Car insurance problems and ageism

lylla12

I have just been informed by Provident Car insurance that they will not be renewing my car insurance in June.  I have a full NCB, no accident claims or anything else.  It can only be down to my age because they have not given any explanation. I hate the fact that this could be the reason I am 77 years old and a good driver..

daveyjp

May not be age, fortunately there are dozens of other companies out there that will insure you so time to move on.

Smithcom

lylla12 said:

I have just been informed by Provident Car insurance that they will not be renewing my car insurance in June.  I have a full NCB, no accident claims or anything else.  It can only be down to my age because they have not given any explanation. I hate the fact that this could be the reason I am 77 years old and a good driver..

Provident not renewing the policy may or may not be anything to do with age.  

However, noting the title of your thread, it sounds like you don't agree with age-related underwriting, particularly for good drivers.

Currently, motor insurers aren't allowed to underwrite based on gender, even if it's proven that one gender is proven to demonstrate a higher/lower risk.

Perhaps, write a letter to your MP to see if they can raise your view re age-related underwriting. 

In the meantime, you could possibly use some of the savings that you made, whilst between approx 30-65 and your premiums were lower than younger/older drivers. 

SC

Aretnap

lylla12 said:

I have just been informed by Provident Car insurance that they will not be renewing my car insurance in June.  I have a full NCB, no accident claims or anything else.  It can only be down to my age because they have not given any explanation. I hate the fact that this could be the reason I am 77 years old and a good driver..

There are any number of reasons that it could be : they might have changed their underwriting criteria or their target market or it might be your age. The person who answers the phone will not know the reason and will not be able to tell you whatever it is.

However even if it is your age there isn't much you can do about it. There are a number of reasons why age discrimination is not treated the same way as say sex or race discrimination. One as Smithcom alludes to is that everyone is still treated the same over the course of their lifetime - everyone gets high car insurance premiums when they are young, low premiums when they are middle aged and slightly higher when they are very old (but still not as high as teenagers pay). No individual is penalised over a lifetime unlike with sex or racial discrimination.

The other is that banning insurers from using age as a ratings factor would lead to some absurd outcomes. Most obviously, life insurance prices for a 90 year old would have to be the same as for an 18 year old. That would make it impossible to maintain a functional life insurance market, which from a public policy perspective would be... not great. I suppose you could argue for carve outs by sector - apply a ban on age discrimination to car insurance only - but realistically it would be a policy that would only really be popular with teenagers, and their parents, who would be the ones making the real savings at the expense of most other people.

sevenhills

Smithcom said:

However, noting the title of your thread, it sounds like you don't agree with age-related underwriting, particularly for good drivers.

Surely all motor insurance companies give 40/50 years olds cheaper insurance.
So the OP would have been in favour of age discrimination twenty years ago?

Smithcom

sevenhills said:

Smithcom said:

However, noting the title of your thread, it sounds like you don't agree with age-related underwriting, particularly for good drivers.

Surely all motor insurance companies give 40/50 years olds cheaper insurance.
So the OP would have been in favour of age discrimination twenty years ago?

I absolutely agree with you!!  

I wonder if the OP has also been complaining about the very high premiums that 17-21 years olds pay for their car insurance.

SC