Text or call while driving? Face insurance blacklisting

Some insurers are refusing to cover motorists who get caught texting or making phone calls while driving

Picture the scene, you're driving and the phone rings but no handsfree because bluetooth is not connecting and the earphones were left at home.

Believing that the worst that can happen is a £60 fine and 3 points (same as a single speeding offence) you take the call.

Wrong. If convicted you may find yourself blacklisted by insurance companies or having to pay around 20% more.

A single conviction for using a mobile at the wheel, even though it carries a similar penalty to speeding is, to an insurance company, far more serious.

Why?  Because a motorist might break a 30mph speed limit without noticing, but no one texts, emails or makes a call by accident. 

AA Spokesman Ian Crowder said: ‘Insurers are taking mobile phone offences very seriously. It might seem severe but when operating a mobile phone you don’t have both hands on the steering wheel, you aren’t looking fully at the road and can’t change gears safely."

The Association of British Insurers said: ‘One conviction for using a mobile is unlikely to preclude a motorist from getting insurance altogether although inevitably it will cost more.’
However, AA researchers called insurers to quote for a 40-year-old man driving a Ford Mondeo. 3 companies refused to cover anyone with a conviction for using a phone. 

Premiums went up by less than 10% for a single speeding conviction, which carries the same penalty of a £60 fine and three points. 

More than 170,000 motorists a year in England and Wales are caught using their phones while driving.