Does anyone actually understand how insurance quotes are calculated?

[PastyBoy]

Scenario A

A pasty boy needs to buy a second car to commute from his new house to his place of work.

He finds a nice cheap Ibiza GTI that would suit for the 20 mile daily round trip and the occaisonal trackday should the opportunity arise.

He puts his details in to various website (comparison and direct) and the prices back range from the acceptable to the frankly ridiculous but ALL without fail come in at more money that it has cost to renew the insurance on his modified Fabia VRS which has more power than, and is worth 4 times more than, the Ibiza.

Scenario B

A pasty boy does all of the above but adds his girlfriend to the quote

He receives prices back that are almost £100 less!! (although still mostly more than the Fabia policy)

Well the stats say she's safer so even if she's not driving it regularly there has to be less chance of an accident

Scenario C

A pasty boy thinks that if a 20 something woman brings the price down that much imagine what would happen if he adds his 40 something mother to the quote.

He receives pricing back that is more expensive than him and his partner, but less than if he was insured on his own.

It is absolute madness!

Edited 26 January, 2011 by PastyBoy

[danroly]

there is an exact science behind it pastyboy...................its called Bullsh*itology...........i had a little fiesta, they told me high prices cos it ws worth blah blah.....i got a cheaper vectra, price hike cause its a bigger engine, i had kids so thought that would make things cheaper......noooooo, more expensive cos the kids might distract me.....now i pay less on the vrs than i did on the vectra (which was worth £400 max).

It makes no sense.

[PastyBoy]

Oh I forgot Scenario D

A pasty boy get a great price on one of the comparison sites from a big name who have telly adverts and everything.

clicks the link to go to their own site just to double check details.

Oh I entered "Accounts - Manager" as a job title on the comparison site but the insurance site has put in "Accountant" better correct that.

BANG up goes thep policy by £100

It's not like I changed it from a financial office job to "Stunt Driver"!

From one desk based job to a slightly less authoritative one and apparently it makes me a more unsafe driver!!!

Me thinks that when i take the policy out I AM an accountant, who by massive coincidence gets demoted shortly afterwards! awww the shame of it!

Un-FREAKING-believable

[PastyBoy]

today i had scenario F

Maybe a 150bhp hot hatch is a little excessive for what is essentially a commuting tool for 20 miles a day

What about a mid 90's 1.0L Nissan Micra

Exactly the same details as before

New premium £50 less than the Ibiza

I have no clue!

[yegnold]

I think that their algorithms/risk assessments say that if you are in a cheaper car then you are less likely to care about it and therefore more likely to whack in to the side of an AMG Mercedes in a car park or something. Remember, you're paying primarily for the risk of hitting another (likely considerably more expensive) car rather than protection of your own car.

I certainly treat cheap/valueless cars with much more caution on the roads than ridiculously fast BMWs etc. Generally if you've got a nice car you care about it and will exercise a little caution...

[anewman]

I wish I knew, recently moved, I got a nice refund then, and my cheapest quotes have more than halved from what I paid last year. I always add my girlfriend to my policy even though she has only ever driven my car once and has drive other cars cover on her own policy, as it always seems to come out cheaper.

Oh and if you ever end up unemployed it is usually cheaper to describe yourself as a house husband than unemployed - both mean pretty much the same thing in my eyes. Try this out http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/insurance/car-insurance-job-picker/

[slicendice]

As a matter of fact, I do happen to understand....this is from a source deep inside the insurance industry so no names can be mentioned.

Basically it involves using something similar to a roulette wheel, only instead of numbers, there are little pictures of animals. When you ask for a quote, they spin up the wheel and see what animal the ball lands on. They then buy one of those animals, cook it up with specially selected vegetables in a large crockery pot and then smear the gravy on their bodies and dance inside a stone circle at midnight on a full moon. They then put on a large, false moustache and throw darts at a portrait of Boris Johnson - each facial feature has a score which is then multiplied by the weight (in miligrams) of the animal they originally cooked....and that's the price they quote you (note: the smallest animal on the roulette wheel is an elephant)

Yeh OK, so I don't really have the faintest clue.....but I suspect in reality it is far more weird/wacky than the above!!

Edited 2 February, 2011 by slicendice

[danroly]

well however they do its getting silly.............mine up for renewal and even tho i got 1 more year NCB and the car now worth less, quotes are doubling up to the £1,500 a year mark :'( :'( apparently there have been loads of claims in my area and my friend in the insurance game tells me there have been rises of 15-20% accross the board. barstewards

[mike07vrs]

It said on the news not long ago that the avergae UK insurance policy has increased by £200 taking the national avergae to £840, I ran my insurance on the assumption of taking out a new policy and mine had gone down by £100, I only took out the policy in October, nothing had changed for me except having another 4 months driving experience and turning 19.

[slicendice]

Last time I renewed, one of the brokers I spoke to said that premiums had gone up across the board recently due to a big increase in the number of:

1) uninsured drivers on the road

2) personal injury/compensation claims

So we're basically reaping the benefits of years and years worth of "no win, no fee" solicitors pushing people to make personal injury claims that are a load of hogwash