Sainsbury Car Insurance, they declined to quote me!

Mr_Linnet

I completed an online Sainsbury Car Insurance quotation form today and got as far as the first page. I filled in my name and address etc along with employment details ( I am currently unemployed ). When I clicked on next page it came up with a notice saying they couldn`t quote me because I am presently unemployed, however, they invited me to contact their 0800 freephone number to speak to an adviser directly at Sainsbury Insurance as they may be able to help.

This I did and again I was refused a quotation because I am currently unemployed.

Surely this is discrimination!

I am really annoyed with Sainsbury. Would be very interested in what other forum users think. Please let me have your thoughts.

Many thanks Steve

Quentin

Not discrimination - different insurers do have different criteria they look for when taking on risks.

Look at it as their loss, and maybe start saying you are a house husband!

Mr_Linnet

Quentin wrote: »

Not discrimination - different insurers do have different criteria they look for when taking on risks.

Look at it as their loss, and maybe start saying you are a house husband!

I thought it might be discrimination against unemployed people. When I made the telephone call to the 0800 telephone number the excuse given was that unemployed people are likely to use their vehicle more often/regularly than employed people. Although in my case I stated that my annnual mileage to be under 6000 miles, just as I did the previous year.

I`ll give the house husband a try next time around as I`ve renewed with my previous insurer.

adamc260

They refused to quote me because i had a non fault accident... all round crap insurer in my opinion!

stator

It is discrimination, but it's perfectly legal. You can refuse to sell something to someone for virtually any reason you like and insurance companies do this a lot.

Jane2005

Underwriters can pick and choose who they want to insure, they have no obligation to give you a quote. As with regards to being unemployed, one of the reasons they were refusing to quote you is, statistically unemployed people are more likely to make a claim not just on motor insurance but with home insurance too. Are you claiming any sort of benefit?? If not, you can say you are a house person and still be legally covered,

Mr_Linnet

Many thanks adamc260, stator and Jane2005 for your replies.

Just to answer your point Jane, I am currently unemployed and claiming contributions based JSA. The issue here is that I have already declared I will have an annual mileage of less than 6000 miles ( as I did last year, in fact I travelled less than 4000 miles ).

Based on this fact I could in theory travel 5999 miles within the next few weeks and use up all my "entitlement of declared annual mileage" before not using my car at all for the remainder of the policy. Would this make me a higher risk user? Surely it equates to the same as averaging the mileage out over the course of the year?

I still believe it is discrimination and I am adopting the attitude it is Sainsbury loss as I`ve now renewed using my previous insurer.

Steve

Heliflyguy

Jane2005 wrote: »

As with regards to being unemployed, one of the reasons they were refusing to quote you is, statistically unemployed people are more likely to make a claim not just on motor insurance but with home insurance too.

I am not questioning your wisdom but how can 2.5 million unemployed people be more likely to make an insurance claim compared to the rest of the adult population of 48.5 million ?
Are they statiscally more likely to be insured?

raskazz

Heliflyguy wrote: »

I am not questioning your wisdom but how can 2.5 million unemployed people be more likely to make an insurance claim compared to the rest of the adult population of 48.5 million ?
Are they statiscally more likely to be insured?

:wall::wall:

stator

When talking about the likelihood of something you look at the percentage chances rather than the overall numbers. Even though there are less unemployed people than employed, apparently each individual unemployed person is more likely to claim. Absolute numbers are irrelevent.

Debt_Free_Chick

The whole process of underwriting is one of discrimination and perfectly legal. Your employment status, gender, claims history ... even your postcode are all rated as "good/bad/don't touch". Insurance wouldn't function without it.