Car Insurance for over 90s

[KingscoteStaff]

Mum’s premium renewal has just come in - up from 1700 to 5000!!!

Hasn’t had an accident or a claim for at least 20 years. Small car used 2 or 3 times a week to go shopping and to church.

Is there a specific insurer for oldies? Any advice gratefully received.

Or perhaps, depending on age, it would overnight nearly double the number of driving tests, and we can’t manage with the number we have?

Or because research by the RAC Foundation suggests drivers aged 75 and over make up 6% of all licence holders but account for just 4.3% of all deaths and serious injuries. By contrast, drivers aged 16-20 make up just 2.5% of all drivers but 13% of those killed and seriously injured?

I found an elderly man in Tesco car park looking for his car, he said he was 98.. we spent ages looking for it and when we found it it was nowhere near where he'd said it was plus it was covered in dents..

But to be fair I've seen plenty of much younger dangerous drivers too.

I apologise if I misunderstood your comment. It read as if you were saying all elderly people were unable to think.

What she was saying that a failure to pick a cheap and sensible solution for an irrational reason such as "it's not the way it was when I was growing up" would be an indication of failure to think clearly.

From the OP's description of her mother it would be defeatist to assume that she couldn't adapt and make a rational choice just because she's 90.

Premiums are up all across the board really.If DM wants to drive and is capable then she will have no choice but to pay it.I assume often as the risk factor is high then this is designed to put people off .Can you drive her /maybe see if you can arrange Grocery to be delivered ?

From the OP's description of her mother it would be defeatist to assume that she couldn't adapt and make a rational choice just because she's 90.

Quite. As was the case with MiL. She just hadn't considered the taxi option. They're relatively cheaper nowadays IME - because I don't use them regularly I was quite surprised when I had to recently to get to the station, it used to be about £15 here a couple decades ago and still is!

Only if you choose to ignore reality which is that 90 year olds are highly likely to have slower reflexes and poorer eyesight than 18 year olds

I totally agree there should be some sort of test available for older drivers to allow them to continue, but the person could be perfectly capable of driving the few miles to their local shop or leisure centre and it seems cruel to deprive them because of an arbitrary age limit.

Perhaps we should stop all 90+ year olds voting as well as clearly their rational reasoning is not what it was when they were 30 years younger.

Sounds like your Mum is amazing. Reaction times decline with age even in fit active people and that is why premiums go up. I'd push harder for taxi use. Would she accept Uber?

All these countries more sensible than us

My grandad is 97 and his insurance was £1200
He's just given up driving as taxis are cheaper and one of his younger friends is happy to give him a lift to play golf weekly too

Slightly off topic but apparently, doing things you have always done does not keep you cognitively sharp as your brain gets used to them, you need to do new things to challenge yourself/build new pathways. Now obviously someone who can do those things and who has a wide social circle into their 90's is a model to very much aspire to but I found that interesting. Dr Andy galpin was the one talking about this. He also said that they have found that the thing that takes the most brainpower is actually moving your muscles, made sense when he explained the process. Oh and make sure your quads/glutes are tip top, they are the muscles that will allow you to get off your chair and more importantly on and off the toilet unaided in your dotage.

As you were, back to the bunfight as to whether all elderly people should drive or not!

Juts to clarify I would say the same about a person of any age who was unable to rationalise. The ageist thing here is people agreeing this is a generational issue. It's not.

Unless she would spend over £400 a month on taxis, insurance will be the ridiculous indulgence for her.

We are the same OP. My dad is 89 this year and insurance has gone up so much. He's very active and mentally well so it doesn't seem fair to take the joy of driving off him. But unfortunately he will have to due to the cost.

Oh and to everyone on this thread putting their bit in about why the elderly shouldn't be driving 🖕

My dh nearly got knocked off his bike by an elderly man with sight only in one eye. He was parking outside a row of shops and my dh said he was all over the place and shouldn't have been driving. I think it should be compulsory to have tests after 75 yrs old. Mental health may be fine but reaction times are definitely not as good.

Yes because they are likely to be dangerous drivers unless they have sat some kind of driving test to check competency.

Let's be honest, half of drivers that have been driving 20 years plus wouldn't pass the test, let alone the elderly.

This was quoted from someone earlier just to be clear....

Yes because they are likely to be dangerous drivers unless they have sat some kind of driving test to check competency.

@twilightcafe t

Hide her car keys!

A person with dementia should not be driving full stop. She will kill someone!

This is a sweeping statement of the sort that people who know nothing about dementia have no business in making and contributes to the stigma around dementia and the social inclination to treat elderly people with dementia as fit for the bin. Which in turn deters society and government from properly addressing it as a disease and investing in research and care.

Once you have a dementia diagnosis you have to notify the DVLA. The treating consultant will be able to advise whether someone is fit to drive.

Dementia of all kinds is a progressive disease. The speed of deterioration varies from person to person.

A person at the start of diagnosis may just have short term memory failure - can't remember what they had for lunch -and no symptoms that affect their ability to drive. They may very well be fit to drive, considered fit to drive and signed off as fit to drive by their treating physician. That happened with a person I know who was fit to drive for 3 years post diagnosis and voluntarily stopped driving when they were still actually fine to drive and park (safe physically on the road) but became unable to operate the electronic system in the car because it was too technical and they forgot the finer details. If they'd had an old school turn on the car and it goes kind of car, probably would have been fit to drive for another year I'd guess.

I am NOT talking about OP's mother here. I am addressing your sweeping statement which is wrong that any person with dementia should NOT be driving full stop. It would be true of people with late stage dementia but millions of people will live well with early stage dementia for years.

It's important that statements like this are challenged because they do contribute to the stigma around dementia.

@LoctiteStuck
Okay...
If you would willingly be a passenger with someone you knew had dementia, then go right on ahead.

Personally I would rather not be driven by a taxi driver in their 90s with dementia… call me unkind.

But if the prospect makes me nervous as a potential passenger then why should it be considered ok for the unsuspecting general public to share the roads with them?

We stopped fil driving - he had some memory impairments and confusion. He's 82 - we asked for advise everywhere - police - let him carry on until he crashes, doctor told him not to drive until he had been assessed. He could not find the assessment centre and had to be rescued in the middle of nowhere and followed bil home. He's now diagnosed with mixed dementia. We recently found out that insurance policy was void anyway because he'd filled in the wrong dates of birth. We did it for everyone's safety as we felt as the family we had a duty to stop things before anything happened.

I wonder in that case why insurance companies don’t see them as a worse risk than 18 year olds.

Average car insurance premium by age The average premium for a 31-35 year old is £426, and this isn’t exceeded by any older age group except 91 and older.