Sharp Rise In Insurance Payouts Blamed On Keyless Entry
Friday, 5. April 2019
Insurance payouts, as a result of the theft of a vehicle or from a vehicle, increased by a whopping 29% in 2018 over the previous year. Insurance companies blame keyless theft as the main culprit. Some £376 million was paid out in claims following the theft of a vehicle or from a vehicle in 2018.
That is now the highest figure on record and the Association of British Insurers (ABI) which compiled the figures added that a claim for theft was submitted every 6 minutes last year and companies paid out over £1 million a day as settlement.
Laurenz Gerger, the ABI’s policy advisor called the rise ‘worrying’ and went on to call for ‘action,by the car manufacturers to tackle this high-tech vulnerability’. However, he added that drivers themselves could do more by taking some simple precautions to help to combat the crime.
The advice from the ABI is: Park cars in well-lit areas, keep keys far away from windows and external doors, switch keyless keys’ signals off overnight if possible and keep keys in a signal-blocking Faraday bag.
Hope that helps as it’s one of the worst feelings ever when you look for your car and find that it’s been stolen. By Graham Hill
