: Insurance and Big Brother!
Post by julie_quaife on Oct 7^th, 2006, 5:25pm

my meaning that the 'box' would be a good thing in relation to assessing speed was to say that due to more cars having ABS etc; cars do not leave skid marks as they used to and thus it would help in certain cases. I do agree with Taliban that speed is usually not the only factor- I should have clarified my thoughts properly before typing-sorry.

Title: Re: Insurance and Big Brother!
Post by julie_quaife on Oct 7^th, 2006, 5:34pm

I can see your point Craig, but with this payment there will be a further premium as your car will still need to be insured when not in use. my dad had a brand new car written off when some idiot smashed into it as it was parked outside our house and his replacement zodiac was stolen two weeks later and totalled as well so you will still end up no better off.

Title: Re: Insurance and Big Brother!
Post by taliban on Oct 7^th, 2006, 6:14pm

'I should have clarified my thoughts properly before typing-sorry. '

so you should be hehe ;D

insurance companies will never leap at an idea unless they save/make money.
and, who will pay for this little black box, and the installation cost, and the replacement for when the first one falters with the scorpio leccy system? the insurance company? i think not lol

Title: Re: Insurance and Big Brother!
Post by Highlander on Oct 7^th, 2006, 6:39pm

So would the insurance go up with this box depending on where and how long you park for?? in a dodgy area for a few hours? ;D

Title: Re: Insurance and Big Brother!
Post by Spannerdemon on Oct 7^th, 2006, 8:02pm

Shame that the 'black box' is going to be faulty all the time!!

I'm looking forward to the day when some officious little Hitler arrives to fit it to MY car!

It's not going to happen, because they have no right to impose these things onto us.

I wouldn't worry about it. ;)

Title: Re: Insurance and Big Brother!
Post by hellblue on Oct 7^th, 2006, 8:34pm

Human rights!! why dont they just chip us when we are born & charge us for every thing ie time spent at school,using puplic transport,taxis,cinema,council tax per time spent at home or is this just round the corner!!?? Do we have any rights any more! the worlds gone to far

Title: Re: Insurance and Big Brother!
Post by julie_quaife on Oct 8^th, 2006, 12:21pm

Don't speak too soon hellblue- they have the technology!! some councils are in the throes of 'chipping' peoples wheelie bins to charge them for rubbish disposal- considering we already pay for this in our council tax!! all this will do is lead to a massive increase in fly-tipping and 'bin rage'

Title: Re: Insurance and Big Brother!
Post by craig on Oct 8^th, 2006, 3:40pm

apparently the wheelie bin thing will be a non starter (human rights thing),unless you keep your bin on the pavement,if's it's on your property apparenly then need permisson to fit the "sensor" (smacks of something else to me though,reckon it's to "report back" the people who arn't recycling,and nothing to do with the ammount we throw away)......
just my thoughts though,look what happened last time ;D ;D

Title: Re: Insurance and Big Brother!
Post by Baz on Oct 8^th, 2006, 8:19pm

two things..... Spanner, unfortunately they have every right because all they will say is that unless you have the box, we will not insure you. If all the companies do this and someone won't have the box fitted they will not be insured and will get caught by the system and fined!

Craig,

OK they can't come onto your property to fit the chip, but what happens when they collect the rubbish? they will just fit one at the back of the lorry on the public road!

The blackbox technology has been around for years. I had these fitted in my vans and my red Scorpio for 5 years or more (www.minorplanet.com) We fitted them to lower our insurance premiums (which it did) and to be able to monitor where my vans were and to stop lads claiming overtime when they were sat at home instead of working. It uses realtime tracking via a sim card in the box. Log onto the PC which has the software loaded, send a text message to the van or car and in about 20 seconds, it replies with all the details of its whereabouts for the past 3 months! Saved me about £25,000 over 5 years so well worth it. Wouldn't want one for any purpose other than for my benefit though.