Insurance for an 81 year old!

[Lordbenny]

The father in law came over today with his A-Plan renewal quote on his Rover 45....9 years NCB, no convictions, no health problems, been driving for 60 years, 5000 ltd mileage, fully comp, protected NCB!

What do you reckon....???














£463

So I called Adrian Flux to see what they could do.....£850! (Thats with the 15% discount I got for signing him up to Pistonheads! ) I called my kit car broker, Frank Pickles: £650. Seems that once you hit 80 years old people just don't want to insure you any more. The Flux guy reckons that of his 75 available companies only 4 of them would even take him on! I hope most people on here hit 80 years old, I for one hope I'll be driving some sort of car/hover plane in 35 years time. Just seems a shame that a man with 60 years experience & full NCB get loaded like this.

Edited by Lordbenny on Thursday 26th January 00:04

[GBDG]

£463 is a bargain for insurance. I'm sure i saw somewhere that the average is now over £1k.

[Lordbenny]

GBDG said:

I'm sure i saw somewhere that the average is now over £1k.

I pay £150 on my 300bhp per tonne Westfield

£400 on our 20,000 mile a year Passat with two drivers both with 3 points

£400 on our Mini Cooper S Cab

I just think its a shame that someone in his twilight years with an unblemished driving history gets shafted. His premium went up by over 30% in a year!

[Glosphil]

Saga gave the lowest quotes for my 89 year old father-in-law for his 10 year old Hyundi 1500 automatic and that was just over £400. Less than 3000 miles per annum and living in a small village between Southampton and Portsmounth.

[Mike Rob]

Lordbenny said:

The Flux guy reckons that of his 75 available companies only 4 of them would even take him on!

Please can you get the guy at Flux to list the 75 available companies - unless he has contacts in Russia, China, South America, etc., I would love to know the 75 insurance companies who write motor business in the uk at present!

[sparkythecat]

Despite previously unblemished claims records, the elderly are regarded as higher risk.
They are more likely to have mobility problems, failing eyesight and hearing and their reaction times are comparitively poor.
Factor in any other chronic age related medical problems and the effects of the requisite medications and incessant hat wearing and you can see why the risk is adjudged to increase. Many will keep on driving long after they should really should have given up, and at the risk of sounding callous, the insurers are really doing them a favour by pricing them off the road.

Every now and again there's a healthy sprightly octagenarian amongst them, but these are relatively few and far between. As there's currently no compulsory medical to weed out the unfit, they unfortunately have to pay the same price.

Edited by sparkythecat on Thursday 26th January 00:26

[Lordbenny]

sparkythecat said:

Despite previously unblemished claims records, the elderly are regarded as higher risk.
They are more likely to have mobility problems, failing eyesight and hearing and their reaction times are comparitively poor.
Factor in any other chronic age related medical problems and the effects of the requisite medications and incessant hat wearing and you can see why the risk is adjudged to increase. Many will keep on driving long after they should really should have given up, and at the risk of sounding callous, the insurers are really doing them a favour by pricing them off the road.

Every now and again there's a healthy sprightly octagenarian amongst them, but these are relatively few and far between. As there's currently no compulsory medical to weed out the unfit, they unfortunately have to pay the same price.

It pains me to say it but....you're right of course. My father in law probably shouldn't be on the road. He was a professional driver in his younger days but now, like a lot of other men of his age, he is just not really capable of dealing with today's traffic and his 81 year old body just isnt really up to the job! Still, as there's no OAP driving test (there certainly should be) he's free to carry on driving for as long as he can physically get into a car and see beyond his own nose.

[jimbo65]

Lordbenny said:

I pay £150 on my 300bhp per tonne Westfield

£400 on our 20,000 mile a year Passat with two drivers both with 3 points

£400 on our Mini Cooper S Cab

I just think its a shame that someone in his twilight years with an unblemished driving history gets shafted. His premium went up by over 30% in a year!

Make sure he only gets 50hp per tonne!!

[matthias73]

Lordbenny said:

It pains me to say it but....you're right of course. My father in law probably shouldn't be on the road. He was a professional driver in his younger days but now, like a lot of other men of his age, he is just not really capable of dealing with today's traffic and his 81 year old body just isnt really up to the job! Still, as there's no OAP driving test (there certainly should be) he's free to carry on driving for as long as he can physically get into a car and see beyond his own nose.

So why are you suprised? If you look at the prices that new/young drivers have to pay, it is probably about 5 or 6 times the amount your father in law has to pay. I would wager that a 20 year old is a lot safer than an 81 year old, even if he does take more risks.

[TwigtheWonderkid]

matthias73 said:

Lordbenny said:

It pains me to say it but....you're right of course. My father in law probably shouldn't be on the road. He was a professional driver in his younger days but now, like a lot of other men of his age, he is just not really capable of dealing with today's traffic and his 81 year old body just isnt really up to the job! Still, as there's no OAP driving test (there certainly should be) he's free to carry on driving for as long as he can physically get into a car and see beyond his own nose.

So why are you suprised? If you look at the prices that new/young drivers have to pay, it is probably about 5 or 6 times the amount your father in law has to pay. I would wager that a 20 year old is a lot safer than an 81 year old, even if he does take more risks.

If that were true, an 81 y/old would pay more than a 20 y/old. I would wager that an 81 y/o is a worse risk than a 61 y/old, but a far better risk than a 20 y/old, which is why they pay 5 times less than a 20 y/old.

Insurance rates are not guesswork you know, it's based on actual statistics.

[sparkyhx]

TwigtheWonderkid said:

matthias73 said:

Lordbenny said:

It pains me to say it but....you're right of course. My father in law probably shouldn't be on the road. He was a professional driver in his younger days but now, like a lot of other men of his age, he is just not really capable of dealing with today's traffic and his 81 year old body just isnt really up to the job! Still, as there's no OAP driving test (there certainly should be) he's free to carry on driving for as long as he can physically get into a car and see beyond his own nose.

So why are you suprised? If you look at the prices that new/young drivers have to pay, it is probably about 5 or 6 times the amount your father in law has to pay. I would wager that a 20 year old is a lot safer than an 81 year old, even if he does take more risks.

If that were true, an 81 y/old would pay more than a 20 y/old. I would wager that an 81 y/o is a worse risk than a 61 y/old, but a far better risk than a 20 y/old, which is why they pay 5 times less than a 20 y/old.

Insurance rates are not guesswork you know, it's based on actual statistics.

Sort of - but its like the male female split - women have more accidents - mens accidents are more expensive - hence men pay more. I'm not saying 81 is better worse than 20 year old just that the accumulated cost of 20 year olds accidents is more than accumulated cost 81 years olds.

Does that make them riskier yes in £p terms, but you might find 81 years olds have more 'bumps', just inexpensive ones so in a sense that makes them more risky.

Anyway back on topic, I wish I paid £450 - 15 years NCB, no convictions 7000 miles, two cars owned and another access to, I was quoated £700 this year

[stackmonkey]

I think the loading goes up once you hit about 75 yrs old.
Putting my parents on my insurance used to bring it down a fair bit, even in my thirties; now adding my dad increases it instead..

[GuitarTech]

Since I've been reading this forum, I can't get over how expensive car insurance is in GB.
Jeez, here in Germany I pay about 250 quid a year for my business daily driver: Golf V, 140 bhp 2.0L, 57 years old, max no claims, fully comp with all the extra goodies (replacement car, collect and deliver in the event of an accident etc) My oldest daughter is 25 and drives an Eos 2.0L, and even she only pays 900 quid a year.
Here in Germany there is no upper age limit, but I thought in GB the license was only valid up tp 70, and after that you had to get a note from your doctor to get it extended? I remember my old British license was only valid up to 70, has this rule changed in the meantime? I'm really out of touch with a lot of this stuff, been over here since '83.

[Monkeylegend]

I wonder how much Stirling Moss has to pay now he is over 80.

[Classic Grad 98]

Monkeylegend said:

I wonder how much Stirling Moss has to pay now he is over 80.

He's had some fairly sizable crashes and I'm sure he's exceeded the speed limit on the odd occasion

[jon-]

Lordbenny said:

I just think its a shame that someone in his twilight years with an unblemished driving history gets shafted. His premium went up by over 30% in a year!

Lordbenny said:

It pains me to say it but....you're right of course. My father in law probably shouldn't be on the road.

Errrmm

[Monkeylegend]

Classic Grad 98 said:

Monkeylegend said:

I wonder how much Stirling Moss has to pay now he is over 80.

He's had some fairly sizable crashes and I'm sure he's exceeded the speed limit on the odd occasion

[BettySwollocks2]

TBH massively agree with charging people more as they get older, they may be fully compus mentus but as you get older their reactions and observation skills deteriorate. He only has people to blame his age that are seen on the news doing ridiculous things... e.g check the BBC today for the 80 year old that drove up a high speed rail line. or the guy who got 'stuck' on the M25, or the guy that drove the wrong way down a motorway...

young people like myself get tarred with the BOY RACER brush and have to pay extortionate fees so why not tar the oldies with the incompetent brush... its the same thing, however harsh it may be as no doubt your FIL is probably a great driver.

[GuitarTech]

Shame nobody could answer my question about driving licenses in GB..I know, I know, Google is your friend. What somebody said about older drivers doing silly things is in my experience very true: whenever an accident occurs here where you think "how on earth did that happen?", it's very often some silly old duffer the wrong side of 80 who caused it. Got confused, panicked, and did something silly..

[matthias73]

TwigtheWonderkid said:

matthias73 said:

Lordbenny said:

It pains me to say it but....you're right of course. My father in law probably shouldn't be on the road. He was a professional driver in his younger days but now, like a lot of other men of his age, he is just not really capable of dealing with today's traffic and his 81 year old body just isnt really up to the job! Still, as there's no OAP driving test (there certainly should be) he's free to carry on driving for as long as he can physically get into a car and see beyond his own nose.

So why are you suprised? If you look at the prices that new/young drivers have to pay, it is probably about 5 or 6 times the amount your father in law has to pay. I would wager that a 20 year old is a lot safer than an 81 year old, even if he does take more risks.

If that were true, an 81 y/old would pay more than a 20 y/old. I would wager that an 81 y/o is a worse risk than a 61 y/old, but a far better risk than a 20 y/old, which is why they pay 5 times less than a 20 y/old.

Insurance rates are not guesswork you know, it's based on actual statistics.

You know, I suspect that is due to other factors.

Fewer older people driving, retired so driving at non peak times, driving less as retired.
I would suggest, that if 30 000 old people and 30 000 young people were involved in a test, with each doing the same mileage, type of driving ect, that you would not find young people having more crashes. Furthermore, I would suggest that the insurance rate for an 81 year old with no NCB would probably be the same as a 21 year old with NCB. I could check on the online sites, but I don't have a spare 20/30 minutes right now.