Age discrimination in car insurance

gettingolderJim

Has anyone experienced large increases in car insurance on significant birthdays? As a long term loyal customer my premiums were raised by 60% based on a birthday and an additional 40% the next years renewal. Simply want to know of this is industry standard or just a greedy supplier. 

There have been no claims or any other changes that would increase premiums so I assume it’s based on age. 

Aretnap

Depends what you mean by significant. Car insurance prices are highest when you are young, reduce as you get older, until they hit a minimum in late middle age or early retirement, then start to creep up again in the age group's where a significant number of people no longer have the physical or mental fitness to drive safely, but aren't always very good at realizing it.

That said insurers these days would be more likely to use a system where your quote changes gradually month by month or even day by day, than a sudden cut off where it increases by 20% on you 80th birthday or whatever as they might have used in the days of paper underwriting manuals.

As always shop around if you think your renewal price is too high. Or even if you don't - you may be pleasantly surprised. While insurers are no longer allowed to charge renewing customers more than new ones (with caveats about using the same distribution channel etc) that doesn't mean that your renewal will always be good value - there is no reason why the insurer that was best value for you a decade ago should still be best value for you now.

Slinky

I was with Aviva the year before last, swapped to Lloyds last year, back with Aviva this year via Topcashback who will give me £45 cashback. End result is, taking into account the cashback, I'm paying half what I paid the year before last to be insured with the same company.

There's no loyalty from companies to customers in insurance these days.

DullGreyGuy

gettingolderJim said:

Has anyone experienced large increases in car insurance on significant birthdays? As a long term loyal customer my premiums were raised by 60% based on a birthday and an additional 40% the next years renewal. Simply want to know of this is industry standard or just a greedy supplier. 

There have been no claims or any other changes that would increase premiums so I assume it’s based on age. 

Discrimination would mean its unjust, insurers are able to use age as a rating factor for insurance without it being discrimination on the basis they can evidence that very young and very old drivers experience a higher claims experience than someone in their 30-50s

The former are much more heavily impacted than the later and whilst it is a U shaped graph the right hand side never gets as high as a 17 year old. The effects are typically also significantly muted by the fact they have a 20+ years driving experience, over 5 years NCD etc. 

Sounds more like your insurer is adjusting their prices to deal with the terrible results insurers have been having since 2022 and its coincidence that it aligned to a significant birthday for you after all in any given year 1 in 10 customers will have had a significant birthday. 

Ultimately shop around as prices have generally started a fall with most insurers but a few who had really bad years are still on the up. 

flaneurs_lobster

As others have said, the problem is "As a long term loyal customer....". 

Please don't think that this will gain you any favorable discounts, the algorithms don't care. Read the MSE Car insurance article and plug your details into the comparison engine.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/insurance/car-insurance/

35har1old

flaneurs_lobster said:

As others have said, the problem is "As a long term loyal customer....". 

Please don't think that this will gain you any favorable discounts, the algorithms don't care. Read the MSE Car insurance article and plug your details into the comparison engine.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/insurance/car-insurance/

My premium dropped this year

TELLIT01

I'm in my 70s and my car insurance has droppen in price each of the last 2 years.

chrisw

TELLIT01 said:

I'm in my 70s and my car insurance has droppen in price each of the last 2 years.

Wait until you get into your 80s...

TELLIT01

chrisw said:

TELLIT01 said:

I'm in my 70s and my car insurance has droppen in price each of the last 2 years.

Wait until you get into your 80s...

I'll switch it to my wife's name as she's younger

Slinky

TELLIT01 said:

chrisw said:

TELLIT01 said:

I'm in my 70s and my car insurance has droppen in price each of the last 2 years.

Wait until you get into your 80s...

I'll switch it to my wife's name as she's younger

If you're the main driver, that's called fronting and against the rules