Why do insurance companies ask the value of your car?

[ModMan]

As per the title really.

Why do they ask for it? Surely if I say a £1000 car is worth £5000 and it happens to get stolen or written off then they'll only pay me market value?

Same if it's the other way around - I say my £5000 car is only worth £1000, maybe in a lame attempt to lower the premium. Surely they're not that naive although in that case they'd probably use my valuation as basis for the payout if it saves them money?

I just wonder what the purpose is. No doubt someone will come along now and tell me the totally obvious reason which I'll have missed.

[ejenner]

I think they want to find out if you're a knob. Like if you say your car is worth about 2-grand more than it actually is they just notch the premium up 20% because you just proved to them that you overrate yourself too much.

[Nedzilla]

Often wondered this myself...

[JimmyTheHand]

one possible reason (i.e. a guess) if you give a totally out of expected value - it might point to an undeclared "modified" car or something else they need to investigate

But when my broker changed the value of my car for a search (because it hadn't been changed in 4.5 years) it made no difference to premiums

[Willy Nilly]

I have been known to say "one million pounds" or "it's weight in gold"

[PumpkinSteve]

Mine cost me £14500, got an insurance quote when I bought it brand new and they said "we've got down here that the value is £9500, is that right?". Oh yeah, you can put that down if you can find me another brand new one for that price. tts.

[matthias73]

ejenner said:

I think they want to find out if you're a knob. Like if you say your car is worth about 2-grand more than it actually is they just notch the premium up 20% because you just proved to them that you overrate yourself too much.

You will find the price drops, actually. Try it.

[foggy]

Indeed, give a higher value a whirl. Increasing the value by 20% knocked £50 off my quote this renewal time. Good old online quoting systems allow plenty of scope to work on all the options.

[Raize]

So that they can invalidate your insurance at a later date because you lied.

[Fleckers]

Raize said:

So that they can invalidate your insurance at a later date because you lied.

i am not lieing because I thought thats how much it was worth, if I paid £12000 for my car so its worth £12000 would be my answer if I was asked why I had over valued it.

Insurance companies always go for lowest value if they are goign to pay out so if you value your car low and its lower than their value they will be keeping even more of your money.............

[deltashad]

Insurance companies are scum.

[elvismiggell]

deltashad said:

Insurance companies are scum.

What a wonderful answer to the OP's question. I'm sure there's lots of insurance workers out there who love you! Perhaps you should tell us what you do so we can all slag your industry off too?





Aaaand back on topic.

I haven't been asked in a few years now. I always used to give a straightforward estimation based on similar cars on Autotrader / PH etc. Elephant / Admiral haven't asked in a few years, but they always used to.

[deltashad]

elvismiggell said:

What a wonderful answer to the OP's question. I'm sure there's lots of insurance workers out there who love you! Perhaps you should tell us what you do so we can all slag your industry off too?

Oil business

[elvismiggell]

deltashad said:

Oil business

Filthy polluting environmentally irresponsible greedy people.

[deltashad]

elvismiggell said:

deltashad said:

Oil business

Filthy polluting environmentally irresponsible greedy people.

I know

[djdestiny]

On a slightly related note, they wont pay out due to acts of god either....
Personally, I don't believe in god, so where do I stand on that one?
Also, how can they prove it was an act of god?

[Kozy]

deltashad said:

Insurance companies are scum.

Pointless post, but I totally agree.

[ejenner]

Kozy said:

deltashad said:

Insurance companies are scum.

Pointless post, but I totally agree.

If it's pointless how can you agree? Just askin.

[Kozy]

In the context of the thread, it is a pointless contribution. None the less, I agree. I would happily see the entire industry crash and burn (at no harm to the actual employees of course) to be replaced with a new, lean system.