Increased car insurance premium simply based on my title

18208555

Have just been through MSE car insurance quote algorithm. This chose M&S as the cheapest option for my car insurance. I called them and went through a quote with them only to discover that the quote was >£100 more than through MSE. After a bit of debate and scratching our heads (both me and M&S salesman) we went through the quote again and changed my title (absolutely nothing else was changed) from Dr (or original quote) to Mr. Immediately reverted back to the quote arrived at through MSE. M&S man couldn't believe it (me neither!) My job was still very clearly down as Hospital doctor in the occupation section - only my title had been changed. Whether or not this an industry wide situation or not I don't have the time to investigate but thats a significant difference in premium based purely on a single capital letter. Beware!

Retrogamer

It's possible that people who have the same title have been involved in more claims as a percentage than people who have not, so the system will deem that as a higher risk based on the statistics.

Aretnap

Retrogamer wrote: »

It's possible that people who have the same title have been involved in more claims as a percentage than people who have not, so the system will deem that as a higher risk based on the statistics.

Or that people who use certain titles (Dr would be an obvious one, Lord even more so) might be less price-sensitive that those who go by plain old Mr. Commercial factors influence pricing as well as risk factors.

garth549

It could be as simple as someone who has the title "Dr" is more likely to be better off financially hence will just pay a higher quotation without shopping around.