Car insurance and speed awareness course

inhoping

AdrianC wrote: »

There's a link at the bottom of post 52

Thanks. I have to say its such bullish!t that they penalise for those that have done the course, anything to get them to make more money eh?

dacouch

inhoping wrote: »

Thanks. I have to say its such bullish!t that they penalise for those that have done the course, anything to get them to make more money eh?

SCUM!

If your're an Admiral policyholder without a SAC you benefit from lower premiums

inhoping

dacouch wrote: »

If your're an Admiral policyholder without a SAC you benefit from lower premiums

Im with eSure, i was speaking on behalf of those who will get higher premiums if they did a SAC

dacouch

inhoping wrote: »

Im with eSure, i was speaking on behalf of those who will get higher premiums if they did a SAC

Admiral charging more for customers who have been on a SAC and declared it to Admiral is not good news for them but in return the Admiral customers who have not been on a SAC or who have and don't declare it are paying lower premiums because of it.

Some lose out and others gain

AdrianC

inhoping wrote: »

Thanks. I have to say its such bullish!t that they penalise for those that have done the course, anything to get them to make more money eh?

In a way, it's academic how they work their premiums out or whether somebody who fits a slightly different profile to you would get a higher or lower premium.

If Admiral are the cheapest offering you the cover you want, then buy from them.
If they aren't, then buy from somebody else.

That simple.

Personally, I won't use them even if they are the cheapest, for the same reason as I won't fly Ryanair.

netloser

How do their actuaries work out the SAC premium hike? There are no meaningful statistics yet as they've only been asking for a short while. Even after a few years this is all based on unverifiable statistics. Sort of proves this is just a money making ruse for the Admiral group.

Add to that the fact they now charge more for owning up to a SAC than they do for 3 points and it shows its just a scam.

bowlhead99

netloser wrote: »

Sort of proves this is just a money making ruse for the Admiral group.

You are aware what insurance is for, right? Paying out if an accident happens?

And so insurance companies should bill their customers more if they think the risk of paying out, or of paying out larger amounts, is higher?

Charging a customer more if they have accepted that they were caught driving between the speed limit and the speed limit + 10% + 9 mph, or were caught texting and driving, or whatever, and wanted to avoid a fine and points on their license by paying for and attending a driving awareness course, is clearly a way of "making money" that they would have not made if they thought the customer had the exact same driving history as his neighbour who has never been caught for anything. It is not inherently "unfair" although I note that the neighbour who has never been caught for anything may be an atrocious driver.

The fact that you don't feel the stats on the claims history of people who have attended driver awareness courses are sufficiently robust to price for risk may just be because you are not a professional risk modeller, or maybe you are right that the stats are truly poor and do not help judge the risk particularly accurately. Either way, it seems reasonable that if someone has a history which includes being caught breaking a traffic law, you might want to charge more for it when insuring them to drive a car, as most would accept that a car is broadly safer when not breaking traffic laws.

it shows its just a scam.

An insurance company collecting data and using data is not "a scam" it is what an insurance company is supposed to do.

There are all kinds of examples of tweaking this or that when telling an insurance company your details and it combining with some other factor in a strange way and getting a surprising result. But from the insurance company point of view - who cares if some oneoff results for some individuals are surprising, if the overall result for the overall population of policyholders broadly makes enough money to stay in business? It is only when the hundreds of thousands or millions of policyholders prices versus claims come together that the company knows it has got it right. You as an individual buying a policy have no idea.

Ultimately the amount they charge to a customer is 'what the market will bear' because customers are free to go and buy insurance elsewhere. I am happy to pay £500 for my policy plus £50 for my history of being on a driving course, instead of £551 to someone who did not ask about my driving course. AdrianC might go and pay the £551 to someone else because he doesn't like the company, or he might go and pay £251 because he got a better deal - we all vote with our wallets.

The amount of money coming in from customers plus the returns on investing that money until it needs to be paid out, less the amount of money that gets paid out, determines what profit will be made. Working back from how much money you want to make to the pricing of what comes in from customers is quite a tricky exercise.

Call "Scam" on Admiral's pricing models if you like but it seems delusional.

Is it a Scam if Tesco choose to charge me 5p more than Morrisons for the exact same product? But it is not the exact same overall product because it is sold in a different building in a different street by different employees with different customer service models and aftersales service and loyalty schemes and the colour of the shopping bags is different and the temperature of the store is different and the fellow shoppers during my walk round the store are different, so overall I might prefer to use Tesco or I might prefer to use Morrisons when considering what I want to pay, to whom.

If Morrisons have a "10% off for OAPs" hour, is that a Scam because I have to pay more for being young or can't get the bargain if I'm an OAP shopping in a different hour? If Elephant have a "3% off if you have a clean licence and 2% on if you have a driving course" month is that a Scam because I fall into one category or another?

Nothing is a Scam it is just a pricing model aimed to get a result that the business is happy with.

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