Car Insurance Post Code Ratings

[M3DGE]

As someone noted when this thread started about a decade ago, it is down to claims stats. These days theft is a tiny part of that. The major issue is congestion, which leads to lots of minor shunts. In London, factor in the fact that body repairs cost about double what is charged in a rural part of Wales (eg). And commuter towns on motorways are often higher because .... guess what, people commute! Anyway, it's all down to stats, and if one company gets it wrong they either get no business at all...or all of it!

[hornetrider]

Roger Irrelevant said:

Either way I don't give a monkeys because I live in an 'A' area and frankly I think anyone that doesn't is scum who should pay through the nose for insurance because if they didn't they'd only spend the money saved on cheap lager and scratchcards.

When my euromillionz syndicate comes in from down the factory I'll take great pleasure in flipping you the bird from my white Mansory Conti GT convertible.

[dacouch]

To everyone who is referring to the post codes in the link and thinking they have any bearing to how a motor car insurer rates post codes. Please bear in mind the website have simply copied Aviva's MOTORCYCLE rating guide from about ten years ago.

Ten years ago these had very little in common with motor insurers post code rating due to their being major differences between how a rating area for a motor bike and a car is arrived at. They bear even less relation to how Insurers rate post codes now days as Insurers now use far more technical systems to rate post codes and use more than just the first couple of letters/numbers to rate a post code and also due to thefts of executive cars increasing so some more exclusive post codes are now rated considerably higher.

If you use the link please take it with a pinch of salt as a lot of the information it contains is wrong

[eg6-b18c6]

I recently moved from a TS7 postcode to a different TS7 postcode and got a refund of around £35 on a premium of around £400 that had already run for 5 months. So say I had about £230 worth of insurance left, and got £35 back (after whatever admin charges were knocked off my refund) then I'd say my new postcode is at least 20% cheaper than my old one even though I've gone from TS7 to TS7. When I expressed my suprise at the refund the guy on the phone said I'd gone from an area rated at 22 to an area rated 13 or something similar. I think that list shown is old and no longer used.... Or at the very least not used by all insurance companies. This was around 4 months ago I moved

[dacouch]

eg6-b18c6 said:

I recently moved from a TS7 postcode to a different TS7 postcode and got a refund of around £35 on a premium of around £400 that had already run for 5 months. So say I had about £230 worth of insurance left, and got £35 back (after whatever admin charges were knocked off my refund) then I'd say my new postcode is at least 20% cheaper than my old one even though I've gone from TS7 to TS7. When I expressed my suprise at the refund the guy on the phone said I'd gone from an area rated at 22 to an area rated 13 or something similar. I think that list shown is old and no longer used.... Or at the very least not used by all insurance companies. This was around 4 months ago I moved

As I said above the list was Aviva's post code ratings for MOTORBIKES, it was only used by Aviva for brokers to calculate premiums for Aviva's motorbike insurance. It was not used by any other Insurers and even at the time Aviva had a much larger list to rate car insurance.

As you've found Insurers now days don't just use the TS7 part but use the entire post code eg TS7 1AA which identifies the post code area down to the exact road which means they can give far more accurate quotes taking into account the Insurers own data on claims

[paulrockliffe]

hora said:

Theory: for years we had a Enterprise hire branch bearish. They had lots of claims. Could claims be centralised or branch?

We are an F*. 10yrs licence/10yrs NCD. Same car insured at in-laws 26miles away would be 50% less.

There was a programme on Radio 4 a few years ago, Jack Straw was going to sort this all out, but I guess he was too busy doing other things. The reason South Manchester is disproportionately expensive is that there's a very high density of claims management companies and associated advertising in the area.

What that means is that on average the accidents are more expensive because more of them end up involving claims management companies, daft fees, hire cars and whiplash claims.

South Manchester was pretty much the number one place in the country for premiums at the time, with I think Blackburn the only place higher. I know as I went from paying £800 a year to £400 when I left the area and am now down below £300.

[dacouch]

hora said:

Theory: for years we had a Enterprise hire branch bearish. They had lots of claims. Could claims be centralised or branch?

We are an F*. 10yrs licence/10yrs NCD. Same car insured at in-laws 26miles away would be 50% less.

If you're looking at that link, you're an F* if you wanted to insure a motorbike with Aviva about ten years ago...

[romeogolf]

I recently moved from D to B

[andrew1986]

Sorry to give this thread a bump after such a long time but I thought I’d share

To set the scene here me and my family currently live in a 2 bed house in a street where all the odd numbers go up one side and all the evens go up another the two rows are only separated by a small path

Right now we live on the odd numbered side and the even numbered side has 3 bedrooms fortnight ago we got offered the chance of a swap with our neighbor as there daughter has left Home and like us they love the street so want to downsize without moving away

So all sounds great so far huh until today the day of the move so I ring my unsuranace up and tell them we’ve moved but only to the house opposite so we’re in the same street only moving from no 3 to no 4 different postcodes only the last letter is different

They then tell me my insurance is double I was absolutely stunned they say there’s nothing they can do that is what I’d need to pay

So I have went on every comparison site going and I’m getting the same sort of quotes all Over my insurance Going from around £500 at no 3 to £1000 at no 4 my wife’s also going from £1000 to over £2000 (she’s only recently passed

Now I understand changing areas could have some difference but come on the last letter is different but we’ve literally moved 10 feet

I was convinced there had been some sort of mistake but nope messing around on the comparison sites all night and all the odd numbers with the postcode ending in 2qz are around half the price of the ones with 2qp in the same street

[andrew1986]

Sorry to give this thread a bump after such a long time but I thought I’d share

To set the scene here me and my family currently live in a 2 bed house in a street where all the odd numbers go up one side and all the evens go up another the two rows are only separated by a small path

Right now we live on the odd numbered side and the even numbered side has 3 bedrooms fortnight ago we got offered the chance of a swap with our neighbor as there daughter has left Home and like us they love the street so want to downsize without moving away

So all sounds great so far huh until today the day of the move so I ring my unsuranace up and tell them we’ve moved but only to the house opposite so we’re in the same street only moving from no 3 to no 4 different postcodes only the last letter is different

They then tell me my insurance is double I was absolutely stunned they say there’s nothing they can do that is what I’d need to pay

So I have went on every comparison site going and I’m getting the same sort of quotes all Over my insurance Going from around £500 at no 3 to £1000 at no 4 my wife’s also going from £1000 to over £2000 (she’s only recently passed

Now I understand changing areas could have some difference but come on the last letter is different but we’ve literally moved 10 feet

I was convinced there had been some sort of mistake but nope messing around on the comparison sites all night and all the odd numbers with the postcode ending in 2qz are around half the price of the ones with 2qp in the same street

[stewjohnst]

Park on the street outside your old house and tell the insurer it’s kept at your old postcode?

Not much help, sorry...

[RB Will]

That’s bad but at least consistent if all insurers are saying it’s twice as bad. I recently started a similar thread on here, having moved about 1/4 mile and changing ours over.
Wife’s car went down slightly, my daily stayed the same and my weekend toy went up about 10%.

[Sa Calobra]

You swapped a house, council?

[andrew1986]

Yes swapped did an exchange with the neighbours opposite (housing association tennents)

I can’t for the life of me understand the pric difference it’s the same street the houses back onto each other and are only separated by a path that’s about 2 foot wide it’s mind boggling

[Justin Case]

I was pleasantly surprised last year when I moved and the area went from D* to C, as I had assumed that the lower crime rate would have been more than outweighed by the locals' habit of parking by ear in Morrison's car park.

[Order66]

andrew1986 said:

Yes swapped did an exchange with the neighbours opposite (housing association tennents)

I can’t for the life of me understand the pric difference it’s the same street the houses back onto each other and are only separated by a path that’s about 2 foot wide it’s mind boggling

The post code you have moved to will have a poorer claims history. Yes, the insurance companies do track it down to unique postcode, and yes a neighbours claims can directly affect your premiums. So if there is a neighbour who isn't afraid of scraping their car on the fence post and claiming for every small item then you absolutely will end up sharing the inflated premiums. Unfair - absolutely, but modelling these kind of stats has been going on in the insurance world for decades.

[-Moley-]

andrew1986 said:

Sorry to give this thread a bump after such a long time but I thought I’d share

To set the scene here me and my family currently live in a 2 bed house in a street where all the odd numbers go up one side and all the evens go up another the two rows are only separated by a small path

Right now we live on the odd numbered side and the even numbered side has 3 bedrooms fortnight ago we got offered the chance of a swap with our neighbor as there daughter has left Home and like us they love the street so want to downsize without moving away

So all sounds great so far huh until today the day of the move so I ring my unsuranace up and tell them we’ve moved but only to the house opposite so we’re in the same street only moving from no 3 to no 4 different postcodes only the last letter is different

They then tell me my insurance is double I was absolutely stunned they say there’s nothing they can do that is what I’d need to pay

So I have went on every comparison site going and I’m getting the same sort of quotes all Over my insurance Going from around £500 at no 3 to £1000 at no 4 my wife’s also going from £1000 to over £2000 (she’s only recently passed

Now I understand changing areas could have some difference but come on the last letter is different but we’ve literally moved 10 feet

I was convinced there had been some sort of mistake but nope messing around on the comparison sites all night and all the odd numbers with the postcode ending in 2qz are around half the price of the ones with 2qp in the same street

That's because the insures run a soft credit check to see if you are registered at that address. If you aren't registered at that address it'll red flag the system and load accordingly.

The insurers do this to stop people insuring cars at lower rated postcodes rather than their correct address.

The flaw in the system is that when you move to a new address it takes a while to update, and some insurers don't use common sense and take that into account

[xjay1337]

Andrew that is a piss take - as you are on good terms with the other family I would probably keep it insured at your old address until everything has been updated and you are on the electoral register at the new address etc.

[andrew1986]

I can understand different postcode areas have different codes but this is the same street with all but 1 letter difference can anyone offer a reason?

[w8pmc]

andrew1986 said:

I can understand different postcode areas have different codes but this is the same street with all but 1 letter difference can anyone offer a reason?

Answered above.

Will be a different (clearly worse) claim history for the new postcode & more likely a loading as you're unlikely on the electoral roll at the new address.