To share my newly discovered knowledge of how to save money on your car insurance?

[apostrophewoman]

I know this isn’t an AIBU, but I’ve been driving for 38 years and only discovered this from the Martin Lewis website email I had yesterday.

Theres a link on Martin Lewis to fill your details in on Money Supermarket and it points out sections where you can make changes to reduce your quote.

For instance, my job isn’t on the list but I’ve always chosen ‘Admin’ which covers it. By choosing a different job title, while still remaining appropriate to your job, you can save all sorts of different percentages - the drop down list will tell you.

Im also feeling a bit stupid that I’ve always put in my mileage per year as my full mileage, but again, it will tell that work commute mileage doesn’t count, and in many cases your figure should also not include shopping or visiting family and friends!

So I’ve legitimately halved my mileage and changed my job description and saved about forty quid on my quotes - maybe not life changing but it’s my forty quid!

So this is not unreasonable but hopefully helpful!

Most of my mileage is for driving to the coast or countryside to go on walks. I do this at least twice a week and it's probably about 2/3s of my mileage. I do sometimes stop at a shop or relative's house on the way back, but it's not the main reason for the trip. Judging by the amount of people out there, it's far from unusual. People also undertake other leisure activities (sport, cinema etc) and go for medical appointments.

Yes, I would agree. They said "Mumsnet is a discussion site first and foremost" so just challenge. Which many of us are doing!

I used to work in the customer service team of an insurance company with a... not very honest sales team. They'd make all sorts of outlandish suggestions to get the premium down.

Our job in customer service was managing the fall out when people got into accidents and were not covered because their information was wrong. It was one of those soul destroying jobs you do at 18 (gap year) and I lasted 3 months. The worst was the recent widow who hadn't yet sold her husband's car and who was advised to put down a 2nd household car for the discount.

She got into an accident and the underwriters revoked her insurance because it was dishonestly obtained. I gave her enough information that I hope someone in her family helped her sue, but I don't know the outcome.

Be religiously, pedantically accurate with insurance quotes.

Yay! Zero mileage means zero driving means zero insurance needed!

So ALL the details were the same just different gender or various differences? If all the same just a different gender then you should report those insurers to the FCA as that is against the law.

Your quote from AI:

Yes, car insurance generally costs more for young men (boys) than young women, largely due to higher risk statistics, despite legal bans on gender-based pricing. While insurers cannot legally use gender to set premiums, they use factors like occupation, car type, and driving offenses, which show men are more likely to make costly claims.

It clearly states the reasons men may pay more than women is due to having different occupations, cars or motoring convictions. Like I said put in all the exact
same details and you will get the same price.

Win/win!

Oh dear - this thread. 🤦‍♀️

Like I said put in all the exact
same details and you will get the same price

except you don't.
and you don't seem to believe me becuase it is supposed to be different factors eg occupation. But in reality it isn't. The only difference is m/f. And as I said, that is confirmed right across my kids friendship groups.
Almost impossible to prove, but it is the reality of teens getting car insurance.

@Swiftie1878 wait until around 5 weeks after the pass date to insure a newly qualified driver, frustrating I know, but saved £100’s. This was just our lucky mishap discovering this.

You definitely would but okay I am wasting my breath. It is the law and insurers follow strict regulations 🤦🏻‍♀️

Adding an experienced driver, eg a friend or relative, as second driver can bring your quote down. NOT as main driver as thats misrepresentation.

It’s counterintuitive, but I added my partner to my first policy I’d just passed my test, and it cost me less than insuring just myself. It wasn’t a big difference but better than nothing. In my case it’s useful to know he can drive my car if I need him to, but it doesn’t matter if they will actually drive the car.

You definitely would but okay I am wasting my breath

I could equally say that I am wasting my breath with you.
I have said, multiple times, that we have sat at the computer and done it, and seen that the prices are different, depending ONLY on if it is m/f. And it isn't a one off, I have 3 kids same address, same occupation (at school) same age, same car and got wildly different quotes depending on if it was ds or dd asking. ds paid nearly double what either of my dds paid in their first year, only difference was he is a boy.
Dd2 is in first year of driving and when looking for her insurance we did just change gender out of curiosity and the premium went right up.

I am not making things up, or trying to be provocative, I am telling you what the facts are when we sit down to find car insurance, and you are basically saying I must be lying because it is not legal.
You are basically gaslighting me, my lived experience does not fit your narrative, so it cannot be true.

Unfortunately it is true.

Did you do all the quotes on the same day for the same start date? I’m guessing no it sounds like you’ve done it over a few years when your child have reached x age. So much goes into generating a premium for an insurance quote which I can’t really bothered to go into as you won’t listen. I am not gaslighting you, how dramatic. You just cannot accept you’re wrong on this one and want to die on this hill that insurers are breaking the law and discriminating against males.

I didn’t say it was unusual, I don’t have any commute so my own mileage is also made up entirely of the things you describe. However, people like myself and you are not the majority and most people spend more time using the car for commuting, supermarket trips and visiting people than anything else.

I find it hard to believe that an insurer wouldn’t be interested the 10k miles a year someone drives to work and the shops and only specifically wants to know about when they go to the cinema and the twice a year they visit the GP 🙄

people like OP are exactly why AI is so dangerous. It would be a great tool if everyone just used it to assist with automated tasks but retained human oversight. But people are so desperate to make their lives the tiniest bit easier that they are happy to outsource all critical thinking abilities to someone, or something else.

It also reflects poorly on MN if they aren't prepared to take any action on inaccurate advice that could have quite far reaching repurcussions. At the very least they could put one of the 'MN has commented on this thread' messages urging new posters to read the whole thread!

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-rules-for-insurance

Since 2012! "A new ruling by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) which comes in to force today, means that gender is no longer allowed to be a factor when insurance premiums are calculated by insurance companies.
Women have traditionally benefited from lower car insurance premiums compared to men, however the move will effect everything from pensions to car and life insurance.
“This change from Europe is disappointing especially in these tough times when budgets are stretched,” said Minister for Consumer Affairs and Minister for Equalities Jo Swinson. "

As someone who used to sell car insurance, asd an older driver with no points as a named driver. Also think about where it’s parked. On street is very high.

Steppemum’s children and school friends are the exemption apparently

Just done a quote (via Quidco) to test this, and putting myself as male made the premiums go up. And yes, that's ALL I changed.

I will report this but I'm sure nothing will be done about it. They shouldn't be doing it. But they are. I'm not sure why you're so adamant they're not, when people are literally testing it here and now.

Thanks for sharing OP I will have a read!

Please be aware that OP has shared complete misinformation that Mumsnet have refused to remove. You might want to read the whole thread

Unbelievable - logic and critical thinking has been abandoned.

You won't be covered as you haven't submitted accurate information.

The people being just you who has actually completed the quote with all the same details changing only the gender. Glad you have reported it

As some people are saying, the OP has interpreted the mileage information incorrectly which could lead to others getting insurance quotes that don’t cover them. It is the mileage you do after visiting family friends shopping etc not excluding this mileage. It does not make sense and should be taken down

I was going to say the same about declaring zero miles.

I'm retired so most of my driving is for shopping or visiting family or friends. I don't tend to drive around just for the hell of it.

Are you sure the site you're on OP isn't a scam site because claiming that commuting mileage doesn't need to be included is wrong.

I've been driving forever and have always understood the insurance companies want your total estimated yearly mileage.