How many people do you think lie on their car insurance forms? Very few of them, right? You probably don’t know anyone who would do such a thing.
Well, you might be surprised and just a little bit shocked to find that 8% of UK motorists have admitted to lying in the details they provided to their insurers. This figure is based on a study carried out by Consumer Intelligence recently…
Photo credit: Social Woodlands
What this means is that we can assume that almost 2 and a half million people in the country have lied on their insurance forms. This means that their policies are, technically, invalid. So why did they do it? What do you think?
That’s right, 60% of the people who were questioned admitted that they told some porky pies in order to get a cheaper premium. Meanwhile, 20% of those asked said that they had made a mistake or genuinely didn’t know the answer to one of the questions. A rather cheeky 5% said that they had lied in order to claim back insurance premiums which they had previously paid and that they felt were excessive.
The Biggest Fibs
The main lie was about where the car is parked at night, with 15% not being honest about this. 14% were dishonest in respect of their points or convictions, 10% lied about their annual mileage and 9% were economical with the truth when it came to their home address.
Interestingly, 10% of drivers said that they couldn’t give accurate information on an area like their job title because the insurance company’s system didn’t have an option listed for what they do. I remember this being a problem when I worked in insurance years ago and it seems that no one has fixed the problems caused by restrictive drop down lists in the meantime.
Have you ever lied to an insurance company and did you end up regretting it?