10:50 am, June 18, 2008
DRIVERS caught using their mobile phones at the wheel may have to pay hundreds of pounds more for car insurance.
Leading insurers now consider the offence as serious as unsafe driving and could make guilty drivers pay up to 30 per cent more for cover.
Companies such as Norwich Union, Zurich, Alliance and Leicester, Churchill and Allianz ask drivers if they have a conviction for using their hand-held mobile phone and take it into account when calculating quotes, reported The Daily Mail yesterday.
The additional insurance cost for convicted drivers varies between companies, but Allianz adds 30% to premiums. The average annual car insurance is £682, according to the AA, which means convicted motorists with the company would pay £204 extra a year.
An Allianz spokesman said: ‘We hope that other insurers will follow our lead. We need to enforce the message that this is a dangerous and needless act.’
