Research analysing ten million claims made over the past ten months has revealed that motorists in the village on Winchelsea, East Sussex are most likely to have their car stolen or damaged, with 4.1% of the population making claims on their car insurance in the last five years.

Next in line were the towns of Saltburn-by-the-Sea in Cleveland and Godstone in Surrey, with just over 3% of the population making a claim between 2003 and 2008.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the survey was that the highest number of claims came from villages and small towns. However, large urban centres including Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool and the London borough of Hackney also proved to be a massive target for thieves.

The results of the online survey highlight the importance of taking out Third Party Fire and Theft or Comprehensive insurance, rather than relying on Third Party Only insurance, the absolute minimum amount of insurance allowed under the law. As its name suggests, Third Party Fire and Theft insurance entitles you to claim for damages if your car is stolen or sustains damage as a result of theft, or is damaged or destroyed by fire.

While no-one can fully protect their car from being broken into, motorists can certainly reduce the risk by making sure that valuable items such as mobile phones, sat-navs and stereos are hidden from view. Additional cost-effective methods include fitting an alarm or steering wheel lock. Motorists with access to a garage should keep their cars locked away at night, which can also reduce insurance premiums.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 21st, 2008 at 4:47 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.