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General insurance questions (while I have my calm head on)



Darren S

ClioSport Club Member
Right.

Being as calm and sedate as I can about the subject, I'd like to ask some generalisations about how a car insurance premium is calculated. I would appreciate any feedback from those people who work within the industry to add some comments on here. After all, we fork out shedloads of cash per year for diddly squat. At the very least, I'd like to understand some of the justifications of this expense.
  1. Postcodes. Is there a general rule that says areas catagorised as 'B' are twice at risk than those of 'A', 'C' is twice the risk of 'B' and so on? How does that factor into the calculation? More importantly, how often are these postcodes reviewed and updated?
  2. NCBs. Do no claims actually account for much? A lot of people (myself included) preach about how many years no claims they have, but some online insurance companies only go up to a maximum of 3 years and over. Clearly having 11 doesn't mean much then?
  3. Job title. I understand the risks for say a doorman/pub worker leaving his car at work compared to that of a vicar. But what about the large grey area in the middle? What bearing does a Professional job have over something like a job in HM Customs? Why do some sites have several, detailed options for IT, when I would have thought IT alone would be sufficient. Is that purely for data collection purposes with no influence on the premium?
  4. The 25-year-old bracket. A myth? Personally, my insurance went down by £30 for the following year after I reached 25. Is the limit more like 30 these days? If it is, it didn't make any difference then, either.
  5. Married status. Why is there a belief that your premium should go down if you add your partner to the policy? I've no issues with it personally, but in the past, I've saved over £150 by adding Jain to my policy - regardless of whether or not she drove my car. That intrigues me.
  6. Car location. Does the premium alter significantly between driveway and road? This is very, very vague to say the least. We live on a dirt track, but to the online insurance database, the only option available to us is 'on the main road'. A main carriageway of hurling traffic couldn't be further from the truth. Yet in the calculation, this must carry a lot of weight.
  7. Additional security. Such as Tracker, etc. Do insurance companies take note of this for the most part and are there ones preferred over other tracker manufacturers?
  8. Miles per year. One of the very few things that I can see the logic with. More miles = more time on the road = more risk. However, there must be stages in the miles that push the premium to the next bracket? Would putting 15,000miles per year hike up the premium massively compared to say 13,000miles per year?
  9. "Are you a named driver on another policy?" What bearing does this have?
  10. "How many other cars are at your household?" Again, what bearing does this have on the premium?
There are plenty more, but these are the main ones for now. I want (and probably a great deal of people on this forum as well) to understand the mechanics of how a premium is calculated. So that I don't fly into a rage everytime I hear about car insurance and (hopefully) be able to apply some logic as to where the figure comes from.

Many thanks,
Darren.
 
Last edited:
Darren S said:
1)[*]NCBs. Do no claims actually account for much? A lot of people (myself included) preach about how many years no claims they have, but some online insurance companies only go up to a maximum of 3 years and over. Clearly having 11 doesn't mean much then?
2)[*]Job title. I understand the risks for say a doorman/pub worker leaving his car at work compared to that of a vicar. But what about the large grey area in the middle? What bearing does a Professional job have over something like a job in HM Customs? Why do some sites have several, detailed options for IT, when I would have thought IT alone would be sufficient. Is that purely for data collection purposes with no influence on the premium?
3)[*]The 25-year-old bracket. A myth? Personally, my insurance went down by £30 for the following year after I reached 25. Is the limit more like 30 these days? If it is, it didn't make any difference then, either.
4)[*]Married status. Why is there a belief that your premium should go down if you add your partner to the policy? I've no issues with it personally, but in the past, I've saved over £150 by adding Jain to my policy - regardless of whether or not she drove my car. That intrigues me.
5)[*]Additional security. Such as Tracker, etc. Do insurance companies take note of this for the most part and are there ones preferred over other tracker manufacturers?
6)[*]Miles per year. One of the very few things that I can see the logic with. More miles = more time on the road = more risk. However, there must be stages in the miles that push the premium to the next bracket? Would putting 15,000miles per year hike up the premium massively compared to say 13,000miles per year?
7)[*]"Are you a named driver on another policy?" What bearing does this have?
8)[*]"How many other cars are at your household?" Again, what bearing does this have on the premium?
1) Yep they do upto about 5 years some palces let you use beyond that age is the factor. When you tell them 11 they just say full.
2)It will have an effect I messed about with descriptions before now and can vary it by about 105 with different jobs garage workers/doctors/solicitors are the worse to insure. WOn't help as well they they usually do lots of milage or driving loads of expensive/powereful cars but they are the worst.
3) Agreed everyone raved about it but never made any different the supposide drop down prices.
4) Married means you've responsibilites kids possibly etc so won't drive as menatal as you've not the cahs to afford to crash so rive more steady plus the woman will kep you in touch better. I#ve added my parents to my policy they've never as far as I know driven it but its £150 off the other advanatge to insurers is that they think of the milage the car can do some will be done by the lower rish drivers hence I pay less since they mad do 40% of the milage and insurance for them is half the price as they arn't as likly to crash.
5) Depends on area and security of the car mine makes no noticbale difference its noted on the policy (then again mine doens't need an aram stock security is enought for insurnace) however my mate whos car is the same inregards stock security is enough has one and since he lives in a higher risk area he gets £100 off for having it fitted. Type doens't matter its the CAT rating and the fact you have it fitted properly. They need to know make to make sure you'r not lieing.
6) Its difficult to say you'll do exactly 10/12/13k so they just group it otherswise the calculations for milage would take longer to do.
7) Years agao (not so much now) it used to be popular for parents to say they were the main driver of a spoliered up Saxo VTR etc and there sons were extra drivers for cheap insurance and they were the other drivers on a more mundane car. Whilst your possible a high risk driver you might be trying to insure a 17 year old on the car which would be more expensive for them on there own.
8) If you insure a say Micra 1.0 but there aloads of other cars at home ie Scoobies etc then since many policies let you drive other cars third party you'd be driving round in a scoobie legally and the risk of a claim is higher.
laos swopping cars is higher rish if you drive one car all the time your less likly to crash iuf you drive say a Mondeo and a Cup you'll might get mixed up and try and shoot out of a junction in the Mondeo thinking its thew Cup and cause a crash.
I used to have trouble with this as there were at one time 5 others cars at home and with only 5 people in the house explaining away more than one car per person wasn't easy.
 
If you dont like paying insurance then take up the alternative and lodge £1000000 with the Solicitor General or whatever the current figure is.
Providing you do this no need to deal with any companies.
But apart from finding the money up front be prepared to find the £4.5 million in the event you possibly leave someone brain damaged or whatever and you are deemed negligent.

Compared to that i think car insurance is good value.
 
stuart2088 said:
If you dont like paying insurance then take up the alternative and lodge £1000000 with the Solicitor General or whatever the current figure is.
Providing you do this no need to deal with any companies.
But apart from finding the money up front be prepared to find the £4.5 million in the event you possibly leave someone brain damaged or whatever and you are deemed negligent.

Compared to that i think car insurance is good value.
Yep thats always one option I think the new amount is £10million though.
 

Cue

ClioSport Club Member
  182 Trophy #274
lol, was on about this last week..... whatever they say insurance companies make up premiums. I've got mates the do quotes and they know the market so will come up with a figure in the 'ball park' then they like to check how accurate it is by asking what's your best quote? then if they can they'll undercut that quote. Utter bollox is insurance premiums.

I just turned 30 and my insurance has gone up! 11 yrs no claims, 1 sp30 from 3 years ago living in one of the best areas of the country for low car crime rate (official figures).

go online, fill in a quote form. go back the next day and do another quote from scratch and they are always different!!!!!! even the programmes have been set up to spout s**t!

:( still you have to have it - another tax that's carefully hidden for all drivers.
 


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