Car insurance - Retired / Independent means

CharlieCheeze

I've recently decided that I'm going to cease my self employment and retire. I'm not of retirement age, but have no intention of working again. I don't need to claim any benefit and will be drawing down savings for 12 months or so until a pension kicks in.

Trying to buy car insurance and deciding between the ambiguous titles of 'retired' or 'independent means' leads to me to put this out there to see what other people think. The dictionary meaning of retired is "no intention of working / at the end of working life". This fits me perfectly and gives me an insurance quote of exactly the same as my self employment. However choosing 'independent means' is throwing up quotes of nearly double.

Has anyone else been in this position? What did you choose? Having spoken to the insurance company themselves, I get different answers from different staff. So a grey area at best.

user1977

Early retirement is still "retired" (and obviously they know what age you are anyway), so I don't see a problem with going with that.

"Independent means" probably encompasses things like "20 year old living off family trust fund" and similar, who might be more wayward from an insurer's point of view.

CharlieCheeze

user1977 said:

Early retirement is still "retired" (and obviously they know what age you are anyway), so I don't see a problem with going with that.

"Independent means" probably encompasses things like "20 year old living off family trust fund" and similar, who might be more wayward from an insurer's point of view.

Thanks, yes, that makes some sense. I'm leaning towards retired, not because of the price, but it's true [to me]. Retired in the dictionary doesn't mention pension and to be fair neither do the comparison sites. But then, independent means also sounds right. It's almost as if they want it to be ambiguous

Sea_Shell

I put housewife!  I was only 47.  😉

chrisw

I've been retired since age 55 and it's never been an issue. The only thing is that they exclude commuting and business use....

CharlieCheeze

Sea_Shell said:

I put housewife!  I was only 47.  😉

Not sure that would apply to me

CharlieCheeze

chrisw said:

I've been retired since age 55 and it's never been an issue. The only thing is that they exclude commuting and business use....

I suppose the issues only arise when it comes to claiming. I just don't want to get caught out. I'm not 55 for a year when I'll take some pension.

Aretnap

CharlieCheeze said:

Has anyone else been in this position? What did you choose? Having spoken to the insurance company themselves, I get different answers from different staff. So a grey area at best.

Insurers have a duty to ask clear questions, and to define the terms they use if their ordinary meanings are potentially ambiguous. In ordinary language you could reasonably describe yourself as either "retired" or "living on independent means", so if the insurers want you to pick a particular one,  the onus is very much on them to explain how you should interpret the question.

If their questions and definitions are so unclear that their own staff are giving you different answers then I'd say the fault is very much with them, not with you. So you can put down whichever you like. If you have accurately described your circumstances on the phone and a member of staff has told you that it is OK to put down "retired" they can hardly complain about the fact that you subsequently put down retired. (Or vice versa). The fact that a different staff member on a different day might have told you something different is neither here nor there - you're just a customer, they're supposed to be the experts, so that reflects badly on them, not on you.

For a belt and braces approach, keep a note of the time of the call and the name of the person who told you it was OK to put down whatever answer you are going to out down, that way you have something to refer to in the event that it does cause problems in future. (There will be a recording of the call) 

CharlieCheeze

Aretnap said:

CharlieCheeze said:

Has anyone else been in this position? What did you choose? Having spoken to the insurance company themselves, I get different answers from different staff. So a grey area at best.

Insurers have a duty to ask clear questions, and to define the terms they use if their ordinary meanings are potentially ambiguous. In ordinary language you could reasonably describe yourself as either "retired" or "living on independent means", so if the insurers want you to pick a particular one,  the onus is very much on them to explain how you should interpret the question.

If their questions and definitions are so unclear that their own staff are giving you different answers then I'd say the fault is very much with them, not with you. So you can put down whichever you like. If you have accurately described your circumstances on the phone and a member of staff has told you that it is OK to put down "retired" they can hardly complain about the fact that you subsequently put down retired. (Or vice versa). The fact that a different staff member on a different day might have told you something different is neither here nor there - you're just a customer, they're supposed to be the experts, so that reflects badly on them, not on you.

For a belt and braces approach, keep a note of the time of the call and the name of the person who told you it was OK to put down whatever answer you are going to out down, that way you have something to refer to in the event that it does cause problems in future. (There will be a recording of the call) 

Thanks for your response. I think what I will do is email them and get it in writing. This is a very prominent insurer, so they should have no problem with that. The staff may well possibly still working from home and not easily be able to double check with a supervisor or something. At least allowing them time to respond by email, should give not only more reassurance but written evidence should it be needed.

ChrisJ007

Have just today been discussing my insurance renewal quote for two cars and house with Admiral multi....
My situation is having just taken early retirement at 55 from my employer but still thinking of potentially doing some agency work in future if I need to/or feel like it....
Very surprising is that when I informed Admiral of my recent retirement from current employer they wanted to INCREASE my premium substantially when I was expecting it to be decreased due to the new retired status (and my Googling that this change of status should help reduce my premium).
Thinking quickly, I then said that although I had now retired from my employer, I would still think about future employment if required to do so and not yet being near state pension age I could in fact be considered as ‘unemployed’ rather than ‘retired’.... to my surprise they then confirmed the renewal premium to be reduced back down again to comparable levels to that of being ‘employed’ which is counterintuitive to all my expectations.
Was wondering if anyone else has experienced this situation? 

Thanks.