Monday, January 7, 2013

Insurers choose detectives and experts in fraud detection


ICEA (Cooperative Research between Underwriters and Pension Funds), in its report on the Spanish Insurance Fraud 2011 presented by shows that is increasing the attempted insurance fraud, reaching 95,312 in the car insurance industry, which an annual increase of 10.5%.But who is behind the fraud?"Virtually all cases are detected correspond to individuals.

The amount claimed by case usually low," says a director of ICEA, more worrisome considering the action of organized gangs. "They represent a small volume of cases in each scam but manage to get much more relevant quantities. Primarily active in the auto industry."Almost always, it is the insured who is committing fraud.

The role of contrast is relevant only in car accidents (22%). And neither mediators nor insurance providers (shops, doctors, builders ...) are often involved in the scams.The best case of fraud detectedICEA convenes an annual contest to choose the juiciest deception. The fraud prevention departments of the first Spanish insurance refer more curious cases have been detected at ICEA.

The jury weighs both the economic quantity that has saved the insurer to discover the thymus as detection techniques employed and the strength of evidence.In the case that won first prize last year, coordination of parallel investigations was fundamental. We detected a possible fraud in an incident in which a person became paraplegic due to a car accident. The insurer suspected that the claimant had posed as copilot, when it really was the driver of the vehicle at the time of the accident.In the auto insurance policies to third parties, the driver of the car is not covered, but the companions.

The combined action of the company's experts, an engineering center that reconstructed the accident sequence and specialists of forensic medicine chair failed to prove at trial that the accident was driving the car at the time of the incident.Is it profitable for insurers to avoid scams?Sometimes the cure is worse than the disease, but overall it is very beneficial. The key lies in knowing the companies decide when and in what compensates investigate is less expensive to overlook ...Last year, the 21 entities that contributed to the study ICEA fraud allocated 6.7 million euros to analyze possible scams. This investment allowed avoiding scams where net demanded payment of 341 million euros in compensation. For every dollar spent on research is avoided paying almost 52 euros.

To uncover the deceptions insurers mobilize their experts, who are responsible for evaluating the origin of the claim and the amount of damages. They also hire the services of private detectives. Their job is to contrast the documentation provided and the accounts presented by those involved in the incident. Sometimes, companies turn to specialized laboratories to analyze samples collected at the scene.

The technological sophistication also extends in fraud detection activities, resulting in a massive increase use of internet and social networks for monitoring and investigation of claims. Internet helps to reveal if there are any pre-existing relationship between the cause of the accident and the injured. There have been cases where those involved in a traffic collision when they were denied knowing clearly in contact on social networks.The Data Protection Act has cut so far all projects to create an official file insurance fraudsters. However, it is common practice for insurance servicers hold data of families who have tried to cheat in the last sector.

Car insurance for young


Search and find car insurance for a young affordable when driver age is between 18-25 years is a rather complicated task. With our car insurance comparison you can check what insurance companies themselves would be willing to cover and which ones offer specific car insurance for young people, including a detailed analysis of coverage and rates.


Young people, especially those included in the age group between 18 and 25 years, who bear the higher insurance premiums, which can be up to 400% higher than those of most drivers age in the same circumstances. The rationale is that insurance for young people are the ones that generate higher spending per policy to the insurance companies, because according to statistics, the recklessness and lack of driving experience of under 25 increases the likelihood of have an accident. However, the raw vary widely depending on the case.


When studying the cost of car insurance for young, variables that modify the end result:- Age at which we took the card- Types of vehicles insured- Election of the policy of the company and the bonus system.Each insurer a world


To guide you on which companies can provide you a good value for money, we have mentioned in the past that each company has its own strategy, and base their safe driving profiles and different insurance. Because of our experience in this sector we know that:* If you are between 18 and 25 years old and you're a woman, some insurers will offer you better value for your car insurance.


* Other companies to consider getting car insurance for young people cheap, ensure both women and men, as long as the vehicle characteristics (power, capacity) and the driver are within tolerable risk.


* Another option for car insurance for young people is to ensure the car insurance companies that launch specific products to young people, who generally are aimed at young people aged between 18 and 30 years. In the latter case, the main characteristic of youth specific insurance is usually offered to pay a premium based on the responsibility of every driver behind the wheel, making a custom quote depending on driving style of each. In addition, young people who show good driving behavior are rewarded by the insurance company with advantages of type-fuel cards, important bonuses with each renewal premium, and if proven track record of accidents should have been insured previously in another company.

Insurance rates in 2012



It talks about the difficult situation will live the insurance industry during this 2012 car. According to some industry executives, 2011 has been a year "troubled" that condition the economy is expected to recover only in the long term and that will lead to "very tough scenarios."

The ICEA insurance association say there should be no "illusions" about whether this crisis can affect lesser extent insurance companies car than other sectors. However, an argument for not becoming discouraged is that while premiums have declined in the past four years, the number of uninsured has grown.


Several companies were slight decreases in turnover of car insurance in 2011, and is considered to have a greater concentration of companies in the business through mergers and acquisitions.


As for the business prospects in 2012, senior executives of insurance predict fierce competition in the car insurance industry. There is also talk of a number of aspects that characterize 2012 as the sector's profitability, customers in search of cheaper car insurance, project-oriented business models for growth, heterogeneous players, the sector well capitalized and type of high interest.


And specifically in the car insurance business, there may be some opportunities, like the great knowledge of pricing or sectoral good tools, and also some risks, such as inflation risk by updating the scale or pricing based on auction.


Raw in April 2012
Although this price stabilization are strong fluctuations between insurers being the Third Basic category in which most evident: between 6% -7% up and down as companies analyzed. The data show that the average price in the category of Third Basic for April stays at 387 euros.Also in the Third Expanded mode preserves the average premium is 436 euros.

With excess is the category that has suffered a decline since early 2012.Without excess manifests a variation in the average prices of April up to 1081-1088 euros.

Prices in 2011
The average annual change in insurance prices closed last year with a drop of 3.75% cumulative average in the four types of insurance.

All types experienced a decrease in premiums in 2011, reaching up to 5 percentage points of difference in the case of Third Expanded and with excess, which, with 5% each, are the categories that showed a steeper decline . I followed Third Core with a decrease of 3% and, finally, without excess, which is 2% experienced a smaller decline at year end.

Another interesting data is that January and February were those who offered, on average, the highest prices of the year. However, lower average prices were in August for Third Basic and without excess, and in September and Expanded Third Party with excess.

Car insurance for people with disabilities


People with disabilities face a multitude of obstacles in their daily lives. Those with disabilities are in the market only vehicles adapted to their condition, have to spend much money in suit and most insurers do not cover the needs of this group.
Seguronce was, until recently, the only institution offering car insurance for disabled. This organization has developed its services in order to provide specific solutions to associations of disabled people which have resulted in the marketing of specialty insurance and adapted to the needs of this group of people.
Some private insurers are committed to promote in your wallet car insurance for disabled people, who have always been in the background or it may not have been considered. In 2009 he launched the first exclusive car insurance for disabled and since then more and more.
Such policies cover situations and offer a number of very specific services, responding to the demands and needs of a sector composed of about 700,000 people using adapted vehicles.In such policies find very specific coverages: luggage including wheelchair transfers and escorts direct client to your destination by car or taxi adapted (Eurotaxi) if immobilization workshop or car accident passenger travel expenses by accident or disease of people with disabilities during the trip; adaptation of vehicle coverage without additional cost to an amount, typically the first 4,000 euros; guidance on handling of appeals or requests for financial aid.
In some cases, it also provides psychological and social counseling in case of accident. All this is covered up to certain amounts, normally valued at 5,000 euros.
The essential condition is insurance that suits all insured, whatever their situation and need. For people with disabilities that private insurers they think is a big plus, on the market since minorities are sometimes problems to find solutions that suit them.

However, insurers in this market can find new business opportunities and niches that can make a company that specializes in put them ahead of the pack with ease.

What is insurance profits?


In monetary terms, lost profits is money that would not have happened livestock damage. For example, the merchant whose goods have been destroyed as a result of the car accident can claim the price of it, and the benefit that would have been obtained, the taxi driver, as a result of a road crash, lost days of work while fix your car, the lawyer who lost the sight of a trial ...
In Spain lost profits compensation of victims of road accidents. The courts are generous when it comes to compensation for moral damage but are more restrictive property damage. When an accident with personal injury, the law distinguishes between:
• Current Consequential Damages: hospital expenses.• Loss of earnings: disorders arising from the inability of the victim to work for the duration of convalescence.• Indirect damage future treatment costs permanent sequelae.• Loss of earnings future earnings foregone as a result of disability.From the Spanish Union of Insurance and Reinsurance (UNESP) note that the 'Spanish System for Damage Assessment Body in car accident', better known as the scale, is obsolete and urgent update because reality has changed siniestral substantial.
The car insurance insurers support the need for the upgrade, but warn of a consequent rise in prices, from Unespa suggest setting a ceiling. The employer supports a more fair and balanced than the present, which is consistent with victims' associations, but clarifies that the increase will affect the cost of car insurance compensation because "we pay all". With reservations, victims advocate for economic protection for the most serious injuries, especially for families who lose one of its components to provide income or household work.
The eligibility requirements for compensation for loss of earnings are as follows:• That the profits exists and can be tested, along with his relationship with the damage. This requirement is more difficult to prove.• What can be determined economically the amount that has not received. For example, if a person was unable to work for a month because of an injury in a traffic accident, loss of income was his salary for a month (less, if applicable, pensions could have received).


Restrictive legislation

Unlike Spain, in almost all European countries are seeking full compensation for injuries in traffic accidents. Economic damages are repaired without restriction in the UK, Germany, France and Italy. The courts in these countries are open to the setting of compensation for loss of earnings, while moral damages are valued more arbitrary and restrictive in these countries than it is in Spain.Our country has followed the tradition of the restrictive interpretation of the so called profits, causing difficulty plus the whole satisfaction, which, in the opinion of the expert, "should not happen in cases where the proof of loss has been properly proved. " And is that the legal system of assessment established by the Revised Text of the Law on Regulation and Supervision of Private Insurance not say whether the compensation for loss of income in the event of death, permanent injury or temporary disability of the victim, exhausted to weightings of the Scale.

Compulsory Liability Insurance




Under Spanish law, effective in early 2008, all vehicles, including second hand, must have car insurance minimum coverage which is mandatory liability. Driving without her, can pose sanctions ranging from 601 euros to 3,005 euros and can inhabilitarnos the vehicle.

Car insurance compulsory or mandatory liability insurance, has the minimum coverage required by law. This insurance coverage is not sold on its own in the companies, it is generally offered in a package with other coverages such as legal expenses, driver insurance, travel assistance, etc..Only I can find no other coverage added in the Insurance Compensation Consortium. Sometimes, companies refuse to insure a user, ie, they do not even do the most basic insurance including Liability Compulsory. The reason is usually caused by poor driving experience (less than 2-5 years of age card), or by the young age (under 25, although there are companies in which is from 27, or even more ) or insure the vehicle (with power / weight ratio high).

When this occurs, and as we can not travel without insurance, there is a public entity that will assume the legal minimum for all these people that no private company assumes.These coverages are valid in Spain and all countries of the Multinational Agreement Guarantee (the EU, Switzerland, Iceland, Norway, Croatia, Slovenia, Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovak Republic).What coverages offered


Compulsory Liability Insurance?
The range covered by this insurance is related to damage that may have made the driver of the car against other people, namely:* Damage to third parties (including a pedestrian) amounting to 70 million Euros per claim.* Damage against animals* Against property damage up to 15 million Euros per claim.

What coverages are not included?

No cover us if the person hit or otherwise damaged in the vehicle is a relative of the driver at fault. Up to the third degree of consanguinity to the driver at fault this coverage does not include damage of a material nature that were not (historically these claims were brought about intentionally and therefore the exception in today's terms).Therefore, the major risk of this insurance contract can only be the limitations that we would suffer with it. For while it is designed to ensure that if we are owners of a vehicle and caused damage to other persons or property they will be covered, in no case shall this insurance cover damage we cause we ourselves or family, we will have no supplemental coverage, and in any case the coverage will be limited.

Increasingly women-only insurance



The accident statistics do not lie the DGT, women have a lower risk of causing accidents or being involved in one. Men are the highest accident record (4 out of 5 deaths and 3 out of 4 injured in road accidents). As a general rule women are more cautious when they are behind the wheel, so car insurance companies offer lower premiums under the lower claims.Not only are more careful driving but also choose smaller displacement cars and tend to drive less frequently than men, so the possibility of causing an accident and the potential damage of lesser importance.

However, following the opinion of the Court of Justice of the European Union that outlaws that sex can be a source of differentiation in the price of insurance, insurers may not offer different premiums to men and women in the car insurance , life and health, when differences were recorded before arriving up to 33% on the final price.

The car insurance premiums for women will consequently increased their amount. According to a report commissioned by the CEA, the European insurance employer, which attempts to assess the economic consequences of the implementation of the European directive that establishes the disappearance of gender differences, which are classified as direct discrimination, one of the first consequences will increase the price of car insurance policies for women. Quantified increased by 11% as GDV, the German Insurance Association.Insurers aware of the specific needs of this group have begun to offer vehicle insurance with coverage designed especially for the women. Many of these companies claim to be over 25 and have not lost more than six points, assessing aspects of history at the wheel adjusting the price accordingly based on the claims.

To get more competitive prices can help our car insurance comparison with which not only saves money, but also time in choosing the car insurance deal that best fits your needs.ExamplesAmong the available supply in the market stands Insurance Penelope, a new brand launched by the Group Hotline offering coverage to address the peace and safety of the drivers, but can also be contracted by men. This insurance is intended to make life easier for the insured, particularly as related to roadside assistance, field repairs, workshops and specific allowances.

Coverages offered highlights of theft bag inside the car, offering compensation of up to 200 euros and the management of low credit cards. Penelope offers roadside assistance for pregnant women, in case of indisposition for this contingency, are responsible for the insured and take your car to a medical center or to their home, as required. Car service also offers Agenda, helping to save time conducting, managing the agenda revisions of your car. In the repairs, the insured will have free choice of workshop and the assurance that your car will be washed and vacuumed after repair.Other highlights include the additional cover legal assistance on various topics such as labor law, fiscal or civilian vehicle repaired in situ, wherever possible and collection and delivery services vehicle, crane urgent (roadside assistance unlimited mileage) and replacement vehicle, among others.

Another policy to mention is the Policy We Pelayo, to suit the specific needs of everyday women and among other features the following