Insurers deny Twitter will push up premiums

 

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By Hani Megerisi

Posted on 23 Feb 2010 at 14:40

Insurance companies have refuted suggestions that careless use of social-networking sites could push up premiums.

Speaking to the Telegraph, Darren Black, head of home insurance at Confused.com, said that premium rises of up to 10% could be possible with the increase in social-networking usage and criminals’ exploitation of the web.

However, several members of the insurance industry have told PC Pro that use of social networking is not taken into account when firms are assessing claims.

In fact, it doesn't impact on claims at all, according to Malcolm Tarling at the Association of British Insurers. He said that, while “insurers always look at the impact of trends” such as social networking, any comments made to the public were “merely advising people to protect their possessions... in a similar way to advisory notices from the police”.

Mr Tarling cited websites such as Pleaserobme.com for heightening fears over social networking, but reiterated that the use of these sites hadn't affected investigations into claims.

Tarling's comments were backed up by a spokesperson from insurance provider More Than, who said that the use of services such as Facebook and Twitter was “not relevant to insurance claims at the moment”.

A spokesman for DirectLine said that "when a customer applies for home insurance we do not ask them any questions, or provide assumptions for them to agree with regarding their use of social networking sites."

However, the spokesman did concede that "disclosing information that could have a direct impact on a person's individual or home security could potentially impact a claim."

When asked to cite examples of insurance firms punishing customers for social-networking slip ups, Darren Black told PC Pro that his comments in the interview were merely a projection of “possible future trends” and that a person’s use of Facebook or Twitter was “not in anyone’s pricing at the moment”.