Latest Insurance News

What Will Customers Get in AA and Saga Merger? ; PERSONAL FINANCE

By Jeremy Gates A million people are retiring each year - which partly explains the recent surprise merger of Saga and the AA. It creates a pounds 6.2 billion giant: both are big providers of financial services and 40 per cent of the AA's 15 million members are aged 50-plus. As the new firm starts with debts of nearly pounds 5 billion, many employees await healthy payouts - Saga staff who invested pounds 20 in October 2004 collect pounds 10,500; AA boss Tim Parker waltzes off with pounds ...

Drivers' Lies Affect Car Insurance ; PERSONAL FINANCE

One in ten motorists could have invalid car insurance because they lied when they applied for the cover. Research discovered that about six per cent of people intentionally lied about basic details such as their age and address, while a further five per cent lied about where their car is parked at night in a bid to save money, according to price comparison website uSwitch.com. More than three per cent of drivers also failed to declare convictions for speeding and drink driving or any drivin...

Admiral Pulls the Plug on Confused Sale

By Vincenzo Pelosi CAR insurer Admiral has scrapped plans to sell a 25pc stake in its price comparison website Confused.com after prospective private equity buyers demanded too much say in the running of the company. Admiral chief executive and cofounder Henry Engelhardt is understood to have baulked at investor demands for seats on the board and plans to saddle the company with a debt burden. The firm said it received indicative offers that valued the entire business at up to 650m - be...

Brought to Justice

The following cases were heard at Cardiff Magistrates Court: Marcus John Abdulla, 23, of Broadway, Roath, Cardiff, was fined a total of pounds 200 with pounds 30 court costs and disqualified from driving for twelve months after he was convicted in his absence of two counts of using a car without a valid licence or insurance and one count of using a car without an MoT. Salim Mayemba Kapesa, 41, of Lyndhurst Street, Canton, Cardiff, was fined pounds 100 with pounds 30 court costs and had six pe...

Confused.Com Sale is Off

CAR insurance group Admiral has dropped plans to sell a minority stake in its price comparison website Confused.com after saying its private equity suitors were demanding too much control. Admiral announced it would retain full ownership of Confused.com after ending talks with potential private equity buyers which had valued the online business at between pounds 600mand pounds 650m. It said demands made over control of strategy were "more onerous than anticipated" and would have weakened ...

Admiral Will Not Sell Web Stake ; INSURANCE

Car insurance group Admiral yesterday dropped plans to sell a minority stake in its price comparison website Confused.com after saying its private equity suitors were demanding too much control. Admiral will retain full ownership - Confused.com is valued at pounds 600-650 million. (c) 2007 Birmingham Post; Birmingham (UK). Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.

Off the Record

By PAT ROLLER OH, NO (groan). We were dismayed to read in yesterday's Record that the Sheilas (the cringe-worthy trio from the Sheilas' Wheels car insurance advert) are to release a single. We also note that it will be called (I'm So) Happy Happy (You're Mine). Why (we wonder) does it have so many (unnecessary) brackets? Is it (possibly) to distract (your attention) from the fact it's a (crap) gimmick? THERE is talk that scientists are investigating the phenomenon of "soap fatigue", w...

'One in 10' Invalidate Car Cover

One in 10 motorists could have invalid car insurance because they lied when they applied for the cover, research showed yesterday. Around 6% of people intentionally lied about basic details such as their age and address, while 5% of people lied about where their car is parked at night in a bid to save money, according to price comparison website uSwitch.com. More than 3% of drivers also failed to declare convictions for speeding and drink driving or any driving bans they had received. The...

Insure Chief May Revamp Auto System, Ignite Furor

By Bruce Mohl, The Boston Globe Jul. 12--For the past 30 years, state insurance commissioners in Massachusetts have held a hearing each spring on whether automobile insurers should be allowed to set their own rates. Like actors following a script, the answer has always been the same: no. But this year there's a new director with a new script. Insurance Commissioner Nonnie S. Burnes, a Superior Court judge until five months ago, has signaled that she would like to give auto insurers some f...

EDITORIAL: No Need to Swerve on Insurance

By The Boston Globe Jul. 11--Auto insurance rates in Massachusetts are going in the right direction -- sharply downward. Insurance commissioner Nonnie Burnes should steer clear of any policy changes that interfere with this beneficial trend. In the coming days, Burnes is expected to lay out the Patrick administration's 2008 course on auto insurance. The options range from maintaining the current system that flattens rates for mostly urban and young drivers all the way to deregulating rate...