Car Insurance New Product Benefits Update

Liberty Insurance: Aine

Since we entered the market, we have been working on improving our products with the view to offering new benefits, and ultimately providing better cover for our customers. You may have seen our advertising about some of our changes, so we’d like to give you more information about the improvements and tell you about those which we haven’t been advertising. We’re happy to answer any of your queries on these.

Better Car Replacement:
This is probably our most publicised change as it’s new and unique to the Irish market. You may have seen the TV ad for this, but if not you can view it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7iGqoAoQ7E&feature=plcp
We introduced Better Car Replacement (BCR) on 1st April 2012 on all comprehensive private car insurance policies.
The benefit means that if your car is a total loss (or write off), we will pay you the market value of a car of the same make and model that is one year newer and has 15,000km fewer on the clock than your own.



There are some exclusions where BCR doesn’t apply:

• where your vehicle is replaced as new under "New Car Replacement";
• to vehicles that are temporarily covered
• to vehicles used for public or private hire (Taxi/Hackney); or
• to vehicles that are older than 8 years at the time of loss.

And the restrictions are:


The most we will pay is:

• the market value of your vehicle plus 20%; and
• one "Better Car Replacement" in a policy year
• in the event that you have insured your vehicle for less than the current market value, we will reduce the amount we pay you in line with this.

Windscreen cover as standard:
As another change to our comprehensive car insurance policies, we have included windscreen cover as standard. This was an optional extra on all policies before 1st July 2012, but after speaking to consumers, it was quite clear to us that people expect to have this included on a comprehensive car insurance policy; so this is what we have done.
Windscreen cover can still be purchased as an optional extra on our third party, fire and theft policies.

Free Breakdown Assistance:
Just a quick note on this one. Whilst this is not a new benefit to us, we want to remind people that they have free 24 hour breakdown cover, including homestart, included in their private car insurance policy. What we have found is that some consumers don’t realise that this is covered under our third party, fire and theft policies as well as our comprehensive policies, so this is one point we want to clarify. This is also included on our taxi and hackney policies. Where it doesn’t apply is to fleet policies and commercial vehicle policies.
All of our benefits are subject to the terms and conditions of the policy.

We will keep you informed of further updates as they happen. There are a few improvements in the pipeline which we’re looking forward to telling you about. Any queries on these or any other policy features are very welcome.

john kinsella

Aine,

How is the current market value of the car calculated as a matter of interest?

Liberty Insurance: Aine

Hi John
The market value will be based on our engineer’s assessment with reference to industry guides.
Aine

john kinsella

Thats a bit open ended isn't it? So it is your Engineers opinion on what its worth.

As far as I am aware there are no industry guides on car value in Ireland i.e. No blue book

If for example i write my 2008 car off and you offer me say €10,000 for a replacement one year younger and 15k less kms would you offer a direct replacement if I couldn't find a 2009 for €10,000?

Liberty Insurance: Aine

Hi John

Leave this with me. I'll need to speak to another department on your queries so will come back to you when I have more information.

Aine

Liberty Insurance: Aine

Hi John

In relation to valuing vehicles, it is a priority for us to offer a fair valuation to all claimants and to ensure that they are happy with the settlement. In order to do this for each valuation, we make use of sources such as the independent publication "Car Sales Guide" which is widely used in the industry. We would also refer to other sources such as a number of specific websites to arrive at a fair valuation of the vehicle in question based on age, condition, mileage etc. We employ experienced and qualified engineers to produce this valuation, and in certain circumstances may engage independent external motor assessors. The basis of our valuation is clearly explained to the claimant in each situation. It's worth noting also that each claimant has the right to appoint their own loss assessor for any claim at their own expense.
In relation to your example, it's not our general policy to source or offer replacement vehicles.

Hope this helps.
Aine