What is the relevance??

[MrRegieRitmo]

Just been playing around with insurance quotes this evening as mine is up for renewal (cue expectation of big cuts now I'm 25 - yeah right ) and noticed this subtext after the field for marital status:"Did you know that some insurers give lower premiums to married rather than co-habiting couples - as much as 30%"It has bemused me so much, I was forced to come on here to enquire what it has to do with the price of eggs? Or rather, is this another case of interfering busy bodies trying to influence our way of life again in this nanny state we live in?

[HillmanImp]

I always say i am co-habiting as i t does bring your premiums down. As i houseshare its not a problem, can blag it in the face of a claim.Insurance companies think that married peeps are sensible and settled down. As we know this is not the case in real life. Married cannot work if you are not but co-habiting can, as unless you live on your tod they cannot prove otherwise.If you live with a chap just pretend you are a bufty, cant prove otherwise (bufty just used as a term, not being funny about out).

[Pillock]

It's just stats. They've paid someone a lot of money and given them pages and pages of accident figures, and somewhere the office junior has noticed that married people have fewer accidents.They haven't a clue why and they don't care, they just know they're cheaper to insure. Same as every little fact they eek out of you on the phone - what job you do, how many other cars you own, any kids.....Actually, the job thing - I got two quotes for my old scirocco. on one I was a 'computer technician' and the other 'bar staff' (two jobs, bar staff was p/t - i just wanted to see what effect it had). £75 difference! Bar staff must habitually drive home after drinking the contents of the cellar or something......

[MrRegieRitmo]

Well some other weird ones are that "home owners are often given discount" (is that so they can flog you contents insurance too?) "discount is usually given if you have multiple vehicles" (but surely then you can have multiple crashes!) "Your premiums are usually cheaper if you add additional drivers who are mature" (yes because when the front of my car gets taken out by a passing lorry whilst I'm driving, it really makes all the difference that my mum is a named driver, despite the fact she's sat at home wondering where I've got to!).Insurance exists to try us

[Renault18]

I've just spent a day trawling insurance sites too.

 

Last October, whilst sitting minding my own business in my Scenic, the kind lady who returned to her shite-heap of a Vectra next to me decided to reverse out of the parking space with full left-lock applied and wiped out the off-side of my car.

 

(I could at this point heartilly recommend the Holdcroft Renault "recommended" bodyshop in Stoke, but as I sold the car in January as it had already been back numerous times, due to the repair and them being crap, I won't bother.)

 

Anyway, I want to insure my new X-plate Megane Coupe as a second car. With the claim hanging over me, unresolved, £1246 37 years old, clean licence, no other claims, nothing.

 

Today, I received the letter to say my claim has been settled. The cost NOW to insure my Megane Coupe as a second car?

 

£284

 

Thanks for your advice!

 

Tomorrow I'm phoning back to say that I've suddenly married - at the rate I'm going, they'll be paying me

[Guest]

Bloody hell, with the amount I pay on all the different policies it could be worth getting married, I could stand to save about £500 a year. Absolutely ludicrous. How do they get away with it?Still - anyone know any ladies? Particularly ones who are adept at opening Fray Bentos tins. Might as well kill two birds with one stone.

[Mr Lobster]

Yay! Finally, a positive financial side to me getting married in three months! (obviously I jest....)When I got married first time many moons ago, I rang my insurer to tell them and lo and behold they lopped a decent amount off what I was already paying. It puzzled me, apart from getting married it wasn't like I stopped driving fast or anything. Odd.However, look at the other side of it, yes you might save money if you are married but think of the actual cost of getting married in the first place and then the cost of getting divorced! That wipes out the potential saving many times over I can tell thee.

[Richard]

When I worked behind a bar I found it quite difficult to get insurance at all. It wasn't so much that I got loaded, it was more that the companies offering cheap insurance wouldn't touch me.I've recently changed my job from factory-based technician to mobile service engineer with company van. This looks like it will reduce my car's annual mileage from 20k to about 8k. I haven't told my insurance company yet, does anybody know what kind of effect it will have on my premium? I know you get shafted for having a company vehicle available but I don't know how badly.

[carlo]

I really have to make a plug here for Direct Line. Every time when my renewal was due I used to check other prices and they were consistantly cheaper. Went with them automatically for a few years but thought I'd check again last year I wasn't being ripped off. £85 cheaper, again. They even answer the phone in about 10 seconds, from the UK!!!How is it some companies have got there act together and some couldn't organise a p*** up in a brewery? (Like certain telecommunications organisations...)

[STUNO]

Try living here. Insurance is NOT compulsory. I was rear-ended by an uninsured twat a year or so ago . No problem for me , cost me nothing- not even excess and fixed as good as new, but I bet he is still paying whatever the Ins. Co felt like making him pay. I was driving my Nissan Cefiro which has since had to go! He driving a Honda and I know my towbar went through his radiator

[Raffles]

Perhaps the thinking is that married types have a wife sat next to them tutting when then go too fast?

[AnthonyG]

People who are married are more likely to be 'responsible' than those 'living in sin' (as my gran used to say). They are also likely to be older, I guess, since quite a few people co-habit before they get married - sometimes even to the same person!

[Pillock]

here's a good 'un..... my (ex) wife was insured with diamond, the famously sexist women-are-so-much-better insurers. I needed to drive her car so she put me on as a named driver and knocked something like £80 off her £500 policy!

[pompei]

Raffles, tell me about it! Why did you go that way, why didn't you indicate, why are you going so slow, why are you going so fast ... I reckon that's going to cause an accident! Put my wife on the policy and you should expect a hefty rise in the premium

[Marty]

Try living here. Insurance is NOT compulsory. I was rear-ended by an uninsured twat a year or so ago . No problem for me , cost me nothing- not even excess and fixed as good as new,

How does that work then? In England get rear ended by an uninsured tosser and expect to have to pay your excess, loose your no claims discount etc etc ) don't believe that crap Direct Line tell you about not costing you - that's if THEY can prosecute the uninsured driver - you get shunted by a hoodie who has it away on his legs and say "ta ta" to your NCB I know many people who have no insurance (or driving licences, or road tax, or MOT) as the most they will get is a further driving ban and some community service.Twats

[STUNO]

How does that work then ? It helps to have a cousin married to the insurance broker And if they can recover the excess it is refunded. I did not pay at all due to the above cousin and the rear ender paying up the excess as soon as he was contacted by the Ins Co.