Think Green and Save Money on Car Insurance

If you work in the UK Car insurance industry you could not have failed to notice the number of emails and memos that are floating aroung in the wake of President Obama's inaugural speech and subsequent mumblings about how Americans need to engage and embrace the 'green revolution'.
The mention of the dreaded 'Carbon Tax' has sent shivers around the corridors of the UK Car Insurance companies, as they figure out how to incorporate this into the premium rating and all the changes they are going to have to make to their car insurance policy documents and wordings!
Although Car Insurance underwriters are not yet jumping from the windows of the City of London's ivory towers they are well aware that WHEN the UK government decides to act upon the matter of carbon, with cars being deemed as the biggest polluter and a general election looming, any element of charging for Carbon emmissions is likely to be incorporated into the car insurance premium amount, rather than added to the price of petrol or car tax, which are the only other two methods available for guaranteed collection of revenue.
One could argue that it would be more equitable to levy the charge on the price of petrol as you would then pay as you consume. The arguments against this though are strong. The VAT model of indirect taxation is a failure and penalises those it was meant to protect. With fluctuating prices at the pumps it would make revenue estimation extremely difficult to accurately predict.
Furthermore insurance premium tax currently levied against all car insurance polices when you buy one, is only five precent and could absorb the one percent increase without too many people complaining.

We argue that none of these methods are particularly equitable as they do not charge the people or organisations that are polluting. To take an already overburdened in premium, set of people or a risk pool of people with car insurance and increase the price that those people pay for cover, by a percentage of what the base cover is, for a charge for they see no material value, is neither equitable or practical, until the UK public is charged the base rate for car insurance on a lifestyle individual basis.

We often get asked the old chestnut 'How do I save money on my car insurance?'

The simple answer is 'Think Green' and change your lifestyle to benefit from cheaper car insurance

In the near future your car insurance may cost you a whole lot more if you ignore the green issues.

Dave Healey 2009 - resident car insurance expert
Car Insurance and Cheap Car Insurance