We love cheap car insurance here at Hoot. We love it for bringing us together, and we love it for paying our wages. We take pride in providing some of the best motor insurance quotes on the web, and it shows in the unrivalled quality of customer service we offer.
But for some of us, cheap car insurance on its own just isn't enough any more. I'm talking about a hardcore contingent of extra-dedicated, extra-special team members who wish they could be giving you advice on the whole subject of motoring, not just the motor insurance part of it.
These guys represent an amazing and largely untapped reserve of motoring knowledge, and they want to share it all with you, via the Hoot Guides.
Let me give you a few examples of the kind of guides we at Hoot Car Insurance Services have produced to date. Take our guide to buying a used car, for instance - that's a really helpful one. Or how about the MOT test guide, the road tax guide, or guide to seatbelt law, all of which have had lots of hits and helped loads of people.
Now all that remains if for me to present this latest addition to the Hoot Guides series: The Hoot guide to penalty points.
Penalty point theory
Because car crime is generally unintentional and quite often
the result of inexperience, UK law gives each motorist the
chance to commit a minor driving offence or two before taking
their licence away.
These 'chances' are represented on your licence by the number of penalty points you have incurred, and this depends on the frequency and seriousness of the offences you commit.
In an ideal world, everyone wants a 'full, clean' licence, i.e. one without any penalty points on it. A clean standard licence can take up to 12 penalty points before it is revoked - that's the equivalent of four minor speeding offences.
However, since a change in the law in 1997, all drivers must wait two years after passing their first driving test before their licences will accommodate these 12 points. For this probationary period, they're only good for six - it's a bid to reduce the appalling casualty rate among newly qualified drivers.
'Endorsable' offences
Not all car-related crimes carry a penalty point charge.
For example: it's been illegal to use a hand-held mobile phone whilst driving since 2003, but until February 2007 the penalty for doing so usually only amounted to a £30 fine. A change in the law at that time means that that convictions now carry a £60 fine and three penalty points.
The technical term for applying these points to your licence is 'endorsing' them, and as such the crime of using a mobile whilst at the wheel has become an 'endorsable' one.
All serious driving offences and the majority of minor ones carry an endorsable penalty, with varying numbers of points reflecting the seriousness of the particular crime. Three-point penalties, like the example given above, apply to the least serious sort. Causing death by dangerous driving, on the other hand, can come with up to 11 points.
Endorsement expiry
All endorsements come with an expiry date, after which time
the points no longer count against your licence. And just
as more serious offences come with a higher points value,
they also take much longer to expire.
Take those eleven points you've been awarded for causing death by dangerous driving, for instance - they'll stay on your licence for the next 11 years. By comparison, endorsements for a minor crime like speeding are dispensed with in just four years.
This is excellent news when it comes to motor insurance, because insurers tend to put up the premiums of any driver with a less-than-clean licence. Even a minor offence ruins the average cheap car insurance rate, so it's reassuring to know that it need only stay that way for a few years.
Disqualification
If your licence is endorsed with twelve or more points in
a three-year period, you are liable to be banned from driving.
The disqualification follows a court hearing and lasts for
a period of time specified by that court, based on your particular
criminal circumstances.
Once the banned period is up you are free to reapply for your licence, but the success of your application will rely on your meeting certain case-specific criteria. If you lost your original licence due to drink driving offences, for example, you will need to prove you've sobered-up by passing a medical exam.
People who get disqualified within their first two years of driving fare slightly worse once they've paid their debt to society, however. They have to re-take and pass both parts of the full UK driving test before being allowed back onto the roads.
Cheap
car insurance from Hoot
If you've developed a sudden interest in penalty points, chances
are you're in the market for a cheap
car insurance deal, too.
Luckily for you, the team here at Hoot Car Insurance Services have spent years tracking down some exceptionally cheap car insurance policies for our customers, and we're confident we can make your jaw drop with one of our fantastic motor insurance quotes.
The secret of our runaway success in the cheap car insurance business is our approach to marketing. Hoot makes massive savings compared to other car insurance firms because we keep promotional expenditure to a bare minimum, and we pass these savings onto you via the aforementioned eye-popping quotes.
And as for the task of marketing our cheap car insurance brand? We've always been happy to leave that to our customers, who do a much better job of it by word of mouth than any expensive TV advert or radio jingle could.
So what are you waiting for? Click below for cheap car insurance quote.