Penalised for car insurance by being SAHM

[Ginger1982]

So I have my insurance with Admiral. Had a couple of claims in last few years, 2 my fault having minor bumps in car parks, 1 earlier this year definitely not my fault. Renewal quote came in and they wanted over £200 more than last year. I then moved house and became SAHM so no longer needing commuting on policy so made those changes online to my policy and they wanted another £400 taking my quote to over £1k!

So I phoned and after much wrangling told them to cancel the policy at the renewal date in 2 weeks. I then went on a comparison site and got another quote, again from Admiral, for a lot less so set that up to start when previous policy ends.

I've just noticed on the documents however, that I'm now excluded from driving other cars 3rd party when I previously could. This seems to be as a result of effectively giving up my job. It won't affect me driving DH's car as I'm specifically included on his company car policy but I have borrowed my mum's occasionally if mine has been in the garage and now presumably I won't be able to do that unless she makes me a named driver. I'm going to phone them tomorrow to clarify but surely this is unfair. How can I be a greater risk at home than I would be travelling to work?

AIBU?

I expect they assume you will be doing more driving than if you were at work. (Shopping, play dates, doctors appointments ect).

My DSDs boyfriend is a footballer. When he entered his profession his quote doubled!

Third party cover on other peoples cars is being removed from all new policies at many insurance companies so it is likely anyone in any occupation wouldn't be offered that on a new policy (rather than a renewal), I imagine this is something to do with the presence of price comparison sites making it more essential that insurers quote the lowest possible price and therefore are offering as little as possible other than the core product.
The change of address could also going to be a major factor in the difference in price as places with higher levels of theft, arson or other damage to vehicles will attract a higher premium due to the higher risk, as will locations close to accident hotspots.
I imagine there will also be a factor that on average SAHMs will drive a higher proportion of their milage with children in the car who could provide a distraction, and are less likely to drive on the same route at the same time day in day out, and are therefore driving a higher proportion of 'higher risk' miles than people who work.

I'm unhappily with admiral. Got a new car and the new premium was really high - a few hundred more than othet quotes but there was no point me leaving because of their cancellation fee. All fine if annoying.

What's more annoying is like you I can't drive any other cars third party because the car is actually registered in my DHs name (dealership messed it up and can't change it cos of something to do with money laundering laws!). I've looked around and other companies don't do this so I will definitely be leaving.

Unfortunately for you they can choose premiums based on jobs. Is it cheaper if you keep communiting on? Although probably isn't allowed to do that..

I'm in NI so I don't know if that changes anything, but IIRC the ability to drive 3rd party on other cars was done away with entirely a few years ago. You have to be named on the policy or have a specific open policy (that costs extra) to be able to do that.

Though I guess a SAHM (I am one) has more time to get into accidents in car parks than some one who is in work 8 or so hours a day.

It just seems odd that it was included in my additional renewal policy which if I had just accepted would have continued but the fact I've made these changes means it comes off. I'll see what they say.

It sounds like they aren’t withdrawing it from existing customers but aren’t offering it to to new customers ..... which you are since you non-renewed effectively

If your not commuting your mileage goes down which makes insurance increase as it isn’t great for the car not to be used for a long run regularly. Your house insurance should go down though.

Moving house can also up it. They tried to up mine by 400 when I moved so I switched companies.

I’m with admiral. I think it’s £25 to add on the third party cover on other cars.

This really isn't about penalising SAHM. Mine went up by two quid when I took my ex off the policy. They use v complex algorithms to set the price and then there's a lot of wriggle room if you threaten to leave. It is almost always worth switching companies after a year or two. I recently found the 'insured to drive other cars', thing is now increasingly hard to get but it is still available just not as common. I'm with Hastings and have it.

The ability to drive cars third party was excluded from my DH’s policy this time and he’s a deputy head.

Your insurance has gone up as you’ve had 3 accidents in quick succession and now you’re not working it’s assumed you’re doing more frequent short journies in the day

Driving of other cars ipseemsbto be getting slowly phased out, I've seen it gone from a few companies now.

Insurance is more expensive when unemployed as you could be using the car all day every day compared to a worker who's will be parked for the day. It's all about risk.

Insurers don't discriminate arbitrarily. It's entirely a numbers game for them. If they quote higher for SAHPs, it's because their data shows SAHPs claim more, for whatever reason.

I'm with Hastings & they don't offer third party driving on other cars either.

I think there are different levels of cover within insurance companies, it's things like this that are omitted to give a lower quote. In terms of renewal, you were being quoted like-for-like hence the higher price. Your lower price may also include different excess, legal cover etc.

Renewal quotes are always more. Ring them and they may well do a deal.

Moving house can change a policy cost as well.

Shop around. The 3rd party clause has generally been dropped for years.

Because most people are not driving for 8 hours a day where you might be. I expect sahm have more claims

And Martin Lewis's advice is that if you can legitimately change the title of your profession have a play around with that as that can effect quotes.

There are a lot of variables at play here - change of address, change of occupation, bumps - no fault and otherwise - become a new customer. These will all influence the cost of your policy and are based on pretty rigorous statistics.

If you aren't commuting then you may well be driving more during the day.
Plus, they will do renewal quotes on like for like, whereas new policies they will cut out stuff.
So I don't think this is particularly to do with being a SAHM.

3 claims fault or non fault will make your policy go up. You are seen as a higher risk and more likely to claim in the future.

After 2 years of driving, no claims, clean license, and turning 30, I was hoping to get my insurance below £1000 this year. No such luck

I'm a SAHM and haven't noticed an increase as such. And doing more miles seems to reduce premiums, not the other way round.

Thanks everyone. If I can add third party cover for a bit extra then I don't mind doing that. Saves any hassle if I need to borrow Mum's car.