Why does adding another driver to my policy make my premium drop?

ferry

Just curious
Did 2 quotes, one with just myself on the policy and another with my wife on there too and there is a £47 per year lower difference between the two with her on it

Sure I've missed something obvious but why would having a second person on my policy make such a difference ?

Thanks

Guest101

ferry wrote: »

Just curious
Did 2 quotes, one with just myself on the policy and another with my wife on there too and there is a £47 per year lower difference between the two with her on it

Sure I've missed something obvious but why would having a second person on my policy make such a difference ?

Thanks

Because her driving history is better than yours? Her employment is lower banding? - It's not that uncommon.


I got a refund on my premium when I added business use, it meant my car wasn't left unattended for as long by their logic.

Quentin

The extra driver may be seen as a lesser risk than the policyholder.


As such there is less chance of a claim whilst the named driver is in charge


You do need to ensure that they are informed of any changes to a named driver's profile (convictions/change of employment/claims elsewhere when driving etc) even if they never drive!

facade

Logic does not apply to insurance, they work on statistics tables compiled over many years.

At the moment, the sort of people who include a second driver seem statistically to have less costly accidents.

No doubt this will soon change, as common advice to young/new drivers is to have an experienced parent as a second named driver to get the premium down.

You might think that having a second driver on your car means it would be driven more miles, and therefore more likely to crash, but it may have been that the sample they are basing the premiums on let the experienced driver take over in "difficult" situations and so overall were less likely to crash.

Ebe_Scrooge

As per the above, a lot of insurance stuff defies logic, it's based upon statistics. Some of it is perhaps not too surprising - statistically, newly-qualified drivers have more accidents than more experienced drivers, so they get charged more. Maybe married men have fewer accidents than single men ? Could be for any number of reasons - perhaps they're more aware of how it would affect their family if they kill themselves, so they're more careful; perhaps they just can't deal with the tongue-lashing from the wife if they drive like an idiot LOL ! Whatever, the insurance companies work purely from statistics, and if a particular "group" ( however they choose to define that group ) is a higher or lower risk than another "group", they price their premiums accordingly.


Obviously, it's all based on averages - there's nothing to say that a particular newly-qualified 17-year-old lad cannot be the safest driver that ever lived - but taken as a whole, inexperienced drivers, for instance, have more accidents than people that have had years of experience.


In a similar vein, you can sometimes save money by "tweaking" your job description ( there's a tool somewhere on this site to see how it affects the premiums ). You can't claim to be a brain surgeon if you're really a deep-sea diver, but there are subtle tweaks you can make to try and bring the premium down. Again, there's no reason why a teacher, for instance, should be any safer a driver than a scaffolder. But, rightly or wrongly, the insurance companies categorise by statistics, and profession is one of the categories they use.

forgotmyname

My sisters a higher risk yet would still reduce my premium..

Several accidents, a higher risk area, her premium is considerably higher than mine, yet adding her would reduce my premium?

building_with_lego

As a brand new driver (late 30s) I did dummy quotes with my partner (previous drink driving/ driving without a licence conviction) against my father (50+ years as an advanced driver, no convictions). Partner brought it down by £50 or so; Pa pushed it up by over £100.

Go figure!

Herzlos

I think part of the car sharing is that you're more likely to look after it if your mum/sister/wife/daughter also use it, than if it's just you.

But it must play out in statistics. It's still cheaper for me (35) to add my parents onto my insurance. They do borrow the car every now and then though.

n217970

I'm early 30s with 11 years no claims and a fairly powerful car. Put my wife on and the quote goes up 20%, as you might expect seeing as she can only drive autos. Put my elderly mother on instead and the quote goes down 5%, my mother is the last person I would let drive my car :rotfl:

Bonniepurple

I'm 36, my husband is 40. That's our "standard" for car insurance. I added my Dad (70) and the insurance went up. I added my 34 year old brother and the insurance went down. I reckon it's revenge for my Dad paying mega premiums for years for me to drive his cars!

Roland_Sausage

Despite my wife having had a provisional licence for the past 9 years, the insurance is cheaper if I add her as a second driver.

It makes no sense whatsoever.