I just looked at my elderly neighbour's car insurance renewal, and they tried to raise the price from £260 to £315, I'll have a word with them anyway, and need to remove his deceased wife from it, but when I checked on a comparison site, the cheapest elsewhere was £450! WTF's going on?
I just checked by adding his wife back on with a comparison site, it seems single people pay more than married people. I'll see if he wants to "forget" to tell them she died. The price rise is about £65 for having one less driver, which is insane. Do they think widowed people become reckless on the road? Apparently this was challenged in most US states, but the UK is still using it.
Husband and wife is usually cheaper.
In 2007 In Colorado my wife passed at age 60. So I called car insurance to take her off policy. I did not expect the rate would go down by half, but I certainly did not expect it to go up !!! And the amount was not trivial. The insurer was a well-known national outfit we had been with
40 years, with no claims.So I called my agent, and he either could not, or would not, explain why the increase. All he wanted to do was jigger with the coverages to get the rate back down.
So I contacted about 4 competitors, and got a rate even lower than the old rate, with another well-known national outfit.
Yip, I just fiddled with different options, and it's nothing to do with him being married or not. Adding a female driver lowers the premium, which is crazy. If you add your wife, all that's going to happen is more driving will take place. It cannot reduce the chances of an accident, since you'll use it the same amount yourself. In his case, his wife hated driving as she was getting a bit forgetful, so only he drove it. So basically, if you want a lower premium, put any woman as a second driver. It's not technically even fraud, since a named driver doesn't have to drive it, it's just there if they need it. I'm going to make someone up for my next policy. Or maybe perfectly legally put my sister on it, just in case she wants to borrow it sometime!
My neighbour's already on the lowest one. I put him on it last year, way cheaper than anyone else. I hope he doesn't insist on telling them she's no longer driving it. If he wants to be honest, he could put his other next door neighbour's wife on it, just in ca se she wants to use it. Women are safer drivers apparently ROTFPMSL! And how can MORE drivers in a car be safer?
Here in the UK more 'named drivers' on a policy nearly always reduce the cost, it doesn't matter if they're related or not. We virtually halved my M-I-L's premium by adding me, my wife and one of our children to her policy (we really do drive her car quite a lot so it's not 'cheating').
But above, his wife never drove it. Nothing has changed, there's still a car driven by a man, and a woman insured for it that never drives it.
They can't possibly know if my sister will ever use it when visiting me. It's there just in case she does.
Shit.... I don't think she has a license.
Doesn't always work like that. Consider a father adding his 17 year old son to his insurance, he's just passed his test, the premium will skyrocket. They ask when getting quotes about the named driver's history, so to reduce it, it has to be someone with a long clean driving history. And I'm sure it's some drivers being women that reduces it. Two men on a policy cannot be safer than one man, the car will clearly be used more by similar drivers.
I'm gonna have to add several women to my policy. It's not cheating even if they never drive it, the car is there just in case they want to. So is it cheaper to add more than one extra driver?
If they hadn't put each other on their policies, less driving would be possible.
No it isn't, there is no minimum amount of driving each driver has to do.
No it isn't. It's remotely (very) possible she might want to drive it one day. Might aswell have that safety net there.
For my neighbour, I might suggest he puts one of his female neighbours (or me if it doesn't matter what sex they are) on his insurance just in case we need to give him a lift to hospital or something, more convenient if his car is left there for him to drive back. Oh, how would I get back. Anyway.... it might come in handy.
Good idea.
As I'm getting older and possibly above some insurance age threshold my premiums are creeping up, even using comparison sites. What I've found adjusting the excess that I will pay can reduce the premium by the almost the same amount.
UK Legislation changed this year. Insurance companies can no longer offer discounts to new customers if they don't offer the same discount to existing customers. However, This doesn't mean that they have to offer the same premium to a 50 year old and a 70 year old :(
I've got a car, a pickup, and three motorcycles each with separate policy. I tried to explain I could only drive one at a time but it was no go. At least I get a multi-vehicle discount.
There's a few companies in the UK that do multi car policies, but not many. Most are either single car or fleet (as in 30 at least).
You can also get insurance that allows you to drive other cars. But they usually have some weird rule that the other car must be owned and insured by someone else - WTF? Why would it need insurance twice?
I think my policy covers other vehicles but I'm not sure. The last time I drove somebody's car was when a hang glider pilot asked me if I'd drive his truck down to the trailhead for him. The road up the mountain is gated and I'd walked up it many times but never drove on it. It was interesting to say the least. One section is steep enough that the trail switchbacks several times rather than follow the road.
Premium is based on risk profile. Insurance companies exist to make a profit therefore are quite aware of risk profile. You'll find they have evidence to suggest single drivers are more of a risk than married ones.
Many (most?) policies in the UK provide this cover.
I think the requirement "that the other car must be owned and insured by someone" is to allow the police (and others) to check that a car is insured. I.e. given the registration number it's quick and simple for an automatic check to see if it's insured. If a 'driver' was insured then there's no way to check if any particular car on the road has insurance.
Way back (in the late 60s or early 70s) I had one insurance cover note which referred to one particular car but then added "any car owned by the insurer". It was rather handy when the insurance on my other car had expired (simple forgetfulness) and I was stopped by the police and had to show insurance within 5 days. Police station where I showed it was quite happy with the 'any car' cover note.
I'm 75 now and still have a (big) 'bike as well as cars. So far the 'bike insurance has remained pretty steady. I have passed the three yearly medical so I can keep my 7.5 tonne and trailer entitlements but I'm not sure if insurers bother to look at such things.
You could be uninsured if you lie on an insurance declaration. I guess you could add yourself to it just in case he needs you to pick him up from somewhere, say an eye examination and takes you in his car and then has drops in the eyes. Brian
Repeatedly adjusted quotes are a marker for fraud at the backend.
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