Avoid convictions to cut insurance costs

Research from MoneySuperMarket confirms that motoring convictions can bump up the cost of car insurance - giving drivers even more incentive to stay within the laws of the road.

We drilled through almost 12 million car insurance quotes run on our site over a 12-month period and found around 10% of searches were carried out by drivers with a prior driving conviction. This is lower than last year's 12% but, if we extrapolate to the nation's 30 million drivers, it still suggests up to three million Brits are paying the price for a past transgression.
So what's the potential impact of having a conviction on the cost of premiums? A driver with 4 to 6 points on their licence could see a hefty 25% hike to the cost of annual car insurance, an increase of almost a £100 on the average premium of £400.

Motorists with 10 or 11 points can expect to have a massive 82% increase or an average of almost £350 added to what they would pay if they were points-free.

Not so fast...

Our data shows that speeding and speed-related offences are the most common driving conviction, representing two thirds of all recorded offences, followed by 'careless, reckless and unfit driving/crashes' accounting for 13.3%, with drink or drug-related motoring convictions contributing 4.2%.

But let's just pause and savour the good news. In the third quarter of 2012, the total rate of convictions was 28.5 per thousand drivers. This year the number is down to 25.9 per thousand. The biggest decrease was in the number of speeding and speed-related convictions, down from 19.39 per thousand in 2012 to 17.11 per thousand this year.

If you do have a conviction, it makes even more sense to shop around to find the best value cover. The risk appetite between insurers varies greatly, so it could make a real difference to compare prices to see which offers the best value cover for your profile.

How do convictions work?

If you are convicted of a motoring offence you will get penalty points on your licence on a scale from 1 to 11. You get more points for more serious offences.

My colleague Les Roberts wrote a blog showing the full range of motoring offences and the associated codes that can be put on your driving licence. It also shows how many penalty points you can get. Offence codes and penalty points will stay on your driving licence for 4 or 11 years, depending on the offence.

The most serious offences may also involve a disqualification. You can also be disqualified under the 'totting up' rules if you amass 12 or more points in a three-year period.

New drivers

The rules are different for new drivers. Your licence will be revoked if you get 6 or more points within 2 years of passing your test. Any penalty points on your provisional licence that haven't expired will be carried over to your full licence when you pass your test, so you don't start will a clean sheet.

If your licence is revoked within 2 years you'll have to apply and pay for a new provisional licence and pass both theory and practical parts of the driving or riding test again to get a full licence.

Spent convictions

To remove expired endorsements from your driving licence, you'll need to apply by post to exchange your licence for a new one.

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Driving Drunk: One of the Most Expensive Mistakes You Can Make

Once you've had your license for a while, it's easy to forget that driving is a dangerous business. Recently, a spate of fatal crashes across the country have drawn renewed attention to the fact that car accidents are the top killer of U.S. teenagers. And for those who drink and drive, the dangers are also incredibly high:in 2011, 31 percent of traffic deaths -- and 2.5 percent of deaths overall -- were caused by drunk driving.

But even for those who manage to avoid getting into an accident, getting caught driving under the influence can have steep financial consequences. Recent research by CoverHound, a company that compares car insurance rates, revealed the economic costs of drunk driving. According to their findings, insurance premiums go up an average of 86 percent -- or $5,130 -- in the first year after a DUI. Most of the economic pain from a DUI hits in the first three years, but drivers can expect to pay more for insurance for seven years after a conviction.

That's assuming, of course, that they can still get coverage. "If you get a DUI, some carriers will drop you, and some will increase insurance premiums by 300 percent or even 400 percent," notes Basil Enan, founder and CEO of CoverHound. "Some carriers refuse to insure anyone who has been convicted of a DUI."

The effect of a DUI depends a lot on individual circumstances. The age of the driver, his or her prior driving record, and whether or not the DUI was a first offense all factor into the cost. Many insurance companies are more likely to work with younger drivers who have had a DUI, Enan says. 

There are a few things that drivers can do to limit the price of a DUI. "One option is to take a defensive driving course, which can offset insurance costs by up to 15 percent," Enan points out. "Another way to save is by downgrading your car to something safer. Put another way, if you're a higher risk driver, it's a good idea to drive a lower risk car."

But even under the best of circumstances, getting caught driving drunk is sure to increase insurance rates. The only sure way to avoid that is to avoid taking a drink before getting behind the wheel. And, with new smartphone apps to test your sobriety or call you a cab, there's no reason to risk your wallet -- or your life.

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Health insurance premiums rise $1,975 since Obamacare passed

After being signed into law in 2010, the massive Affordable Care Act has set off massive domino effects. As

the law gains speed, affordable health insurance is becoming a myth and higher premiums are the reality. Even as politicians like Obama lift the ACA on a pedestal, there is no denying the simple negative consequences this law is bringing. Health insurance premiums are rising for many people. The average health care premium for a family in 2010, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation was $13,770. After two years of Obamacare implementation, the average health insurance premiums have raised $1,975 to a total of $15,745.

That's why they wrote in the individual mandate

Proponents of the Affordable Care Act say that the benefits of the law won't be realized until full implementation, which Obama himself has delayed. What may hold the law together is the survival of the individual mandate.

The bloated costs of insurance that pay for impractical health care practices and pharmaceutical drugs may only be lowered if the government forces healthy, independent people to pay into the insurance cesspool. With mandates in place, the government can protect the insurance companies by offsetting their costs through forcing people to pay for something they don't want or use.

As the costs of the current healthcare system bloat, it's becoming apparent that government meddling in people's personal health care actually harms people collectively. In 2016 government meddling will force a family of four to pay nearly $2100 in fines, also deemed an "assessment" in the Affordable Care Act playbook.

$2,100 fine will make it harder for families to take care of their own health

For those who take care of their own health, for those who struggle to find organic foods in a country of GMOs, the extra burden of a $2100 fine will cut right into their healthy-eating budget.

So when professionals say the $2,100 fine will be cheaper than buying health insurance, it realistically isn't cheaper at all. Before the law, people who didn't want or need health insurance paid no fine. $2100 is not cheaper than $0. With the fine and the inflating value of the dollar, some will find it even more difficult to eat healthy and afford their own natural medicine.

Being forced to pay into this medical system is absolute tyranny. Those who say paying health insurance premiums is an American responsibility are finely misled and herded into a failed philosophy of health care. Health care actually begins in an individual's mind. It starts at the cellular level. Heavy metals and pesticides that build up in the human cells block nutrient utilization. People remain sick under the current system because allopathic doctors rarely ever talk about detoxification at the cellular level. Modern health care rarely talks about alkalizing the body to prevent cancer and disease. It's almost always based on prescription drugging and medical tests. In fact, Obamacare expands upon these ideas, doing nothing to speak about nutrition and the power of juicing organic fruits and vegetables to cure practically any disease.

Obamacare's free services are a trap

Instead, the Affordable Care Act mandates everyone pay for "free" procedures - procedures like:
• Free mammograms for women over 40: These mammograms actually subject women to doses of radiation and false positives that make women think they need to remove their breasts to prevent cancer.
• Free annual flu shots for everyone: The concoctions are direct injections of formaldehyde and thimerosal, which contribute to cellular toxicity in the human body, welcoming disease.
• Depression screening: These tests will give pharmaceutical companies direct access to experimentation on people's brains, as psychotic medications are unleashed on a whole new generation of "depressed" people, who are simply just not absorbing the correct nutrients in their diets to maintain healthy brain function.
• Free birth control for women: This is a handy and universal sterilization method, which wreaks havoc on a female's hormones, damaging fertility and natural body functions.

High premiums are not the only consequences

As health insurance premiums rise dramatically, the only thing that may keep them from going through the roof is the individual mandate, but will millions of Americans submit to the mandate or or will people choose their own healthcare over the dying system. The real consequence of the Affordable Care Act may not be the economics, but might actually be the acceptance of tyranny, as people are forced to pay for something against their will. Worse yet, this ACA law will be responsible for expanding current practices that are tying people in red tape instead of giving them empowering knowledge to take care of their own health.

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