Car Insurance Query
Discussion
Our car is legally owned by my wife and she is the registered keeper and is the proposer on the motor policy and the main driver and I am a named driver on her policy.
If I keep everyting the same, main drive, named driver, excess etc. why shold the cost change if I want to put the policy in my name.
If I keep everyting the same, main drive, named driver, excess etc. why shold the cost change if I want to put the policy in my name.
Because the insurance company data shows that statistically the likelihood of claiming is higher where the policyholder is not the owner or main driver.
Car insurance is a high volume product that is not rated based on your own personal circumstances. It is rated based on a large number of people with similar attributes.
Car insurance is a high volume product that is not rated based on your own personal circumstances. It is rated based on a large number of people with similar attributes.
josswallace said:
Our car is legally owned by my wife and she is the registered keeper and is the proposer on the motor policy and the main driver and I am a named driver on her policy.
If I keep everyting the same, main drive, named driver, excess etc. why shold the cost change if I want to put the policy in my name.
Depends on insurer - LV= told us they didn't care between husband and wife. So I swapped it to wife and it went down! But it was something like a fiver.If I keep everyting the same, main drive, named driver, excess etc. why shold the cost change if I want to put the policy in my name.
Are you changing it to keep your no claims discount from expiring? Just recently we went down to one car (wife's) for a while and LV left all the details unchanged but made me NCB holder. Randomly, this also gave me DOC cover.
josswallace said:
Our car is legally owned by my wife and she is the registered keeper and is the proposer on the motor policy and the main driver and I am a named driver on her policy.
If I keep everything the same, main drive, named driver, excess etc. why should the cost change if I want to put the policy in my name.
You're not keeping everything the same though, are you.If I keep everything the same, main drive, named driver, excess etc. why should the cost change if I want to put the policy in my name.
1. You're the policyholder instead of her.
2. She's the named driver instead of you.
3. The policyholder was the registered keeper and the main driver. Now the additional driver will be the keeper and the main driver.
4. The policy holder used to be x years old and have y occupation. Now the policyholder has a different age and job.
If their stats just show that overall, policies where the policyholder is also the main driver perform better than when the additional driver is the main driver, then now it's going to cost you more.
josswallace said:
She is not the named driver she is the main driver and will remain so. The only change at all is that of policy holder and the reason for doing it is that I handle all details and sometimes insures wont talk to me.
As said, the main driver, owner and registered keeper NOT being the policy holder increases the insurance companies perceived risk - their agglomerated statistics would point to that being so. You may feel aggrieved, but they are bearing the risk.josswallace said:
She is not the named driver she is the main driver and will remain so. The only change at all is that of policy holder and the reason for doing it is that I handle all details and sometimes insures wont talk to me.
She is the named driver. If you're the policyholder she must be the named driver. She's the named driver, and also the main driver. josswallace said:
Our car is legally owned by my wife and she is the registered keeper and is the proposer on the motor policy and the main driver and I am a named driver on her policy.
If I keep everyting the same, main drive, named driver, excess etc. why shold the cost change if I want to put the policy in my name.
Simply because even if the bulk of the underwriting details are identical and unchanged the “ new “ policy is in your name so the actuarial derived rating matrix will then base the details on you.If I keep everyting the same, main drive, named driver, excess etc. why shold the cost change if I want to put the policy in my name.
You should be able to nominate your wife as the main driver though so you remain as the named driver.
I’m assuming your Insurer is one of the bog standard ?
I say that as if you keep the policy in your wife’s name as now it should be possible to inform the Insurer that you wish to speak on her behalf on anything so they can mark their files.
However in reality over the year just how much contact / hassle is there with them anyway ?
I am sorry but I am obviously a simple soul. I can not ubderstand why if the owner doesnt change, the registerd keeper doesnt change, the main driver and named driver don't change and all other details stay the same then why should the cost change if the proposer changers, it makes no sense to me.
josswallace said:
I am sorry but I am obviously a simple soul. I can not ubderstand why if the owner doesnt change, the registerd keeper doesnt change, the main driver and named driver don't change and all other details stay the same then why should the cost change if the proposer changers, it makes no sense to me.
It’s “the algorithm”. We’re not meant to understand it.josswallace said:
I am sorry but as far as I can see you are either the main drive or the named driver not both. If you are the only driver you dont have a named driver
You have a policyholder who is covered for driving.In addition to the policyholder you can have one or more named drivers.
Out of the policyholder and all of the named drivers there will be one who is considered the main user of the vehicle i.e. the main driver.
So the policyholder may or may not be the main driver.
And any of the named drivers may or may not be the main driver.
If the policyholder is the only driver then you are correct in saying there are no named drivers.
Sheepshanks said:
josswallace said:
I am sorry but I am obviously a simple soul. I can not ubderstand why if the owner doesnt change, the registerd keeper doesnt change, the main driver and named driver don't change and all other details stay the same then why should the cost change if the proposer changers, it makes no sense to me.
It s the algorithm . We re not meant to understand it.Statistically it is higher risk if the policyholder is not the owner or the main driver. I can't explain why this is, but hundreds of thousands of data points show that statistically this is true and therefore the insurance companies price for it.
josswallace said:
I am sorry but I am obviously a simple soul. I can not ubderstand why if the owner doesnt change, the registerd keeper doesnt change, the main driver and named driver don't change and all other details stay the same then why should the cost change if the proposer changers, it makes no sense to me.
Because the policyholder has changed and they “ need “ to rerate. Sex , age and driving record will also come into play.
Even if the above 3 are identical doesn’t mean there still won’t be a change in premium.
If you had a so called HNW / Fleet policy then it’s possible to mix and match RK’s as required and indeed have little issue over who the main driver and named drivers are but there is then a price to be paid for policies like that and they are usually arranged via brokers.
AndrewT1275 said:
It's easy to understand and has been explained above.
Statistically it is higher risk if the policyholder is not the owner or the main driver. I can't explain why this is, but hundreds of thousands of data points show that statistically this is true and therefore the insurance companies price for it.
Do you have access to the statistics which confirm this, or are you just guessing like everyone else?Statistically it is higher risk if the policyholder is not the owner or the main driver. I can't explain why this is, but hundreds of thousands of data points show that statistically this is true and therefore the insurance companies price for it.
I tried to get insurance for my daughter's car, which became spare when she got an EV, and the premiums were bonkers - apparently if she lived at our address it would have been fine.
In OP's case it could just as well be dearer because the insurer's algorithm says policyholders called Joss have more claims on their policies than average. Or he used a hotmail email address and his wife used a Gmail one. Or he used a landline number and his wife used a mobile.
Sheepshanks said:
Do you have access to the statistics which confirm this, or are you just guessing like everyone else?
I tried to get insurance for my daughter's car, which became spare when she got an EV, and the premiums were bonkers - apparently if she lived at our address it would have been fine.
In OP's case it could just as well be dearer because the insurer's algorithm says policyholders called Joss have more claims on their policies than average. Or he used a hotmail email address and his wife used a Gmail one. Or he used a landline number and his wife used a mobile.
I'm not guessing.I tried to get insurance for my daughter's car, which became spare when she got an EV, and the premiums were bonkers - apparently if she lived at our address it would have been fine.
In OP's case it could just as well be dearer because the insurer's algorithm says policyholders called Joss have more claims on their policies than average. Or he used a hotmail email address and his wife used a Gmail one. Or he used a landline number and his wife used a mobile.
For a high volume, mass market product like car insurance each insurance company will use its historical data to determine risk factors and loadings against those factors. Some data points will not be risk factors as they have no bearing on claim frequency or size. Being called Joss is probably one such factor. However if for example an insurance company discovered that all of their historical claims were made by people called Joss, and everyone called Joss who had ever bought a policy had made 20 claims per year, and no 9ne with another name had ever made a claim, then they may well decide that name should be a rating factor.
In the OP's real life example he changed some basic facts and the premium changed. That means that particular insurance company uses those data points that have changed as part of its pricing algorithm. The data points could include the date of the quote, remaining time on the policy, or whatever else may have changed and, in that company's experience, alters the risk.
With large, bespoke risks such as insuring a factory against fire the underwriters will place far more emphasis on specific circumstances and rely less on pure data models. So if you can demonstrate your fire prevention policies, employee training, modern fire resistant machinery, track record of safety etc the risk will be perceived to be lower.
But this approach is not feasible in high volume, low margin products. If each risk was individually assessed the overhead would be immense and prices higher as a result. So the companies rely on statistical models to get a view of relative risk.
In your personal example you were trying to get cover for a car you didn't own at an address that was different to the owner's address. Your insurance company clearly sees this as higher risk than someone insuring their own car at their own address. Maybe their data shows that people take less care of things they don't personally own?
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