Driving convictions set to hit drivers hard when it comes to insurance

New research has revealed that driving convictions might double the costs of car cover policies making them much more costly than the fines may denote. The report was conducted by confused.com the online insurance company and discovered that a drink-driving conviction could potentially increase the costs of cover by 115%.

Plus, those who are convicted of driving without a proper car policy in place could see their future premiums increase by as much as 131% making it much cost efficient to just carry it in the first place.

The research was based on about five million quotes that were given out between the time period of October 1st and December 31st of last year. The company discovered that about 20% of those who received quotes had some type of driving conviction with the most common being a speeding offence. Based on the average customer, one speeding conviction increased policy premiums by about 34% from £680 per year to £913 per year.

The next most common driving offence was driving with a hand-held device such as a mobile phone. This can increase auto premiums by as much as half. Finally, failing to yield to traffic light signals was the third most common offence but this did not yield as large of a penalty with auto insurance premiums as the other offences, increasing a policy by only about 23%.

Head of insurance for confused.com, Gareth Kloet, stated that any driving conviction can change how much you end up paying out in car insurance and it is safe to say that anyone with a conviction is going to pay more for car cover then someone with a clean license. He added that those who have a conviction must disclose this fact however because if you do not and later need to file a claim the insurance company can refuse it based on your deceit.