Different insurance costs between husband & wife?

delta808

£120 for him but £260 for me for like for like policies?
Myself & partner been married for 6 months and have continued with our own car & insurance policies up till now. I recently sold my car, cancelled insurance and am a named driver on my husbands policy. His policy is up for renewal, and he is getting quoted £120.00 for the year. We decided I should probably take out the policy in my name, as he has Parkinsons (DVLA aware) so I don't lose my no claims bonus as the likelihood is I will be driving for longer, and I do the majority of the driving now. Also it will enable me to drive other cars, which would be more useful to me than him. But I am being quoted £260 with him as a named driver. All same conditions apply (same car, fully comp, full no claims etc). I am 58 and female, in full employment, clean license for 38 years. He is 62, retired with Parkinsons disease, clean license for 45 years.
Why the huge difference. Is it because he has owned the car for 12 years, and is the registered keeper? Even if I put myself as registered keeper , and we transferred ownership it comes out the same. I find it baffling and irritating. Is there any way of working this so we can get costs down? It's a ancient Skoda Octavia (2005). We will be upgrading soon. Will insurance costs rise with a newer car?

Keep_pedalling

It is likely the fact that you are in full time employment and he is retired that makes the biggest difference. 

Bigphil1474

Could be an occupation category. Basically, any difference between you could be the reason, other than you being a woman (hopefully). I have quite a specific job title, which is rarely found on comparison sites, but there are 2 close matches and one is better price wise than the other. To be honest, £120 for the year sounds very very cheap - I've not seen prices like that for 20 years. I think my first policy back in the 1980's was more than that. Your £260 sounds more standard. Do you drive more than he did or some other factor?

Slinky

Have you tried doing a search using the insurance section of topcashback? They are giving £45 cashback at the moment on motor policies.

facade

Keep_pedalling said:

It is likely the fact that you are in full time employment and he is retired that makes the biggest difference. 

I'd have thought that retired drivers (like me) are more likely to be on the roads in the daytime with all the maniacs who can't drive and would be a much higher risk than people who commute when most people drive far better and with purpose, but what do I know.......

DullGreyGuy

Could be vehicle ownership/RK, though most insurers aren't too concerned when it's between spouses. Could be employment status. Would be illegal if it was sex. Do you have commuting covered? If so the fact the main driver is employed could have extra impact as means more likely commuting. You don't say how much NCD you both have nor how old yours is?

Then there are the non risk based considerations... customer elasticity, propensity modelling, random price testing etc

Are you seeing these prices from a single insurer/broker or are you looking on an aggregator like confused.com? If the later, is his lowest price an outlier or are all his prices lower than yours

Car_54

delta808 said:

Also it will enable me to drive other cars, which would be more useful to me than him. 

Don't assume you'll automatically have DOC (Driving other cars) cover. It used to be pretty much universal with comprehensive policies, but not these days. Find out before you commit.

delta808

It must be occupation. He has 14 years NCB. I have over 20. I don't commute as I work from home, but the algorithm didn't take that into account! This is all through money supermarket. But yes I thought £120 was absurdly low! In didn't even think that was possible any more!! 

Aretnap

Regarding your no claims bonus, it remains valid for up to two years if you don't have a policy in your own name. So if it's cheaper for your husband to insure the car, you only need to insure it yourself one year in three to keep your own NCB live. 

Getting a newer car may increase, decrease or make little difference to the price. Old cars are often relatively expensive to insure. Obviously the insurer is never going to have to pay out much for damage to your 19 year old Skoda, but a lot of the risk is the damage that you might do to other people's cars (or to other people), and that's somewhat more likely in an old car which is not likely to be in poor mechanical condition than a new one, and which won't have modern safety features.

sheramber

Age difference?

insurance company algorithm shows females have more claims than males?

Aretnap

sheramber said:

insurance company algorithm shows females have more claims than males?

Even if it does, it's still illegal to prove insurance differently based on sex. So it won't be that.

Employment status is the obvious suspect - retired is generally low risk. The OP doesn't say what her own job title is, but unless it's something like "vicar" there's a good chance it will put her in a higher risk category than "retired".