Car insurance - marital status

1971WH

I’m increasingly tired of being asked to confirm that I am a widower by insurance companies when applying for car insurance quotes. Why is this a factor in their calculations? They claim that people in a relationship are less likely to be involved in an accident but where is the data to substantiate that widows and widowers are more likely to be? I didn’t become a worse driver after my wife died and she wasn’t included on my policy because I previously had a company car. It seems that as well as losing a wife and a large part of our family income I am now being financially penalised. 

sleepymans

I have the opposite problem…one husband and one partner…makes it awkward to get online quotes! Thing is….I’m the better driver!🤣🤣🤣

huckster

When you say, "they claim that people in a relationship.................", who is telling you this ?

Most people who work in Insurance are not aware of all of the risk factors that are used to calculate premiums.  They don't see all of the information that has been used by the analysts setting the premium rates.

In theory, yes it could be thought that a policy based on Insured and their spouse could be a safer risk, as they could be sharing the car, so each person may take more care when driving, that they park safely etc etc.  But I don't think this would be a significant factor compared to all of the other factors that are considered when a quote is calculated.

It has been some time since I dealt with Car Insurance ratings and how much they weigh up each factor, but from memory, if there is any difference between single widower driver and Insured & spouse policies, the percentage would be very small.

Aretnap

huckster said:

When you say, "they claim that people in a relationship.................", who is telling you this ?

Most people who work in Insurance are not aware of all of the risk factors that are used to calculate premiums.  They don't see all of the information that has been used by the analysts setting the premium rates.

In theory, yes it could be thought that a policy based on Insured and their spouse could be a safer risk, as they could be sharing the car, so each person may take more care when driving, that they park safely etc etc.  But I don't think this would be a significant factor compared to all of the other factors that are considered when a quote is calculated.

It has been some time since I dealt with Car Insurance ratings and how much they weigh up each factor, but from memory, if there is any difference between single widower driver and Insured & spouse policies, the percentage would be very small.

I would have thought that if there is a difference in risk according to martial status, the biggest difference is likely to be between single people and married/in a stable relationship people, because getting married and settling down frequently (not always, obviously) signals a time of life when people mature and start behaving more responsibly. Or at least, they're less likely to take a bend at 80 mph if their wife is in the passenger seat yelling at them to slow down.*

I imagine that any difference between married and widows would be much smaller, however if insurers are going to ask about marital status they have to include all the options in the drop down list - they can't just offer "married" or "single" even if that's the difference they're really interested in.

* No conclusions should be drawn about my own home life based on this comment.

DullGreyGuy

1971WH said:

I’m increasingly tired of being asked to confirm that I am a widower by insurance companies when applying for car insurance quotes. Why is this a factor in their calculations? They claim that people in a relationship are less likely to be involved in an accident but where is the data to substantiate that widows and widowers are more likely to be? 

All of it is in the same data... millions of policies with millions of drivers and millions of claims. They can profile the correlation between any characteristic they capture and their claims experience (frequency x average cost)

Just because they are asking the question and giving different options however doesnt necessarily mean they will give different prices. The reason for inclusion of different options can also be for future analysis (eg they think there may be a correlation but need the data to prove it) or because of customer demand. My mother has been a window for 30 years now and never would she ever tick anything that requires her to say she's single... the one time she was forced to choose between single and married she chose married. 

Aretnap said:

huckster said:

When you say, "they claim that people in a relationship.................", who is telling you this ?

Most people who work in Insurance are not aware of all of the risk factors that are used to calculate premiums.  They don't see all of the information that has been used by the analysts setting the premium rates.

In theory, yes it could be thought that a policy based on Insured and their spouse could be a safer risk, as they could be sharing the car, so each person may take more care when driving, that they park safely etc etc.  But I don't think this would be a significant factor compared to all of the other factors that are considered when a quote is calculated.

It has been some time since I dealt with Car Insurance ratings and how much they weigh up each factor, but from memory, if there is any difference between single widower driver and Insured & spouse policies, the percentage would be very small.

I would have thought that if there is a difference in risk according to martial status, the biggest difference is likely to be between single people and married/in a stable relationship people, because getting married and settling down frequently (not always, obviously) signals a time of life when people mature and start behaving more responsibly. Or at least, they're less likely to take a bend at 80 mph if their wife is in the passenger seat yelling at them to slow down.*

I imagine that any difference between married and widows would be much smaller, however if insurers are going to ask about marital status they have to include all the options in the drop down list - they can't just offer "married" or "single" even if that's the difference they're really interested in.

* No conclusions should be drawn about my own home life based on this comment.

They could do, but it may !!!!!! some people off. 

For blind speculation "divorced" could have a fairly wide spread of impacts depending on the reason, who caused the divorce and how long ago it was but no insurer is going to ask those Qs... some however you may be able to guess at, the customer who's divorced and recently taken ownership of a Porsche Boxter having previously owned an MPV