Do people lie about their age when joining breakdown cover

Mutton_Geoff

burtons said:

I'm looking to buy breakdown cover so I thought about joining greenflag which is £82.88 but I thought it's strange they ask you're age so I put in I was 4 years older and it's £1.12 cheaper so do people lie about their age.

You want to risk invalidating your cover to save a quid?

[Deleted User]

Sadly breakdown is no longer considered a service paid for, it is now an insurance policy.
Be honest and shop around, call them and ask why, but for the sake of a couple of quid it's probably not worth the time

burtons

Mutton_Geoff said:

burtons said:

I'm looking to buy breakdown cover so I thought about joining greenflag which is £82.88 but I thought it's strange they ask you're age so I put in I was 4 years older and it's £1.12 cheaper so do people lie about their age.

You want to risk invalidating your cover to save a quid?

I wasn't going to do it but it had me wondering why age matters. I know if you have an older car the price goes up but I guess they think it's going to breakdown more.

burtons

nerox said:

Sadly breakdown is no longer considered a service paid for, it is now an insurance policy.
Be honest and shop around, call them and ask why, but for the sake of a couple of quid it's probably not worth the time

I messaged greenflag and they said The age of the main driver is taken into account in much the same way as it is for car insurance, whereby it uses an assumption of greater experience driving.

macman

sweetsand said:

macman said:

Older people drive less miles...? Risk of breakdown is reduced.
Or, most over-50's can still change a wheel without assistance. 

Define "older"?
We know of people under the retirement age that drive less that we do and we are older than them. We now of people older than us that drive a lot more than we do.
If you are referring to 70+ drivers then possibly yes, but nothing else.

People over retirement age, no longer commuting? Short shopping trips in the Honda Jazz?
Going by accounts of your supercar-loaded garage and driveway, I hardly think you are in the category of the average retired driver.

sweetsand

burtons said:

nerox said:

Sadly breakdown is no longer considered a service paid for, it is now an insurance policy.
Be honest and shop around, call them and ask why, but for the sake of a couple of quid it's probably not worth the time

I messaged greenflag and they said The age of the main driver is taken into account in much the same way as it is for car insurance, whereby it uses an assumption of greater experience driving.

I guess the insurance people must also consider rightly or wrongly that with age you drive more carefully hecne less bumps and pressures of fast moves from lights and heavy braking at the next lights reduces wear and tear on ones car hence the slight lower costs.

Biggus_Dickus

StartRescue give firm ‘personal’ breakdown quotes before they even ask the age of policyholder/s.

Homer_home

Sandtree said:

You are asking if people commit insurance fraud? Yes, absolutely, its why insurance companies have large counter fraud departments and work with the police to bring charges against the most prolific characters

Huh?

This is not about insurance fraud

Do you work for an insurance provider by some chance?

Grumpy_chap

It never occurred to me that age would make any difference to the cost of breakdown cover premium.  
I would still only ever use correct age as insurers can use "incorrect information" in the policy as a reason to decline cover when it is needed.  That may be a risk an individual would take for breakdown cover.
However, if you end up creating a parrallel self, aged a few years older or younger, for breakdown cover, but then take out a more important policy (motor, house, travel) where age has a bigger bearing, you potentially risk insurance companies connecting the two versions of yourself and then finding all versions of yourself are cover declined.

Car_54

Homer_home said:

Sandtree said:

You are asking if people commit insurance fraud? Yes, absolutely, its why insurance companies have large counter fraud departments and work with the police to bring charges against the most prolific characters

Huh?

This is not about insurance fraud

Do you work for an insurance provider by some chance?

Providing false information to make a financial gain is fraud. Doing so in an insurance proposal is generally described as "insurance fraud".

However, that is not a legal term. In law there is simply fraud, which is an imprisonable offence. The courts do not distinguish between insurers and other fraud victims.