Car insurance - should I tell them I'm unemployed?

Max_Headroom_3

Got made redundant last month. Company car went back so I bought a car the day I finished work (arranged the insurance for it a couple of days earlier with the start date of the day I got laid off/picked up car).

When they asked me for my occupation when I arranged my insurance I gave them my occupation at that time. Clearly now that isn't my occupation, I still don't have one (frustratingly).

So, ought I to be ringing them and telling them of my change of status, and will it affect my premium?

Just wondered if anyone had any experience of this and/or advice?

Money_saving_Martyn

Sorry to hear that you lost your job. Make sure you get down to the Job centre/look in the newspaper ASAP and get working again. Even if it's part time in something you hate, it's better than moping around the house all day on benefits!.....



Well, your occupation can sometimes affect you premium, that's why Martin made a handy little gadget (occupation picker?).

If you don't tell them, it could (somehow) invalidate your insurance. I'm not sure how being unemployed would increase the chance of your car being stolen or of you crashing it, but there you go. If this was the case, you would technically be driving without valid insurance, and be prosecuted by the police IF caught.

The down side is, you might have to pay an admin fee of up to £20 to change things mid-policy..... and then maybe again if you start work again. hmmm.

Hopefully someone with a bit more insurance knowledge will reply soon.... (or have done while I was typing this!) but they're just my thoughts on it.

Maybe ring your insurance company anonymously and ask if it would affect your policy.... and if you'd have to pay an admin fee etc.. (thinking that if you ring them, give them your name, policy number etc, they'll change it anyway and charge you!)

Good luck!

Max_Headroom_3

Thanks for that. Guess I can't really take a risk on it so think I'll have to tell them. Shall be annoyed if they put the premium up or charge an admin fee though, just what I don't need.

Max_Headroom_3

£13-65 admin charge, and my insurance has gone up by £15-65 due to my "change of occupation" (to unemployed).

Need that like the proverbial hole in the head. :mad:

Krasnoludek

I had to renew mine a couple of days before I finished through being made redundant, I chose to be a "housewife" instead of unemployed, it didnt have any effect on the premium, not sure if the same would be applicable for male though lol

K x

mikey72

It did for me, unemployed was dearer than househusband, or whatever the phrase was. There was no administration charge though.

dacouch

I work in Insurance, when we input your job we tend to have three fields to fill in. We enter your job title eg Manager / Clerk and then there is a seperate description for your employers business eg Building Trade and then a final section for the status eg Self Employed, Employed, Retired or Unemployed etc.

Insurers tend to charge more for "professional unemployed people" eg the type of people who either do not intend to get work or list themselves as unemployed because for instance they are a drug dealer etc.

If your premium has been loaded I assume your company has changed all three of the fields. This will prompt the computer to rate you as a long term unemployed person. If you are temporarily out of work and expect to find work relatively soon I would enter the first field as say Manager, the next field say as Building Trade and then the final field as unemployed. With most Insurance Software systems this would mean you would still be rated as being a Manager in the Building Trade but in between jobs.

Ring your Insurers back and explain your circumstances to them and ask them to enter you as above, it will normally result in no increase in your premium. If they try and object ask for a superviser, be polite and they should sort it out for you (If their system rates it as above). If it does not advise them your mileage has reduced (I assume it will have as you will not be commuting every day) and this will help minimise any increase

Max_Headroom_3

That's very interesting, thank you.

The company involved is Direct Line, so I'm inclined to think it'll be a "computer says no" situation, but might be worth an ask.

To be fair they did suggest that I could try reducing my mileage. However since I used to walk to work and my annual mileage was already set at a modest 12,000 I figured it was unlikely to be any lower now in reality, so opted to leave that the same.

Mind you, and not that I plan to try it, I do wonder how they figure the mileage against a possible claim, since they don't take a record of it. If I do 20,000 miles and crash on the last day of the policy, how are they ever going to know without a policy start mileage? Car is too young to have an MOT and would only have had one service within that time (at close to 20,000 miles I believe) so no beginning/end mileages anywhere.