Higher car insurance for unemployed drivers?

When has insurance ever been fair, regardless of circumstances?

They have more available free time to spend driving but using the car to attend interviews, better themselves and so forth should be taken into account.
 
It's not ranging from 30-63%, it's 30% average with a 63% peak.

The trouble with stats like that is that insurers are well within their rights to charge 63% more if they want. Just as they are free to charge me 63% more if I tell them i've modified my car. It's risk they don't want so they give stupid quotes in order that people either don't bother or they get paid for it if people are stupid enough to accept the quote. The range will be skewed by insurers who just aren't interested at all so give ridiculous quotes.

You are free to go to any other insurer who are happier to accept that risk and thus do not charge such a premium for it.

This is almost as much of a non story as when you get those 'LOL it costs a 17 year old £43,000 for insurance' headlines before they mention in the end they actually got insured for about £1,500 with someone else.

edit - Classic example in that story:

Unemployed Cambridge architect Chris Palmer told the BBC that when he renewed his car insurance after being made redundant last November, his insurer increased his premium by £98 - a 40% rise.

Mr Palmer said he subsequently negotiated a lesser increase with his insurer - £50 - after finding a better deal elsewhere.

That's just how insurance works, it always has, it always will, they try it on and hope people are lazy and don't shop around.

I will never understand this fascination with ridiculous quotes being held up as the be all and end all.
 
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shifty_uk said:
When has insurance ever been fair, regardless of circumstances?

They have more available free time to spend driving but using the car to attend interviews, better themselves and so forth should be taken into account.
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They say the statistics bear out that unemployed people make more claims, hence the higher premium.

But I think the reasoning of how driving to some interviews is more than driving every day to work is a little spurious.

It's more likely the other reasons offered, like unemployed people tend to not keep the car as well maintained, new tires, brakes etc due to money constraints.

Is it fair, not really in a moral sense but fairness isn't the top agenda for companies making a profit.
 
i swear some people think insurance companies pluck their figures out of the ether

unemployed drivers insurance premiums will be higher than employed drivers premiums, because over a number of years, the insurance company has found that pro rata, unemployed drivers have incurred more claims/higher claim costs than employed drivers.
 
It's all statistics.
Saytan said:
i swear some people think insurance companies pluck their figures out of the ether

unemployed drivers insurance premiums will be higher than employed drivers premiums, because over a number of years, the insurance company has found that pro rata, unemployed drivers have incurred more claims/higher claim costs than employed drivers.
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Bingo!
 
They are a higher risk group like young drivers so they should pay more in insurance. Its as simple as that.

As a side note people on benefits should not be able to afford to run a car.
 
Saytan said:
i swear some people think insurance companies pluck their figures out of the ether
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There must be at least an element of this, if your risk was calculated in some kind of standardised manner why would you get such a ridiculous range of premiums? Last time I did a quote for my car it came back with premiums from £250 to over £1500 (bearing in mind I'm an old git, clean licence, full NCB etc).

Saytan said:
one of the loading factors is "how much they want your business"
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Why would a company NOT want a low risk client?
 
Dogbreath said:
There must be at least an element of this, if your risk was calculated in some kind of standardised manner why would you get such a ridiculous range of premiums? Last time I did a quote for my car it came back with premiums from £250 to over £1500 (bearing in mind I'm an old git, clean licence, full NCB etc).



Why would a company NOT want a low risk client?
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No answer to this?

If it is just statistically based, why the huge variations in quotes, and why would a company not want my low risk (full ncb, no points or claims) business?
 
Freakbro said:
No answer to this?

If it is just statistically based, why the huge variations in quotes, and why would a company not want my low risk (full ncb, no points or claims) business?
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some companies want a very specific profile of drivers, e.g. privilege look for older drivers. Admiral group aggressively target younger drivers in quicker cars, which is why they are always pretty much the cheapest for that combination
 
Unemployed people are clearly irresponsible lay abouts with no pride and their insurance reasons reflect this as that kind of attitude will forward to their driving standards.

Scrap their benefits they shouldn't have cars what do they need them for if they are not working anyway? Crush the poors, purge the unclean, destroy the lower class, wipe out the infidels.
 
When your sitting in an office 8-5 mon-fri your not out on the road in your car. When you have that time free to do whatever you like you might be.
 
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