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.
Many thanks,
Darren.
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.
- 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?
- 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?
- 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?
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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?
- 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?
- "Are you a named driver on another policy?" What bearing does this have?
- "How many other cars are at your household?" Again, what bearing does this have on the premium?
Many thanks,
Darren.
Last edited: