Impounded car insurance report on number of UK consumers willing to commit fraud for cheaper car insurance premiums.
A new study undertaken by LexisNexis shows that one in four insured motorists believe it’s acceptable to lie to their insurer for cheaper car insurance premiums. The research, released this week by LexisNexis Risk Solutions, found that 40% of UK motor insurance policy holders think that the cost of their policy is too high, with many resorting to fraudulent measures in an attempt to reduce the cost.
The study explored the general consumer attitude towards car insurance in the UK, uncovering that a quarter of policy holders think that an omission or some form of adjustment to the information in their application is acceptable in order to reduce their premiums when applying for car insurance. When many come to naming the main driver on their policy, 29% of people admitted that they fronted their policy by naming someone other than who would be driving the car the most. The factors influencing this decision include who is bringing in the main income (25%), has a better driving record (12%) or who has historically had the lower priced policy (11%). The research also revealed that just over 1 in 10 (13%) finds it acceptable to use someone else’s address when applying, while 15% believe it’s alright to change their number of ‘no claims discount’ years in the hope of achieving a greater discount.
It appears that many consumers are willing to deceive, or attempt to deceive, the car insurance industry in the hope of gaining cheaper car insurance, many not realising that omitting and adjusting information on your application can be considered fraud. This puts both parties at risk as consumers could find themselves without any cover in the unfortunate event of an accident while insurers will be opened up to unforeseen risk.
The research also explored the general attitude towards making a claim, finding that one in five (20%) think it’s acceptable to report a hit-and-run accident to claim for self-inflicted damage and around one in ten (8%) believed that exaggerating a personal injury such as whiplash to increase the amount of money paid-out is an absolutely fine practise. However, there’s a more positive sign in the form of consumers potentially willing to help insurers respond to claims more accurately, with around two thirds (64%) of people responding that they’d be comfortable with a telematics type of product that would share information about the events that lead up to a traffic accident, in order to determine exactly which driver was at fault.
