Children UNDER 16 living with you increase Car Insurance!!!!

Pennysmakepounds

This confuses me to no end J

Can anyone explain the logic behind this?

Me personally hardly ever has the kids in the car, 95/98% of my weekly driving is to and from work. So the kids are never in the car.

So then does my quote increase by about 8/10% if I have kids under 16 living with me.

Is there something I’m missing here!!!

Aylesbury_Duck

The logic will be that in their risk assessment, there have been more claims from drivers with children under 16 living at home than from those without. Therefore they deem you to be a greater risk.

interstellaflyer

Blame yummy mummies on the school run with their bad driving and dangerous parking

Jackmydad

Looks like insurance companies know that people who have children under 16 are more likely to have accidents. 8-10% more likely by the increase in cost.

It's as simple as that. They just look at the number of accidents people have according to where they live, what they do, and apparently whether they have children or not.

TooManyPoints

I think the logic behind it is that if you have children under 16 they will probably travel with you and their "distraction factor" increases your chances of an accident. Of course it doesn't apply in your case but insurance premium calculation uses a number of blunt instruments such as this.

onomatopoeia99

interstellaflyer wrote: »

Blame yummy mummies on the school run with their bad driving and dangerous parking

Yep, I used to drive past my local infants / primary at chucking out time and the standard of driving and parking from some of the parents was shocking. I now go a longer and slower route to avoid it if I need to pass it at the same time.

AdrianC

Because insurers know that, according to their actuarial statistics, people with resident U16 children are in general at a higher risk of claiming.

Distractions in the car, "parental taxi" journeys, accidental damage, etc etc. There's a myriad of reasons why. You may not think they apply to your particular circumstances - but the insurer have no way of knowing whether that's real or just protestations that your little darlings are perfect... Sure, you have no claims history - and that's also taken into account in setting the premium.

interstellaflyer

onomatopoeia99 wrote: »

Yep, I used to drive past my local infants / primary at chucking out time and the standard of driving and parking from some of the parents was shocking. I now go a longer and slower route to avoid it if I need to pass it at the same time.

When my daughter was at primary school pleas to parents to drive and park appropriately were always in the school newsletter, the school was even given permission to use the local pub car park but most parents thought they were far too important to walk the 100 meters from the car park to the school and back

Ebe_Scrooge

AdrianC wrote: »

Because insurers know that, according to their actuarial statistics, people with resident U16 children are in general at a higher risk of claiming.

This is it in a nutshell. There often appears to be no rhyme nor reason to how insurance premiums are calculated. Yes, you could probably say that someone who has a toddler is likely to have the toddler in the car at some point, and the toddler might cause a distraction. But the bottom line is that insurers work simply off statistics. If they receive more claims from Ford Fiestas than they do from Renault Clios, the Ford will cost proportionally more to insure. If red cars have more claims than blue cars, red cars will be more expensive. Of course, the cost of repairs is factored in - it probably costs a lot more to repair a Ferrari than a Ford, so that has a bearing.

But ultimately it's just down to statistics - if you fall into a "higher-risk" group you'll be clobbered - whether or not those particular risks actually apply to you as an individual.

Norman_Castle

onomatopoeia99 wrote: »

Yep, I used to drive past my local infants / primary at chucking out time and the standard of driving and parking from some of the parents was shocking. I now go a longer and slower route to avoid it if I need to pass it at the same time.

I live opposite a school and if I ever arrive home just after kicking out time the driving within 1/2 a mile is terrible by the parents with kids in the cars. Driving courteously is clearly not a priority for them.

I've lived here for decades and have never had a problem with the 11-18 year old pupils but the parents are obnoxious which extends to their driving.

George333

I've heard that creating numerous pointless insurance threads can also increase your premium.