Insurance
Do insurance companies recognise the Ghost immobiliser?
Some insurers care, some do not, and a few ask for something a Ghost cannot give them. Here is how to find out which yours is before you spend anything.
This is the question we get asked most often about the Ghost, and it is usually asked in the hope of a simple yes. The honest answer is that it depends on your insurer, and that anybody giving you a flat yes is telling you what you want to hear.
Here is what is actually going on, and how to get a real answer for your own policy in about ten minutes.
Recognised is not the same as required
Three different things get muddled together in this conversation, and separating them makes the rest straightforward.
Required means the insurer will not cover the vehicle, or will not cover it at the price quoted, unless something specific is fitted. This is common on higher value cars and it is usually a tracker they are asking for, named by Thatcham category.
Recognised means they accept it exists, will note it on the policy, and may take it into account. This is where a Ghost usually sits.
Rewarded means your premium goes down. This is the rarest of the three and the one most often implied by people selling security.
A Ghost is very often recognised. It is occasionally required. It is sometimes, but far from always, rewarded.
Why a Ghost does not have a Thatcham category
When an insurer writes “Thatcham approved” into a policy, they are almost always talking about a tracker, and they will name a category like S5 or S7. Those categories describe stolen vehicle tracking and recovery, which is a different job from what a Ghost does.
We have written separately about what insurers actually mean by Thatcham, because the wording causes more confusion than almost anything else in vehicle security.
The important part here: if your policy specifies a Thatcham category tracker, a Ghost does not satisfy that requirement. Not because it is inferior, but because it is not the thing being asked for. It is a bit like being asked for a smoke alarm and fitting an excellent lock.
If that is your situation, you need a Thatcham approved tracker, and you may want the Ghost as well for a different reason.
What insurers do care about
In our experience the questions that actually come up are these.
Who fitted it. This is the one people underestimate. An immobiliser fitted by somebody’s cousin in a driveway and an immobiliser fitted by an accredited installer are not the same proposition to an underwriter, because one of them can be verified and the other cannot.
Securacar are TASSA approved installers. TASSA is the approval scheme for the people doing the fitting rather than for the equipment, and it exists precisely because the same system fitted well and fitted badly are not the same product. It is the answer to “and who did the work?”, which is the question that follows “what have you had fitted?”.
Whether it is declared. An insurer cannot take into account something they do not know about, and there are circumstances where not telling them causes problems of its own. We have covered when and how to tell your insurer in more detail.
What it actually does. Some underwriters understand immobilisers well. Others will ask you to explain, and a clear answer helps: it is a hidden immobiliser that requires a code entered on the vehicle’s own controls before the engine will start, and it is not defeated by the key being cloned or stolen.
How to get a real answer in ten minutes
Ring your insurer, or read the policy schedule rather than the summary, and ask three specific questions.
- Does the policy require any particular security to be fitted? If yes, get the exact wording, including any Thatcham category.
- If I fit a hidden immobiliser, will you record it, and does it affect the premium? The answer may be no on the premium. That is still useful to know before you spend.
- Do you require the installation to be done by an accredited installer? Some do. If yours does, ask which schemes they accept.
Write the answers down. If you then speak to us, send us that wording rather than your summary of it, because the difference between the two is where claims come apart.
The honest position
Most people who fit a Ghost are not doing it for the premium. They are doing it because they would rather the car was still on the drive in the morning, and the insurance conversation is a secondary consideration that they hope will go their way.
That is the right way round. A discount, where it exists at all, is rarely the thing that justifies the spend. If your insurer offers one, treat it as a bonus rather than the reason.
And if your insurer specifically requires a Thatcham tracker, tell us before you order anything. We would far rather point you at the right product than sell you the wrong one and have you find out at the worst possible moment.
Send us your policy wording and the make, model and year of the car, and we will tell you plainly what satisfies it.