I started my career with the Good old "General Accident Fire and Life Assurance Corporation" - anyone else old enough to remember them? They disappeared when they mereged with the Commercial Union, then the greater merger with the Norwich Union and now the combined (and much thinned down) operations are called Aviva. The GA had a branch in pretty much every major town, with a local claims department, staffed by people who spoke reasonably good english and to whom you could complain PERSONALLY if something was not right. They had their "recommended repairers", mainly because they wanted to retain some assurance that if their Staff Motor Engineer (yes, every Branch had at least one of those too) couldn't get to see the damage quickly the repairers could be trusted to get on with the job and he could check the costings later. The "Keep Motoring" policy included the automatic provision of a basic hire car for those who relied upon this as their means of transport nothing extravagent but justifiable and "reasonable in all the circumstances" but you got it without delay, and often delivered to your dooor! If you were (genuinely) injured then you sought out your own lawyer........because you would if you felt it was the right thing to do wouldn't you!?
Sadly when "Direct Line" and others arrived on the market the Great British public wouldnt pay for this superb service so it disappeared, along with the offices and the jobs. Some of these went to call centres in places like Dundee but eventually the call centres went to India and all points where cheap labour was available, Nice to see them coming back though because I for one will not do business with people who when I ring I need an interpreter to talk to.
The Government, bless them, lifted historic restraint placed upon lawyers to avertise as a part of their wonderful plan to cut legal aid bills. I never really understood this because personal injury claims were seldom a drain on the public purse, insurers picked up the costs of all genuine cases. However by allowing all sorts of undesirable practices into the market place as a consequence the Government really let the Genie out of the bottle. Lawyers seeking to expand their businesses (and remember - they are businessmen so don't blame THEM for simply seeking to use an opportunity) didn't even need to Ambulance chase - some set up offices in Hospital A&E departments, paying the Hospital, hungry for some extra cash, for the priviledge). There was a growth of personal injury claims, many of them quite trivial or, dare I say it, blown up out of all proportion in an effort to maximise compensation. you might think that the Courts would fight the rear guard action for right thinking folk but no, Judges just seemed intent upon giving any poor individual willing to stand before them with a tail of woe ridiculous sums of money - OUR money. Remember, insurers are not Charities, what goes out the door in claims, has to come in through premiums. Insurers fuelled the fire themselves sadly and I have not even got into the murky world of legal expenses insurance, claims management companies kick backs etc etc.
So have we now got cheaper insurance and more efficient claims handling via this revolutionary and electronically driven competitive insurance market? I'll leave you all to be the judge. One thing I will say is that no one should let their car insurance automatically renew via their credit card (as many policies are set up like this these days). After about 6 years with one insurer they hiked up my premium on the 407 Diesel this year for no apparent reason by about 66%! I saved that again by shopping around and I was not going to be placated with a more competitive quote from my existing insurer because they have lost me for good now. Ultimately we get what we (collectively) vote with our wallets for and unfortunately the (sometimes poorly thought through) regulations/laws our (often ill informed) Governments give us. I am still waiting to see how long it takes them to sort the current mess out but their imposing short time limits on insurance companies to decide whether they are going to pay claims (many of which may be questionable) is none too helpful either.
Rant mode off.............
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