Insurance rip off if your unemployed !!!

teulk · 4 Apr 2013 at 18:00

I have just been looking at quotes for my wife as we are looking to get her car back on the road. She has 5yrs ncb and the car has only been off the road for 3months.
I couldn't believe the difference in one quote i checked - it was over £300 more if i said she was unemployed !!!! It jumped from £288 to £608.

That is shocking :eek:

[TW]Fox · 4 Apr 2013 at 18:05

This is because statistically unemployed people are a higher risk to the insurer.

shauncr91 · 4 Apr 2013 at 18:11

You're really surprised that the unemployed are seen as more of a risk?

Kenai · 4 Apr 2013 at 18:16

Given all the whinging about how mean IDS is and how poor unemployed people are it's a wonder any of them can afford a car in the first place

scratch · 4 Apr 2013 at 18:23

I guess unemployed people have more opportunities to use their car than somebody who is in work during the day/night, so that statistically increases the likelihood that they will have a crash.

dfarrall · 4 Apr 2013 at 18:30

£600 a rip off? hah, try being a young driver and you'll find it doubles that at least

AndrewNR · 4 Apr 2013 at 18:41

Just renewed my insurance, was about £540.00 last year. Renewed it for £308.00. Looks like the age beginning with a 3 works wonders.

Clarkey · 4 Apr 2013 at 18:47

Being ocuk there will be a complete lack of sympathy for the unemployed, but I do see this as ridiculous. Doubling the premium due to one factor? For reference, declaring a bucket seat increased my premium by 1%. Think about the reasons one would make such a change, then compare the risk to covering someone who sits on their arse most of the time and can barely afford to drive anywhere?

Something Else · 4 Apr 2013 at 18:53

try being young haha. my group on car used to cost me £1500 and the car before which i said was valued at £100 cost me near £2k

Westyfield2 · 4 Apr 2013 at 19:00

It's all statistics at the end of the day. Though I'm kinda surprised how it's managed to last TBH, everything else in the world seems to have been hit by the politically correct equality bandwagon.

teulk · 4 Apr 2013 at 19:05

Given the fact that most "employed" drivers travel twice a day at peak times when there are more people on the roads - i would think they are at more risk of an accident, driving early in the morning ( tired ) and then again after work in the evening ( tired ).

-westy- · 4 Apr 2013 at 19:12

An unemployed person would generally have less money to run a car though, therefore more likely to claim off their insurance if they (for example) damaged a wheel on a curb, requiring replacement of the alloy. Therefore are at higher risk of claiming.

AndrewNR · 4 Apr 2013 at 19:16

teulk said:
Given the fact that most "employed" drivers travel twice a day at peak times when there are more people on the roads - i would think they are at more risk of an accident, driving early in the morning ( tired ) and then again after work in the evening ( tired ).

Of the population that are unemployed there is a mix of intelligent graduates looking for a job, knuckle draggers and those in-between. Unfortunately insurance will, from experience (statistics) dictate that the knuckle draggers writing bangers off left right and centre are more of a liability than your average white collar worker.

Hxc · 4 Apr 2013 at 19:21

Unemployed people have more accidents, thus they pay more.

dfarrall said:
£600 a rip off? hah, try being a young driver and you'll find it doubles that at least

Pfft. Never paid more than £800

£341 at 21 now, ehehhe.

Dogbreath · 4 Apr 2013 at 19:42

This year something amazing happened to my bike insurance:

1) My renewal was 20% cheaper than last years
2) My renewal was within a few pounds of the cheapest quote I could find (who happened to be the same insurer, but with a new policy).

That has never, ever happened to me before.

mame · 4 Apr 2013 at 19:56

If I've got to pay £600 to insure unemployed people's cars then I had better get some overtime in.

Hxc · 4 Apr 2013 at 20:01

Dogbreath said:
This year something amazing happened to my bike insurance:

1) My renewal was 20% cheaper than last years
2) My renewal was within a few pounds of the cheapest quote I could find (who happened to be the same insurer, but with a new policy).

That has never, ever happened to me before.

It appears the gender ruling has indeed reduced prices for a lot of males. I fundamentally don't agree with it, but I can't really complain about paying less.

Participant · 4 Apr 2013 at 22:21

Clarkey said:
Being ocuk there will be a complete lack of sympathy for the unemployed, but I do see this as ridiculous. Doubling the premium due to one factor? For reference, declaring a bucket seat increased my premium by 1%. Think about the reasons one would make such a change, then compare the risk to covering someone who sits on their arse most of the time and can barely afford to drive anywhere?

There are teams of actuaries working through very clever ratings models to arrive at premiums for various risk categories. You might be the most sensible chap in the world, but do you think an insurance company is going to interview every policy holder to find out their character first?

Gribs · 4 Apr 2013 at 23:34

-westy- said:
An unemployed person would generally have less money to run a car though, therefore more likely to claim off their insurance if they (for example) damaged a wheel on a curb, requiring replacement of the alloy. Therefore are at higher risk of claiming.

The costs relating to those sort of claims are insignificant when compared to the temptation to make a few grand with a "whiplash" claim. Blame all the crash for cash cases and insurers being limited in what they can base the risk on.

-westy- · 4 Apr 2013 at 23:54

Gribs said:
The costs relating to those sort of claims are insignificant when compared to the temptation to make a few grand with a "whiplash" claim. Blame all the crash for cash cases and insurers being limited in what they can base the risk on.

Hence my usage of the phrase "For Example".