It may seem like a good idea at the time to save yourself a considerable about money by failing to take out insurance cover for your vehicle. You may of course drive around for a long period without being involved in any kind of accident or being stopped by the police. However, it is certain that in the end, one of these two things will definitely happen.
The idea of car insurance is that you take out a policy, and hopefully you will never need it. Therefore, it may seem like a waste of money, but car insurance is there to protect you and others, should you be involved in a minor or serious accident.
So you may be lucky and drive around for let's say two years without ever having even a near miss. But then, you get involved in a minor bump. Now you will become liable for those legal penalties.
The IN10 can result in 6 to 8 penalty points and/or a ban from driving, and in addition a fine of up to ?5,000. If you already have points on your licence, you could receive an automatic ban. Once you have been convicted of an IN10, it can then be extremely difficult to find any insurance cover. In addition, even if you do, it will certainly come with a very high premium. This is because insurance companies regard driving without insurance on a similar level to drunk driving. As the results of both of these offences, tend to cause injuries to other people and property. As such, this is considered highly inappropriate action that is heavily penalised by insurance companies.
Moreover, of course, if you have damaged another vehicle property, it is likely that you will be facing a civil suit for damages. If you cause an injury to another person, while driving without insurance, you could face serious criminal charges. For which you will have no insurance cover to pay for your legal costs. Don't forget, that addition to all of the above, you have no insurance for your own vehicle. Therefore, there will be nobody to pay for the repairs, or if it's written off, to replace it with a new car.
In addition, even if you do get away with driving an extended period, without incident, the insurance company will want to know why there is a gap in your insurance record. You could of course lie and say that you have not been driving. Again, this is a huge risk as if you make any false statements on your application. Insurance company will not pay out if you have an accident. If you are driving without insurance, it is more likely that you will actually have an accident, as you are liable to be permanently looking in the mirror to see if there is a police car behind you. The police do not legally have to catch you driving to prove that you are committing an offence. They merely have to prove that the vehicle itself has been used on a public road without proper insurance cover.
The Crown Prosecution Service, does not have to prove in any way that you were driving the vehicle. Only that the vehicle is or has been ?in use?. There is no legal defense that allows you to claim they you were unaware that you need insurance, or that you posted of your payment, but never received the documents. Or any other claim to indicate that not having insurance was somehow an oversight is not permissible in law.
In the end, driving without insurance will definitely cost you more than, if you had taken out even the cheapest, and most basic third party cover, in the first place.
Many of us live where we live because we were either raised there or we landed there somehow and are happy with where we are at. Sometimes someone may not have control over where they live for occupational reasons. Whatever the reason why you live where you do, that fact can actually have an influence on how much you pay for your auto insurance. Does this mean you should move to pay lower premiums? Well, not unless you want to. But it is important to know how where you live affects your auto insurance rates.
First of all, the safety of your neighborhood is something that the insurance company takes into consideration. If there is a high incidence of vandalism and car theft in the area in which you live, you'll pay more in car insurance premiums than someone who lives in a peaceful neighborhood. This is one way in which people lose money in car insurance because of the fact their neighborhood is considered a risky one. However, how risky a neighborhood is can be rather difficult for the residents to control. Even when a neighborhood is "reformed" and made safer, it may take a while before the insurance company can deem that neighborhood one of lower risk.
How the insurance company knows that the area you live in is high risk or not is that the insurance company actually maps out which areas are high risk, medium risk, and low risk. There are even areas that are considered to have no risk at all. And we all know that when something is mapped out that it is going to have boundaries. That is when someone may find out that their neighbor is paying a considerable amount less in car insurance because they may live on the other side of the boundary. Going to the insurance company and bringing this to their attention doesn't do any good for the fact that they cannot move the boundary. If they do, then other neighbors would be requesting the same treatment and the boundary would move until that risk area would be non-existent. That would completely eliminate the need for the mapping and the insurance company would actually lose money by offering the same rates to everyone, which in turn would raise premiums anyway.
Another way in which how you live has an influence on your car insurance is how far you have to drive from home to work. The number of miles that you drive each day has an influence on your risk factor. Someone who drives 5 miles to work each day is at a lesser risk of being in an accident than someone who drives 25 miles to work each day; therefore the person driving 25 miles to work is going to have to pay a higher premium than the person driving 5 miles to work. It works just the same for the person driving 50 miles to work that is going to have to pay more in insurance than the person driving 25 miles.
Basically, what it comes down to is risk factor and that is why it is important to shop around for insurance companies to see which might offer a lower rate for a specific area. Certain insurance companies may map areas differently depending on what their definition of a high risk area is and that can have a considerable influence on the amount of money paid in car insurance. Shopping around for the best rates can alleviate the desire to move to a low risk or no risk area.
Both Robert Thomson & Elizabeth Murphy are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Robert Thomson has sinced written about articles on various topics from Personal Desktop, Finances and Pets. Robert Thompson works for and regularly gives out tips on. Robert Thomson's top article generates over 450000 views. to your Favourites.
Elizabeth Murphy has sinced written about articles on various topics from Property Sale, Public Relations and Auto Insurance. Where you live can definitely determine your rates. Before you buy any car, be sure to get a quote of what you can expect to pay.. Elizabeth Murphy's top article generates over 33100 views. to your Favourites.