Friday 16 February 2018

Finance Fridays – What makes your car insurance cost more?

What makes your car insurance cost more
We were looking at ghost car insurance for last week's Finance Fridays. This week we are keeping on the car insurance theme. There are a number of factors as to why your quote for car insurance could be much higher than someone who is of similar age, driving experience and car model. This is because insurance companies work out premiums on behaviour patterns. Some will make sense such if you have a high value car it is more likely that it could be stolen or damaged. Some though will be down to coincidence – they could find that people aged 25 have more accidents than people aged 26. The extra year difference shouldn't really affect driving patterns but insurance companies will put it as a factor when calculating premiums.

One of the latest findings is that your email address could affect your car insurance premium. Recently it has been found that Admiral have quoted people using Hotmail email addresses higher premiums than if you have a Gmail email address. This is because Hotmail was one of the first free email providers to be set up. I remember having a Hotmail account back in the late nineties. Since then Hotmail has been merged with Outlook. If you still have a Hotmail address it could indicate that you are not particularly computer or IT savvy. Also Hotmail has had a reputation for letting in a lot of junk mail into your Inbox which could lead to hacking, scam and phishing attempts. Overall these factors could indicate a driver who is not particularly on the ball.

We often like to big up our job title or importance but be beware when it comes to stating your occupation when you get a quote. If I put down 'Journalist' I get quoted substantially higher premiums than 'Writer'. Of course you need to be completely honest when apply for insurance but for me there is very difference between the two titles expect when it comes to insurance. Apparently journalists are higher risk as they are seen as heavier drinkers of alcohol and needing to speed to the next news story. Writers are more likely to spend their days at home drinking tea. I think I know which category I fall better into!

How many miles you drive in a year will affect your car insurance premium. Obviously if you drive a lot of miles you are more at risk of having an accident and your premium will reflect this. On the flip side if you put down that you drive only a few thousand miles a year you could also have a higher premium than someone driving more than you. This is because if you don't drive much this could indicate you're not a confident driver and therefore more prone to accidents. To accurately state what you mileage you are doing in a year check your service booklet as it should be recorded in there. As always make sure you say what you are driving in a year because if you wildly over or under state your mileage it could invalidate your policy.

Have you seen your car insurance rise a lot? Do you find you get different quotes for slightly different details?

If you want to join in with this week's Finance Fridays then add your link to the linky below. Any post concerning financial matters is allowed. Full details here. It doesn't have to be published today as you have until 23.55 on Tuesday 20th February 2018 to join in.
Finance Fridays

If you use Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or Google+ please tag me and I will retweet, Like, Share or +1 as appropriate. You can find me here:

Twitter: @jibberjabberuk - please use the hashtag #FinanceFridays
Facebook: Jibberjabberuk
Instagram: @jibberjabberuk
Google+: Jibber JabberUK



No comments:

Post a Comment

I appreciate your comments. If you have any tips, tricks or tweaks please pass them on!