Seeking affordable insurance for mature (41 YO) first time driver

rich13348

rreeve wrote: »

I'd like to think maturity counts for something. I'm surely less likely:

• To be a boy racer,
• Use the car to pick up girls
• Play very loud music
• Get easily distracted
• Drive my friends around all evening
• Drink/drugs and Drive
• Show off to people
• Do donuts & wheel-spins

I'm sure I could think of more areas that SHOULD make a difference. Of course, I know that some 40 Year Old's could be guilty of each of the above but not everyone is a man-child.

And not every child is reckless and all the above stuff you mentioned. Prejudice works in every direction. Insurance works by statistics.
Statistically as a new driver you are more likely to have an accident as you are have little or no experience of driving, statistically as a man you are more likely to have an accident than a woman. Statistically as a 41 year old man you are more likely to suffer from bladder weakness and may drive recklessly to find a bathroom.

To the insurance company you are a number my friend nothing else. They input your details and out pops a number. Its how you manipulate those numbers to get a better quote that matters. Try as suggested above putting a different job description and different varying excesses and different cars if you haven't bought one yet to see how cheap you can get your quote.

Billy_Bullocks

rreeve wrote: »

I'd like to think maturity counts for something. I'm surely less likely:

• To be a boy racer,
• Use the car to pick up girls
• Play very loud music
• Get easily distracted
• Drive my friends around all evening
• Drink/drugs and Drive
• Show off to people
• Do donuts & wheel-spins

I'm sure I could think of more areas that SHOULD make a difference. Of course, I know that some 40 Year Old's could be guilty of each of the above but not everyone is a man-child.

And just like an 18 year old new driver, your driving and insurance history don't back that up.

Aretnap

For a 42 year old on my street with a brand new licence, driving a Ford Focus, the cheapest quote on moneysupermarket is £1090.

Change the age to 18, still a brand new licence, all other details the same, cheapest quote is £2122.

It seems age does indeed make a difference, over and above lack of experience. That doesn't mean that lack of experience (and also lack of a no claims bonus) won't make your quote fairly high by themselves.

gonzo127

rich13348 wrote: »

And not every child is reckless and all the above stuff you mentioned. Prejudice works in every direction. Insurance works by statistics.
Statistically as a new driver you are more likely to have an accident as you are have little or no experience of driving, statistically as a man you are more likely to have an accident than a woman. Statistically as a 41 year old man you are more likely to suffer from bladder weakness and may drive recklessly to find a bathroom.

To the insurance company you are a number my friend nothing else. They input your details and out pops a number. Its how you manipulate those numbers to get a better quote that matters. Try as suggested above putting a different job description and different varying excesses and different cars if you haven't bought one yet to see how cheap you can get your quote.

from the last info i saw the bit highlighted is wrong,

statistically woman are more likely to have an accident BUT the accidents they have are usually smaller low cost accidents.

Men will statistically have less accidents, but the ones they do tend to be more spectacular and more costly to repair. which is why a mans insurance used to be more expensive

really trying to find the paper i read with those details in

takman

Also driving a 1.1 VW Polo which is a small engined car will not help the price because they are statistically far more likely to be involved in an accident. Have you tried quotes for a bigger car to see if you can get a better price?.

Also from my experience people who leave it till later in life until they pass their test are noticeably worse drivers even after 10 - 20 years experience than those who passed their test at a younger age with the same number of years experience.
This is probably due to the fact that they have had little interest in learning to drive so people with less interest in a task tend to not learn it as well and not carry it out as well.
Also older people are also slower at learning new things and find it more difficult to remember every details.

RealGem

I used to work for a popular car insurance broker call centre, and we offered many different companies like the insurance comparison sites.

One thing that does affect it is occupation. It was silly because one customer said he was a filmmaker, but even if not using the car for filmmaking, his premiums were through the roof. (I guess filmmakers historically cost insurers more).

When I did a fresh quote saying he worked in an office (the truth - he had only just graduated from film school), it came out at about a quarter of the first amount! Sadly my boss wouldn't let me do the second quote, as he had already told us he was a filmmaker. (She was listening in, as I was still being trained).

So he hung up and rang a different insurance number.

Try a new comparison site and put "office clerk" as your occupation - just as an experiment to find out if Occupation is the reason.

In fact do various tests with different engine sizes and other factors too.

Do you live in a high crime rate area? I once had to pay £1000 insurance for a city address and my insurance halved when I moved 9 miles away!