Car insurance employment status - "house-husband"?

[brrapp]

[quote=desolate]


My favourite occupation on the list was Chicken Sexer.

/quote]

A while ago I worked for the Department of Agriculture and was involved in quantifying the excesses caused by the common agricultural policy at the time. I listed my occupation as Butter Mountaineer. Never had anyone raise an eyebrow at that and my insurance was relatively cheap.
Currently in a similar situation as the OP and spending my time refurbishing my own house. I've listed my occupation as building maintenance.

[4x4Tyke]

KevinCamaroSS said:

Not unemployed, you are a student.

Or self employed.

[caelite]

Dr Mike Oxgreen said:

Well, 'student' is probably going to be almost as expensive as 'unemployed', if not more so. So I'm reluctant to declare myself as a student. And I think I'm justified in not calling myself a student, because it's not what most people would think of as an educational establishment. I'm undergoing a course of professional training in much the same way that you would if you were in a job - except that I'm not in a job.

Get yourself a quote, I found declaring myself as a student was a hell of a lot cheaper than saying I was a delivery driver, was even a few quid cheaper than saying I was a shop assistant. (Im a full time student, was a part time delivery driver for tesco, however my employment contract listed me as 'shop assistant').

Also for the unemployment thing, when I was unemployed well I was younger I listed myself as a 'voluntary worker' since I volunteered as a hand for the RNLI 1 day a week. Insurance companies need to prove otherwise, you can bend the truth somewhat as long as you dont outright lie.

[outnumbered]

Definitely avoid Unemployed if you can. I was between jobs when my bike renewal came up last year, I put that down just thinking it was the most accurate definition, and the premium went up by 25% or something.

[Muddle238]

OP, when I was doing my ATPL theory and then the basic and advanced flight training afterwards, I just kept my car insurance "status" as student. Afterwards I changed it to airline pilot but you could always do this ahead of time, just miss out that airline bit. If you already hold a PPL, are you're undertaking studies to gain the ATPL, I'd think this is reasonable grounds to use "pilot". You don't have to be directly employed with an airline to be a pilot, only an airline pilot.

[anonymous-user]

TwigtheWonderkid said:

Pah...chicken feed. I worked for a firm that was in a minor way involved in sorted out legal and admin stuff for sports people. We had to source car insurance for Arsenal player Charlie Nicholas. I think he was about 20, living in London with a Porsche 911 and 2 drink drive offences, from memory. His premium was circa £20K, and that was 10 years earlier.

I can see that - but if you put professional footballer in our system you got a decline.
So you had a nuance your quote over time.

We do some footballers now and some of the quotes are "interesting" but that tends to be for a fleet.

[dacouch]

caelite said:

Get yourself a quote, I found declaring myself as a student was a hell of a lot cheaper than saying I was a delivery driver, was even a few quid cheaper than saying I was a shop assistant. (Im a full time student, was a part time delivery driver for tesco, however my employment contract listed me as 'shop assistant').

Also for the unemployment thing, when I was unemployed well I was younger I listed myself as a 'voluntary worker' since I volunteered as a hand for the RNLI 1 day a week. Insurance companies need to prove otherwise, you can bend the truth somewhat as long as you dont outright lie.

It wouldn't be to difficult to prove it in your case as the Insurers will have a record of the various quotes you've asked for declaring different job titles until you found the cheapest.

[sebhaque]

From experience, it's worth exercising some caution before putting your details into insurance websites to see what quotes you get. A few months ago, out of curiosity, I plugged in my details to MoneySupermarket to see what my renewal would be, and then what it would have been if I'd have had a claim. A week or two later, I got a letter saying my insurance had gone up by about 80% because of a non-disclosed claim. It took far more effort than I expected to explain to the call centre monkey that I hadn't actually had a claim but was just browsing on an insurance comparison website, and eventually got the difference refunded with a letter stating I had not been involved in an accident. It took more of my spare time than I was willing to give, not to mention the £600 gap I had to suddenly plan around.

I understand the intent, with the amount of people who don't declare their insurance correctly, but it does wind me up how the payment was taken overnight but took nearly a month to be refunded.

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

Muddle238 said:

OP, when I was doing my ATPL theory and then the basic and advanced flight training afterwards, I just kept my car insurance "status" as student. Afterwards I changed it to airline pilot but you could always do this ahead of time, just miss out that airline bit. If you already hold a PPL, are you're undertaking studies to gain the ATPL, I'd think this is reasonable grounds to use "pilot". You don't have to be directly employed with an airline to be a pilot, only an airline pilot.

I'm doing distance learning with Bristol Ground School for the exams, and expect to start on the flight training in April/May next year, probably with Aeros at Gloucester (which will involve a long commute from Woking, which will have to be declared nearer the time). Fortunately I have the PPL and about 430 hours, so I can jump straight in at the CPL stage without any hour building.

I will have another look through Admiral's list of occupations, because it's true to say that I am treating the studying as if it were a job: working about 4 hours a day, 5 or 6 days a week. So if there's something that implies retraining then that might fit.

Perhaps I just need to call them and tell them I'm undertaking the training to gain a professional pilot's licence, but make it clear that I'm not yet employed as a pilot, and see what they say.

[Monkeylegend]

Dr Mike Oxgreen said:

I'm doing distance learning with Bristol Ground School for the exams, and expect to start on the flight training in April/May next year, probably with Aeros at Gloucester (which will involve a long commute from Woking, which will have to be declared nearer the time). Fortunately I have the PPL and about 430 hours, so I can jump straight in at the CPL stage without any hour building.

I will have another look through Admiral's list of occupations, because it's true to say that I am treating the studying as if it were a job: working about 4 hours a day, 5 or 6 days a week. So if there's something that implies retraining then that might fit.

Perhaps I just need to call them and tell them I'm undertaking the training to gain a professional pilot's licence, but make it clear that I'm not yet employed as a pilot, and see what they say.

I hope when you get your pilots licence you don't take this long to decide what to do in the event of an emergency mid air

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

I finally got around to calling Admiral, and the very helpful lass on the phone suggested "apprentice", which I think is reasonable. If you apply the "man on the Clapham omnibus" test, I think most people would agree that it's a close fit for what I'm currently doing. I did check that it doesn't necessarily imply that I'm being paid.

It did increase the premium slightly, but after reducing the mileage for the TVR which I haven't been driving as much recently, it's made bugger-all difference.

So, now I've just got to avoid being fired...

[kowalski655]

Or molested