Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Car insurance more expensive when divorced...Fuming!

40 replies

rockingthelook · 11/04/2019 19:18

About to renew car insurance, asked to check my details for accuracy (lots of companies won't pay out if there are any inconsistencies), previous quote stated I was married, I am divorced, pointed this out and new quote is £80 more!, Asked for clarification, apparently insurance companies deem that you are more high risk if single or divorced, so it would've been fine previously when I was married ?, my husband didn't drive so I was the sole driver then too...we are in the dark ages, bloody ridiculous, I've got less money than ever and now have to pay more , unbelievable

OP posts:
SammySamSam09 · 12/04/2019 12:52

Taking my dh off my policy made it about £300 cheaper Grin glad he has his own car now.

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 12/04/2019 17:10

As a widow, would it be incorrect to state you are married (because you never divorced)? Asking for a friend....

Yes, it would - just because it wasn't the choice of either or both of the couple, the marriage has still come to an end as, in law, only two living people can be married.

Bigamy is illegal in this country, so you cannot marry another person whilst still married; however, the day you are widowed, you are legally allowed to marry again, just as you would have been if you'd never been married at all.

Legally-speaking, you can now describe yourself as either widowed or single, but those are your only options.

DGRossetti · 12/04/2019 17:14

Legally-speaking, you can now describe yourself as either widowed or single, but those are your only options.

Can't you be a bride of Christ ?

Singlenotsingle · 12/04/2019 17:25

Did you go on the comparison websites to see how others compare. My insurance went down from over £400 with D/L to £230 with the RAC!

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 12/04/2019 17:25

Imagine if you'd been married four times, each time to a man named Tom, and all four of them had cheated on you and otherwise treated you appallingly. It would be totally irrational but a very natural human feeling to be extremely wary of ever falling in love with another man called Tom.

There are thousands of men out there called Tom who have always been nothing but kind, loving, faithful husbands - but if you ran your love life like an insurance company runs their business, the thousands of good Toms with whom you've never had any dealings would be completely irrelevant (and, to you, effectively non-existent) as all you'd have to go on would be your own experience, which would 'prove' to you that Toms are far more likely to be bad husbands than Brians, Jacks or Pauls would be.

Singlenotsingle · 12/04/2019 17:25

No it wasn't D/L. It was dial direct.

MindyStClaire · 12/04/2019 21:16

Insurance works by risk pooling. There is a small chance of your house burning down, but if it did you'd be paying out a six figure sum to rebuild it. So lots of people pay a small sum to an insurance company, and then the one person whose house does burn down is covered. The insurance company makes a profit (it's not a charity afterall), you get peace of mind for the sake of a couple of hundred quid a year, and the poor sod whose house burns down gets to rebuild it without going bankrupt.

To buy your insurance you pay a premium. The insurance company calculates the premium - the cost of rebuilding your house, times the risk of it burning down, plus profit and expenses (running their office). Their expertise is in calculating that risk. They'll compare you against other women, other homeowners, other people with your profession etc. They have huge data sets and are very very good at this.

With something like car insurance, the market is so packed that if they charge slightly too much, no one will buy the product and they won't make any profit. If they charge too little, they won't earn enough to cover the claims that are made and they'll make a loss.

If your marital status or occupation change, so does your risk of making a claim, which changes your premium. It's not personal, that's what their huge data sets are telling them. Different companies might use different risk weightings so it might change by less with some companies than others.

If, say, Company A thinks you become a bigger risk on divorce, but Company B thinks your risk reduces, then obviously on divorce you'll buy insurance from Company B. As will all the other divorced people. So Company B better have that right, or they're going to be in trouble. If Company A is wrong they're losing a lot of business to Company B.

This is a very long way of saying, don't take it personally. It's just the way the insurance industry operates working against you this time. It's probably worked in your favour at others (on your marriage, for example).

DGRossetti · 12/04/2019 21:45

The more insurance companies can narrow risk down, the more expensive it becomes for the riskier (the pooling element fails).

Might be "a thing" in years to come.

Singletomingle · 12/04/2019 22:01

I had the same thing. After a bit of investigation it turned out it was even cheaper than before if I kept my ex wife on the policy even though she has 6 points.

stucknoue · 12/04/2019 22:09

So if you no longer live at the same address it's still cheaper to leave ex h on? This is our intention as we only have one car and don't need two, he is looking at houses 2 mins walk away ... I've suggested building a bungalow in the garden!

Singletomingle · 12/04/2019 22:20

They don't actually ask if you live at the same address merely relationship which I put as partner. I'm not sure how this would hold up in the event of a claim however.

BlindTipsy · 13/04/2019 07:34

I recently went through a similar thing with my car insurance after getting divorced. I found if I put my sister on the policy as a named driver the premium went down by over £80. It's handy as she can now drive my car if ever needed.
So it may be worth putting a friend or other family member on your policy.

Oblomov19 · 13/04/2019 08:00

What's the difference? Between statistics and discrimination?

Insurance companies presumably have more claims from ...... for example..... 21-28 year old males, fast driving? Possibly? Than 45-50 year old married mothers, taking 2 kids to judo/hockey/swimming practice?

Isn't that just a fact? Statistic? Not discrimination?

MsWarrensProfession · 13/04/2019 08:14

The insurance industry used to have a special dispensation to discriminate on the protected characteristics of age and sex, as long as they could prove it was backed up by stats. The sex exemption was removed a few years ago and hasn’t caused too much difficulty apart from to very young female drivers. Just because it was backed up by stats doesn’t mean it was reasonable. There are stats demonstrating that women take more sick leave on average - but employers shouldn’t be allowed to take that into account when making hiring decisions.

The age exemption will never be removed because it would destroy the life insurance industry overnight if they had to charge the same premium to a 29 year old as a 99 year old.

TheQueef · 13/04/2019 08:20

Would marital status be a material fact?

New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread