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Online car insurance expert, elephant.co.uk has looked closely
at the different risks to see what affect they have on an average
low risk motorist. Some factors can push premiums up by over 200%.
All insurers rate on a range of factors, these include:
- Age
- Address
- Occupation
- Gender
- Make and model of vehicle
- Where the vehicle is parked overnight
- How you will be using the car
- Estimated annual mileage
- No claims bonus
- Number of drivers
- If you drive other cars
- Motoring offences
- Claims history
- Whether or not you have children
- Security on your car
- Modifications to your car
Managing director of elephant.co.uk, Tanzie Oliver said: "This
list may seem very long and I am sure some people are surprised
by the questions they are asked by insurance companies, but we need
to have as much information as possible in order to calculate an
accurate premium. This is based on many years worth of data and
allows us to work out who is a low risk and who is a high risk."
Some of the risk factors are more important than others, particularly
age, address and vehicle details. This is because they have the
greatest affect on the likelihood and cost of a claim. elephant.co.uk
looked at how these three areas factors can affect the premium
of an average motorist.
John Smith a 35-year-old married bank worker living in the quiet
English town of Fareham, driving a Citroen Xsara Picasso 2.0 Hdi.
A typical quote for him would be about £260. However if his
age, address or vehicle change, his premium rises. This is because
he becomes a higher risk, and is more likely to cost the insurance
company more in claims.
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Aged 21 |
Living in Dalston, East London |
Driving an Audi TT 1.8 Quattro |
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| New premium |
£580 |
£450 |
£900 |
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| Percentage increase |
123% |
73% |
246% |
Prices based on averages between elephant.co.uk
and five other leading insurers
So why do these three factors in particular have such an affect
on premium? Tanzie Oliver explains: "Put simply, young people
are involved in more accidents because they are less experienced
at driving; car crime and accident rates are higher in city centres
than in rural locations; and expensive cars are more appealing to
car thieves and cost more to repair if they are involved in an accident."
Issue date: 09/03/2005
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