the benefits of a dashcam (by Luke, June 2024)
This is a quick look at the benefits of a dashcam and how they can help reduce insurance premiums. For extra insight we’ve involved our friend Tommy – he’s a Chartered Insurance Broker.
When looking at insurance for our mobile home one of the first things that came up in conversation was a dashcam. Our ‘Miss Daisy’ (as she’s affectionately known) will be a home away from home. With this in mind, anything that we can do to protect our investment is worth exploring.
There are dashcams available made by a variety of manufacturers but for now we’re just going to look at them as a whole. The important thing to cover is what they can do for a driver. Some dashcams offer front and rear recording and there are options available that come with a parking mode. This mode means that the dashcam starts recording when it ‘feels’ an impact while the vehicle is parked. Usually you’d stand little to no chance of finding out what had happened if someone was to collide with your vehicle and not stop or leave a note. With a dashcam your insurer would be much more likely to trace the culprit. This would lead to them seeking payment from the third party’s insurer which would reduce the impact on your premium.
Dashcam ownership has gone up dramatically in recent years. They are getting so popular that there is even a Sky TV series based around dashcam clips. Sometimes you can get a bit lost in dashcam video compilations and wonder how anyone survives being on the roads! As mentioned above there is a positive to dashcams that is more than just the entertaining (!!) footage.
insurance talk!
The cost of insurance seems to rise every year. Anything that you can do to show that you are not at fault and that the resulting repair costs from a claim are not your responsibility should have a positive impact on insurance premiums. This could be proving that you were in the correct lane and that a third party turned into you, showing that you were a victim of a ‘crash for cash’ scam or even by assisting to trace a driver who caused damage and failed to stop. A dashcam can make a difference to the initial cost of insurance. They may also help to mitigate the increases you’d see from what would otherwise be a 50/50 claim.
Dashcams are legal on UK roads and unless you are recording inside a shared vehicle you don’t have to notify anyone. As with anything in your vehicle the dashcam should not obstruct your view of the road. You also should not be distracted by it while driving. It’s worth noting that you could be prosecuted yourself if your dashcam is found to have been obstructing your view, and any recordings disregarded.
Dashcams are much more reasonably priced than when they first came out. Their increased popularity could be down to the price reduction in the units themselves as much as the ongoing benefit of helping with insurance premiums.
Different dashcam manufacturers work with different insurers, but some claim a 30% saving on insurance premiums. The potential cost saving coupled with the safety/security benefits make dashcams worth exploring more.