Car insurance premiums for drivers born outside uk

cb1979

Hello
Nearly time for my 20 year old daughter to renew her car insurance
Went on a couple of comparasion sites,daughter went on one and missed the question 'Lived in the UK since birth or from date'
When she went back and corrected this the price shot up

Thought this was a bit strange so i googled the question 'do drivers born abroad pay more for car insurance' and got a couple of suprising results

Excuses insurance companys use for charging more are

Drivers born abroad may:-
Not be familar with UK roads, driving conditions and rules
More chance of the being involved in an accident
More likely to submit false claims
Seeing as my daughter came here when she was 4 and educated here and took driving lessons,past her test and pass plus here,this seems to be a form of discrimination against foreign born drivers

olly300

It depends on the insurance company.

The group to avoid - they were on BBC Watchdog - where the Admiral group of companies.

Other companies tend to ask:
1. Have you lived in the UK for over 3 or 5 years to see if you are permanently resident
2. What kind of license you have - UK or EU
3. Date you came to the UK if born abroad - which would make it clear if you came under 17.

I tend to use the comparison sites to find the cheaper insurers then go to the individual insurer's website.

Mainly as the comparison sites don't put the level of excess I want as some automatically give you an extra £100 voluntary, or don't ask questions that fully reflect my situation i.e. individual insurers don't tend to ask how many business miles you do but the comparison sites do.

Many times my actually final price has been cheaper with a lower excess by going directly to the insurer's website.

BTW I have some family and friends who didn't drive until they came to the UK, whether they came as adults or children. I also have friends who came from countries where they drive on the left.

dulcieb

Hi

I was interested to see continued discussion of this matter. I raised it with Elephant 12 years ago when they tried to charge me more because I was "obviously" a higher risk. They couldn't say how and gave in. But only to me, it seems.

Insurance companies are obsessed with finding new ways to charge people more. Focusing on country of birth is very dodgy because it is at best UK v the world -- not a very reliable statistical indicator.

Another infamous one is "marital status" -- people who get married or have a civil partnership usually get charged less, regardless of the facts. For me, this is a difference of £100 a year. You'd have thought that 15 years or so of individual driving records would count for rather more than theoretical actuarial figures.

I've read a lot of smug points about insurance companies being governed by logic and evidence to back up their categories. That's all too easy. Their main logic is to maximise profit. If you think that it's ok to do a general UK v the world comparison, why not ask people born in the UK which county or postcode? Or what their parents' occupations were?

The point is that you can cut this many ways -- and the way that insurance companies do is increasingly questionable. As I've noted, different companies choose different approaches, so do ask them about these differences -- and check with others too.