It is that time of year again when, after a ridiculously high renewal quote from our existing car insurer, we have had to start looking for insurance quotes. Last year we just accepted our renewal quote as we were still in a post-baby haze and because we were in the middle of a claim which was eventually settled in our favour. This year we decided to head to the comparison sites and I was amazed by some of the things I found out.
Comparison sites rock but... you have to be careful when you click through to 'buy' a policy because the default options may not be exactly what you put in when generating your quote. On one particularly tempting quote, we discovered that they hadn't added a second driver to the quote – adding me to the policy put the price out of our budget.
Comparison sites rock but... you have to be careful when you click through to 'buy' a policy because the default options may not be exactly what you put in when generating your quote. On one particularly tempting quote, we discovered that they hadn't added a second driver to the quote – adding me to the policy put the price out of our budget.
The policy we eventually selected was with Elephant; we found when reviewing the details that there was a tickbox to indicate whether or not you had children. The comparison site had selected a default value of 'No' for the tickbox so we changed it and regenerated the quote. Now I know that insurers give you brownie points if you have a 'low-risk' job, or if you are married and settled because they think you're a more responsible type of citizen (although how true their assumptions are, I'm not sure). I figured that maybe Elephant offered brownie points if you had children – perhaps its another indication that you're a careful driver? Well no... ticking the 'Do you have any children' box increased our insurance quote by nearly £100!
Perhaps our compensation costs are higher as parents in the event of an accident? Perhaps we're more likely to be stressing about the kids in the back seat than paying attention to the road ahead? Or maybe it's just because married middle-class families with kids are not Elephant's kind of market? Whichever way it is, the quote was still MUCH cheaper than our renewal quote, so we went for it but I do feel like we're being penalised for having a daughter.
Perhaps our compensation costs are higher as parents in the event of an accident? Perhaps we're more likely to be stressing about the kids in the back seat than paying attention to the road ahead? Or maybe it's just because married middle-class families with kids are not Elephant's kind of market? Whichever way it is, the quote was still MUCH cheaper than our renewal quote, so we went for it but I do feel like we're being penalised for having a daughter.
