Car insurance cheaper as engineer rather than research scientist - is ok??

Philxyz

Hello. I am employed as a uni lecturer (by title only - I do far more than that however and mainly work in R&D in the lab). I am a chartered engineer (CEng) and strictly speaking I think that is what I would say is my "occupation" if someone asked, rather than what I would say my "job title" is, which is as I say is just lecturer. Putting chartered engineer in the occupation box lowers my quote by a whopping 40 quid! I am just a little paranoid about potentially invalidating my insurance though as I know they are tricksy little so and sos! But to my mind "occupation" is different to "job title on your payslip", and they ask for "occupation"... Any opinions welcome. Thanks!!!

k3lvc

Honest response - pick one you can justify and stick with it. Far too many tales of people doing numerous online quotes only to find either a) the price keeps going up or b) the insurance company challenge you/cancel the policy as they feel you've been trying to manipulate the system

daveyjp

Your occupation is your lecturer/R&D role.
Your profession is a Chartered Engineer.

Philxyz

Maybe. But i think this sounds more linguistically sound:
Occupation - mechanical engineer (what occupies most of my work time)

Job - lecturer (my employer's title for me)

Profession - chartered engineer (type of profession)

Philxyz

Collins dictionary:  "Your occupation is your job or *profession*"
So if we say what is my profession? Then it is engineering... ?
My point being the insurance question does not say "what is your job"...

Mr.Generous

Most insurance companies have a fairly limited list of occupations to choose from, select the nearest fit that gives a low price.

I did mess this up once, the quote required you to type the first 3 letters of your occupation in, then select from the drop down list. I typed P R O for property developer but failed to notice the drop down box started with Proprietor, circus - which I selected by pressing enter.

I got a phone call to ask if I really was a circus proprietor, and they laughed about it and said it happens all the time. The premium didn't change, but I was no longer allowed to transport elephants in my Mondeo.

Philxyz

I have been on 'live chat now'. 2 people from insurance company both effectively said occupation is what you spend most of your time doing (which is the dictionary definition to be fair)... I would say that's engineer and not lecturer (teacher at uni) because most of the time I am not teaching.

Any other comments welcome!