How to Overcome Insurance Modification Discrimination
Making modifications to cars is common practice amongst motorists, and has been for decades. Ranging from the addition of rear spoilers to replacing a cassette player with a CD player, you would be hard charged to find someone who hasn’t made even a minor alteration to their car.
However car insurance companies are now using the addition of modifications as a means through which to help characterise motorists, believing that anyone who makes a modification to their vehicle automatically falls into the “boy racer” category. We therefore take a look at what counts as a modification and the things you can do to combat the financial penalties issued as a result of these.
What is a modification?
A car modification is not just obvious changes to the appearance of the car, such as the addition of body kits and alloy wheels; it could be something small like changing the gear knob on the car. Granted, such changes will vary greatly in the financial penalties they attract but all fall into the category of resulting in the vehicle deviating from its initial manufacturer specifications which is the definition of a modification.
Performance enhancing modifications such as the addition of spoilers are likely to attract the largest car insurance price hikes of any modification. Research recently suggested that a young driver with a standard Ford Focus who adds spoilers and tinted windows to their car would stand to pay up to £6,000 extra per year on top of the basic car insurance premiums. This could result in an annual bill of anywhere between £8,000 and £12,000 on insurance alone.
Small modifications such as changing the gear knob will only have a marginal impact on premiums. However, of more significance is what the insurance company could do if the policy holder failed to inform them of this change, as they could possible use it as grounds to legally refuse to pay out in the event of a claim being made. In order to be safe you should therefore inform you insurance company about any ‘modification’ you make, regardless of how minor you may consider it to be.
Cost cutting tips
There is not much you can do at the moment to prevent insurance companies from using modifications as a means to discriminate. However, this doesn’t mean that you have to just sit back and accept it as there are a number of things that can be done to obtain cheap car insurance quotes:
- Improve yourself- the policy holder has the single biggest impact on car insurance premiums of anything, with age and levels of experience being the two major considerations in this regards. There isn’t much we can do about our age, but we can do something about our experience levels. Completing advanced driving courses such as pass plus will significantly lower car insurance premiums by providing a quick boost to experience levels.
- Named drivers- Adding an older and more experienced motorist onto your policy as a ‘named driver’ is another great way to lower premiums. This person should be both older and more experienced in order to have the desired impact. If this person happens to be female, then that would likely be an added bonus.
- Security features- Not all modifications will be discouraged by insurers, with security enhancing modifications such as the addition of recognised alarms and/or immobilisers actually attracting cheaper premiums.
- Consider your cover- There are three different levels of cover to choose from called third party, third party fire and theft and fully comprehensive. Fully comprehensive is the most complete level of cover as it agrees to cover the cost of repairs to your vehicle and to other people’s property. Third party is the other end of the spectrum and will only agree to cover the costs of repairs to other people’s property, with no cover for the policy holders own vehicle. If you are desperate to save money, then third party could be the right option but it is risky.
- Live to excess- The higher the excess you set, the less of a financial burden you will be to the insurer if a claim is made. You should therefore set a higher excess level if you are keen to get cheaper premiums, but remember not to offer to pay more than you can afford.
- Get on your bike- The more miles your drive; the more likely it is that you will have an accident. Insurers will therefore offer cheaper deals to people who spend less time behind the wheel. It therefore pays to set the lowest mileage allocation you can.
- Parking- Parking your car in a locked garage rather than on a public road while at home is a cheap way to reduce your insurance expenditure. This works through making your car less susceptible to theft or vandalism.
- Think about excess- Excess is the amount of money you are willing to pay towards any costs the insurer has to face. Therefore the higher your excess, the cheaper your basic car insurance premiums will be as the insurer will reward you for reducing their financial obligation if a claim is made. However, be careful not to offer to pay more than you know you will be able to afford.
- Shop around- comparing prices available through a large number of car insurance companies will give you a better chance of finding the cheapest deals available to you. It could be that one insurance company is far less discriminating when it comes to modifications than all the others. You can cut down the amount of time it takes to do this by utilising price comparison websites, which will compare prices available through hundreds of insurers in seconds.