Car Insurance Question

[Zoophonic]

A mate of mine has just retired and has gone to notify his car insurers. They have responded by putting up his premiums by £60. He has always been leisure only driver.

Is their any reason why being retired is regarded as a bigger risk than being employed? I need to tell my insurers I’ve retired too.

 

[Corcaigh_the_Cat]

A mate of mine has just retired and has gone to notify his car insurers. They have responded by putting up his premiums by £60. He has always been leisure only driver.

Is their any reason why being retired is regarded as a bigger risk than being employed? I need to tell my insurers I’ve retired too.

Have you reached retirement age?

 

[Jan_Aage_Fjortoft]

A mate of mine has just retired and has gone to notify his car insurers. They have responded by putting up his premiums by £60. He has always been leisure only driver.

Is their any reason why being retired is regarded as a bigger risk than being employed? I need to tell my insurers I’ve retired too.

Maybe they think he'll be driving around more if his insurance is just for leisure? More free time to be on the road. Lots of different quirks to how the insurance system works.

 

[ThatFragranceGuy]

It'll definitely be because he is more likely to be driving more

Usually get the same going from provisional to full licence; seems backwards but then you'll be driving more and unattended

 

[Nobby_Barnes]

How would they know if you've retired or not (unless you had reached retirement age)
You could still be looking for a job for example if you were taking a pension ? Grey area though

 

[Corcaigh_the_Cat]

It'll definitely be because he is more likely to be driving more

Usually get the same going from provisional to full licence; seems backwards but then you'll be driving more and unattended

I've driven a lot less since I jacked in work, even with the school run.

 

[ThatFragranceGuy]

I've driven a lot less since I jacked in work, even with the school run.

You may have, they will have stats on peoples behaviours though and how often people make a claim post retirement and all that jazz

 

[Lottowyn]

A mate of mine has just retired and has gone to notify his car insurers. They have responded by putting up his premiums by £60. He has always been leisure only driver.

Is their any reason why being retired is regarded as a bigger risk than being employed? I need to tell my insurers I’ve retired too.

I stupidly told my house insurers that I had retired, thinking I may get a reduction because I’d be at home more to keep an eye on things, but they said it would warrant an increase presumably because I was at home more and likely to cause damage or have an accident.
My wife incidentally agreed with them.

 

[Northstand126]

It's likely that a driver would drive more after retirement so increasing the risk, plus driving at different times of the day that you're not used to.Conversely they may drive less which again means there could be a higher risk with not being used to driving as much.

 

[chickenrunner]

I think the reasoning is that they're insurers so that anything you tell them is used as a bloody excuse to increase your premiums, it's like a ratchet.

 

[Corcaigh_the_Cat]

It's likely that a driver would drive more after retirement so increasing the risk, plus driving at different times of the day that you're not used to.Conversely they may drive less which again means there could be a higher risk with not being used to driving as much.

In other words, they're putting the price up regardless.

 

[WoodallServices]

A mate of mine has just retired and has gone to notify his car insurers. They have responded by putting up his premiums by £60. He has always been leisure only driver.

Is their any reason why being retired is regarded as a bigger risk than being employed? I need to tell my insurers I’ve retired too.

Probably because they’re more likely to get their car damaged by baseball bats from anyone of the 3 miles of traffic stuck behind him whilst he’s busy going nowhere.

 

[Zoophonic]

How would they know if you've retired or not (unless you had reached retirement age)
You could still be looking for a job for example if you were taking a pension ? Grey area though

When he rang for a requote they asked him his occupation to which he said retired now. They said they still had his old occupation on file and apparently you are supposed to notify them Immediately you leave work full time As it affects the premiums.

The “driving more“ reason must be the answer although ironically he says he drives even less as has more time to walk around!!

 

[Nano]

You always put your job in when you apply for insurance. They risk profile every job. Same as an address and they used to do it for gender and age but are they allowed to use protected characteristics anymore? Retired as a job must have a higher risk profile although I'm pretty sure that as an age-group the risk profile is lower as you get older. One possibility is that their job was a really low risk profile one so they were effectively getting a discount which no longer applies. Driving more/less should be irrelevant because you put your mileage.

 

[Trug]

When someone ran into the back of me my premiums went up even though I didn't claim. Apparently I am more of a risk now.

 

[Corcaigh_the_Cat]

When he rang for a requote they asked him his occupation to which he said retired now. They said they still had his old occupation on file and apparently you are supposed to notify them Immediately you leave work full time As it affects the premiums.

The “driving more“ reason must be the answer although ironically he says he drives even less as has more time to walk around!!

Ditto

 

[Matt]

When someone ran into the back of me my premiums went up even though I didn't claim. Apparently I am more of a risk now.

From their point of view there is a reasonable chance that although the person who went into the back of you is at fault you contributed in some way to the circumstances that caused the accident - therefore more of a risk. Unfortunately no way to know for certain so the risk gets averaged out and spread across everyone.

 

[Boro in Devon]

The models that are used use different combinations of risk factors.

The first model will look at the likelihood of having an accident, you may find that decreases with age until you reach a certain age.
A second model will look at severity in the event of a claim, this will then reflect upon the payout. If when you have retired and you are not sitting in rush hour, Your spead is going to be higher, resulting in a higher repair cost in the event of an accident. You may also find that older people claim for more personal injuries.

Combining these two factors will result im a higher premium.

 

[Cardiffdaffs]

When you retire I was told by an underwriter mate that the best thing to say to the insurance company is that you are now self employed as a "consultant". It's a catch all that they won't ask you to prove and if push comes to shove you just say you work from home and give the odd bit of advice to your old company. Your premiums wont go up. So inequitable that if you remain a leisure driver you pay more merely for leaving work. The word retirement is just semantics in this case.

And in any case these days those who work are driving more anyway working from home doing the odd school run shopping errand.