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INSURANCE COMPANY
SUPPLIES ACCIDENT KIT FOR MOTORING POLICY CLIENTS.
We have just
paid for this year's Premium for our Ford Focus, which after six years is
still going very well with 135.000 km on the clock. I was
with another agency for over six years, but as we all should, I decided to
shop around and was amazed that the quotation from IBEX was €100 less
for the same cover than my previous company. Now when you are retired
and having to watch the cents (hey wait a second, most us need to watch the
cents now whatever our ages), a reduction from almost €600 to nearly
€500 (-17%) is quite a saving.
About two years
ago, I had an interview with one of the directors and several managers in
their new offices in Sotogrande near Gibraltar, of IBEX who were just
getting set up in Spain. They have offices in Gibraltar but to satisfy
EU Directives, they needed to be established in Spain for Spanish business.
They are underwritten by Lloyds of London so are financially sound.
During the lunch/interview, I handed over a copy of the book, and one
recommendation I have always made is to carry a camera in the car or bike,
so that in case of an accident you can take quality pictures to hopefully
help your case. I suggested a throwaway film camera as the photos can
be enlarged a lot without ending up with the pixellation (little squares)
that you get with especially mobile phone cameras. Let us be honest,
how many of us carry a decent camera around every day? Not many, and
the throwaway cameras cost only about €6 to
€10, and have a built-in flash for night work, as well as
24 photos; enough for any accident.
The kit has a
film camera with flash, a stick of chalk and a measuring tape and they are
all in a roll-up, hard wearing bag that will easily fit in the glove
compartment or under a seat, etc.
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Guardia Civil Campaign to check drivers
without insurance. (22 Jan 2008)
Just announced today, the Guardia Civil are to photograph
vehicles automatically and check if they have any insurance as recorded on
the database kept by the insurance companies database. No
insurance, a denuncia will be sent through the post, but there is a problem
for many who do not bother with such niceties as insurance, also have the
wrong addresses on the Trafico system.
But people who drive without any insurance are parasites
on all of us who do, for we have to pay an amount, not a lot admittedly,
into a fund that is there to cover the cost of accidents where the offending
driver is uninsured. So if you know of someone other that
yourself of course, who is driving uninsured, you are doing us all a favour
by reporting him or her.
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The UK IS HAVING THE SAME PROBLEMS
WITH:
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Foreign EU
vehicles used by new residents in Britain and visitors that are not insured
or who have paid any applicable road taxes.
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Uninsured
drivers now estimated at 1 in 20, which with the official 35 million
vehicles on the roads there means that 1, 75-million are now illegal.
This includes those with no insurance or road fund tax paid, for one usually
means the other also applies for these parasites, and of course, foreign
visitors (job-seekers?) and new EU residents.
Now, while the
big moan is that taxes are too high in Britain, the democratic way to solve
the problem is by getting the taxes removed or reduced legally, not by not
paying them. The British seem to have a reputation for not voting in
the right politicians since Margaret Thatcher, that is, who will make life
fair by reducing wasted government spending and making sure that any
tax-payer's cash spent is done so wisely and effectively.
It is proposed by the EU that from 2010 the fuel taxes
within the EU will be levelled so that they are the same in all countries.
This means a drastic cut for those collected in Britain so they will either
have to be collected from elsewhere (road charges per mile?) or spending
drastically reduced. It is up to the voters in the UK to decide.
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DRIVING LICENCE EXPIRED?
29 Feb. 2008.
If you forget to renew your driving licence when it has
expired, and this for foreign EU DL holders resident in Spain is if you
forget to take the mandatory medicals as well, you have four years to renew
it without taking a new driving test. Obviously while it is expired,
you may not drive using it.
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