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Is 'offset' car insurance value for money?
14/ 4/2008
SOME insurers now offer `offset' car insurance deals, but are they value for money? We've compared green deals with our current Best Buys.
We got online quotes from a selection of companies for a 54-year-old man living in west London, driving a 2007 petrol Ford Focus 8,000 miles a year. We then repeated the exercise for an eco-friendly hybrid Toyota Prius.
All prices quoted were obtained on February 1, 2008.
The `green' options
Insurance company Ibuyeco currently offsets all of your car's carbon emissions for the year for nothing.
It quoted us £283 to insure the Focus and £328 for the Prius.
More Than offsets the first 3,000 miles of carbon emissions and quoted us £270 for the Focus and £311 for the Prius. Offsetting the 3,000 miles yourself with More Than's offset partner, the CarbonNeutral Company, would cost between £7.50 and £14, depending on the project supported.
In our example, you'd be better off insuring with a Best Buy and offsetting the emissions yourself.
Cheapest of the green bunch was Co-operative Insurance Services (CIS), which currently offsets 20 per cent of the average car's emissions and gives motorists the option of using recycled parts when their vehicle is repaired. CIS quoted us a competitive £218 for the Ford Focus and £246 for the Toyota Prius.
Best Buys
Of our Best Buys, Swiftcover beat all of the `green' options for both vehicles - it quoted £211 for the Focus and £220 for the Prius.
If you want to offset your car's carbon emissions, get quotes from a few Best Buys and compare them with the eco policies above.
The money you save with a Best Buy could be more than enough to offset all your emissions directly with one of the firms that scored well in our test, such as Climate Care or World Land Trust.
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Insurance policies that include 100% offsets are at least making a positive contribution with minimal effort - something which unfortunately is key to making a difference!
15/04/2008 at 11:43