Car insurance. Where's the logic?!

[Lanciaman]

No doubt a million threads on this but this example is nuts. 

Renewal for the rcz comes in at £230. Yes I'm old. 

Thinks best call them and declare an accident last summer where someone rear ended me in the motor home. No fault claim but we know how this works.. 

Said incident declared. The premium comes down to £202.

Not complaining but wtf is their logic! 

[comfortablynumb]

Think I've said before, MK1 son in his early 20's could insure a V8 Range rover cheaper than a fiesta🤔

[sheffcortinacentre]

There is no logic.

[sheffcortinacentre]

Always been the same & always will be.

Examples from the 90's

28 yr old male full NCB 

5 yr old xr3i £725, 10 yr old 3.0 Capri £540, 20 yr old Chevy Camaro £375!

52 yr old male full NCB fiat uno 1.1 £560 ,SD1 2600  £310 both same age.

[Mrcento]

  On 08/02/2025 at 19:27, sheffcortinacentre said:

There is no logic.

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This.

I uncovered a really, really nasty tactic a few months back.

Go and look out your window for a neighbours car, preferably the most common one of them all, make a note of the reg number.

Go on Gumtree, find a very similar car, the more local and cheaper it is, the better. Make a note of the reg number.

Go on Autotrader, find another very similar car, preferably the most expensive and furthest away example. Make a note of the reg number.

Put all 3 into a comparison site in any order you like.

Should be 3 identical, or as near as, prices, right?, RIGHT?

Not even close.

The cheaper/local example will return a much higher price.

The expensive/furthest away one will have a much lower premium.

The neighbours one, i.e, the one that isn't on a sales platform where the seller has 'entered the reg number' to upload details will undercut the expensive one even further.

The only tangible difference between the 3 is 2 are listed for sale, and 1 is 'cheap'. Same cars, same driver, same risk, repair costs etc.

They 'can' insure a (let's just for examples sake, say) an Astra for £400. But if they know one is for sale, they also know how much it is selling for and will 'Fuck you, tax' you based on that, £475 for the expensive one, £625 for the local cheaper one.

They are absolutely fucking at it. Big time.

[New POD]

Mum had to contact Dad's insurance company, to tell him he died and they allow 30 days grace, for named drivers to continue using the car.

They will then cancel.the policy and return the remaining policy price. .and if she takes out a new policy they will mirror Dad's ncb, and allow her to take out a policy for the same price. £950. For a 63 plate focus estate in LL58 postcode area 86 years young. Passed her car and motorbike tests in 1957

As my sister was helping to sort it out I've not said anything, other than fuck me, they think old people are a risk and a half.

I'm thinking my Dad didn't bother with comparison sites. 

[loserone]

I think at 86 she's doing pretty well.  Seems to leap up every year past 75 and my dad's isn't far off that at 80

[Sham]

I swear that insurance companies just use a random number generator.

I'm yet to figure out why adding my son to my car insurance was cheaper before he passed his test - the price was so high, it's cheaper for him to use insurance by the hour when he needs the car.

[Wibble]

  On 08/02/2025 at 21:15, New POD said:

Mum had to contact Dad's insurance company, to tell him he died and they allow 30 days grace, for named drivers to continue using the car.

They will then cancel.the policy and return the remaining policy price. .and if she takes out a new policy they will mirror Dad's ncb, and allow her to take out a policy for the same price. £950. For a 63 plate focus estate in LL58 postcode area 86 years young. Passed her car and motorbike tests in 1957

As my sister was helping to sort it out I've not said anything, other than fuck me, they think old people are a risk and a half.

I'm thinking my Dad didn't bother with comparison sites. 

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Add you or your sister as named drivers. I did this on my Mum’s last policy and it cut the cost by 50%. She was 86 and I lived over 400 miles away.

[willswitchengage]

My Mrs and I have broadly identical insurance credentials other than she has several declared own-fault accidents to her name. Bizarrely, her insurance is cheaper and having her on my policy reduced its price.

[fairkens]

  On 08/02/2025 at 21:56, Sham said:

I swear that insurance companies just use a random number generator.

I'm yet to figure out why adding my son to my car insurance was cheaper before he passed his test - the price was so high, it's cheaper for him to use insurance by the hour when he needs the car.

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Because he couldn't drive it without qualified supervision. 

It's all statistics, robots AIs algorithms etc and sometimes it throws up anomalies.

Mind you when I passed my test it was cheaper to get insured on a Saab 900 turbo than on a 1.2 Nova so maybe it's always been this way

[comfortablynumb]

I said to my nephew when he first passed his test, 'Get an older car, it'll be cheaper'

' what, like a five year old something?'

No, not quite 😁

[EyesWeldedShut]

  On 08/02/2025 at 20:53, Mrcento said:

The only tangible difference between the 3 is 2 are listed for sale, and 1 is 'cheap'. Same cars, same driver, same risk, repair costs etc.

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Tried this for a laugh just now.
2012 Fiesta 1.2
£164 for the one outside the house 
£165 for local on Gumtree
£141 for the expensive autotrader one. 
The Autotrader car also has less than 30K miles on it and Autotrader's 'book' values gave it about a 17% increase over the other two.

There's something in the algorithm - maybe low number of previous owners/mileage reduce the premium?