Road rage cover only offered by one in eight policies

Defaqto's annual report on the car insurance industry has found that only one in eight policies offer any cover for road rage incidents.

This comes despite Defaqto's consumer research that identified cover for road rage incidents as an important differentiator for consumers when deciding on policy purchase, particularly among drivers aged 55-plus.

94% of car insurance policies in 2010 do not offer any cover for road rage, although this is still an improvement from 2005, when the figure was 99%. Benefit limits range from £500 to £5,000 and usually cover costs incurred for professional counselling, although some also give a benefit for physical assault.

Mike Powell, author of the report and Defaqto's Insight Analyst for General Insurance, said: "Although this is a potentially useful benefit, the exclusions under this section are very clear and could make claiming difficult. Exclusions include incidents caused by a relative or a person known to the policyholder, or incidents caused or contributed by anything said or done by the insured person or passenger in the car. In the heat of the moment, many people may find it difficult to stay calm, and it could therefore be hard to prove to the insurer that the insured person did not contribute to the situation by anything that was said."

The report provides an overview of the car insurance sector in the UK, including:

Market size
Current issues, including ‘fronting' and ‘claims farming'
Distribution and the growth of aggregators
Environmentalism and safety
Product trends

The in-depth report also includes findings from Defaqto's consumer research, which asked a sample of 5,000 respondents to rank the importance of 45 different product features. The results of this have been aggregated into Defaqto's research tools and methodology to help providers with their product development and marketing.