Motorists will be aware that there are many factors that impact how much a motor insurance company decides to charge its customers to insure their vehicles. For instance, a driver’s age, where the policyholder lives, how many miles per annum it is estimated the car will be driven in a year, the claims history of the customer, what the vehicle is to be used for and the make and model of the car.
At the moment, cars are placed into a Group Rating system ranging from 1 to 50 based upon a large number of factors such as how powerful the car is and the value of the car. So, for instance a high performance Porsche is going to be in a higher group than say a Fiat 500 meaning that it is probably more likely that the Porsche costs quite a lot more than the Fiat 500 to insure.
Well, this Group Rating system is to change to a Vehicle Risk Rating system that will be used by motor insurance providers as just one of the factors that dictates how much the insurer will charge the policyholder to insure his or her car. Five things will be taken into account with these being Security, Performance, Safety, Repairability and Damageability. Each of these 5 things will be given a score of between 1 to 99 with 1 being a low risk and 99 being a high risk. These will provide a profile of the risk of a particular vehicle.
It is hoped that this new Vehicle Risk Rating will enable motor insurance companies to provide a more realistic quotation to their customers.
It will be interesting to see if this has any effect upon the premiums quoted for motor insurance i.e. will it mean that, on average, premiums reduce when compared with the Group Rating system?
If you are considering purchasing a particular make and model of car then you might first wish to find out what Vehicle Risk Rating the vehicle comes under. This could potentially be used by you to focus on purchasing a car that comes with a low Vehicle Risk Rating resulting in a lower car insurance premium being quoted.
Whilst writing this post, may we bring to your attention that should you be looking for a competitive car insurance quotation, do not hesitate to get in contact with us to obtain one without any obligation. We look forward to hearing from you.