Can car insurance companies charge more for having 3 children.

babyboy515

My partner has just received his car insurance quote from Admiral.com and it was £579 for a Ford Galaxy.

He rang them up and said that online it was £400 so they told him they would match it but then said Oh wait you have 3 children its now £700!!

Can car insurance companies do that? :mad:

Thanks Babyboy515

balmk

In a word, yes.

babyboy515

In that case why?

vaio

As above, yes they can use whatever factors they like in deciding your price and equally you can take your business elsewhere if you don't like it.

As you have spotted, online is the best way to buy, answer all the questions honestly and if the price suits buy.

Generally, ringing them is a bad idea and often ends up costing £££

Go back to the online system and see if you can get back to the £400 price.

babyboy515

We have used online quotes for many years and always answer the questions honestly.
My partner only rang them because the online quote with them was £400 yet the renewal quote was £579 so he wanted the £400 price.

vaio

so buy it online

babyboy515

I just want to know why they can charge more because of having 3 children.

Faith177

Because of the higher cost of injury claims if you were to have an accident prehaps?

Plus the cost of replacing childseats or they me feel having 3 children in the car could be distracting?

I'm just guessing here btw might be best to ask their reasoning behind it

thenudeone

Insurers can use any factor except those which parliament or the courts deem as unacceptable.

For example they can't use race or religion, or any convictions classed as spent under the Rehabilitaion of Offenders Act; even if those factors were proved to be good predictors of a higher likelihood of a claim.

Later this year it will become illegal to differentiate insurance based on gender; following a court case which resolved the issue.

Otherwise, they can use any information they want. They would only bother to ask if they had statistics which demonstrated a difference in claim likelihood, though.

Having several children in the back of a car can definitely be distracting for the driver, and obviously some insurers now use that as a factor.

System

babyboy515 wrote: »

I just want to know why they can charge more because of having 3 children.

Because they can.
There doesn't have to be a reason, but the most likely is that statistically people with more children have more accidents.

Phone them up, ask what colour the agent's office is painted, and if he says it's magnolia, tell him sorry, you don't insure with people with magnolia offices.
Why? Because you can.

thegirlintheattic

Reasons:
-higher injury claims (more people in the car)
-accidental damage (balls kicked into panels etc.)
-children in car is distracting.