Car Insurance and Electric Gates

RollonFriday

We have had electric security gates installed, but when using the comparison sites none seem to have this as an option - only garage or private driveway. I would like to find insurers that acknowledge these as an extra insurance measure.

Can anyone help please?

flaneurs_lobster

Given that garage, private driveway or parked on a public road have minimal effect on insurance premiums I'd be surprised if having gates (security and/or electric) will make a significant, if any, difference.

MyRealNameToo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6654528/car-insurance-and-electric-gates

So its private driveway

Last time I did pricing work for Motor your chosen location as to where you kept your car made almost no difference to the price. Prior desktop research had shown that many were dishonest about their answers but its hard to prove as an insurer that the day their car was hit whilst parked on the road rather than in their garage as stated wasnt the one off they were claiming it was (unless it was one of those who claimed to garage their car every night but didnt even have a garage)

Some insurers have more options that simply garage, drive and road but that doesnt mean any of the other options are going to be more relevant nor that they are going to be cheaper than declaring it on the driveway.

If they are anything like our electric gates it takes about 15 seconds to open them manually but provide some shield from prying eyes whilst they gain access to your car. Know how easy it is to open them manually because the motor has failed twice so needed to be manually opened

user1977

"Electric" doesn't necessarily mean "high security" (and if they've got your car key, why wouldn't they also have the doodah for the gates?).

Frozen_up_north

My insurance is for the car to be kept in a garage overnight. When I had a problem with the garage door and would not be able to put the car in the garage for a few days until it was repaired, I phoned the insurance company and they said it made no difference if I left the car on the drive, but they did make a note of my call.

It was the same when I retired from work, not commuting every day made not a scrap of difference to the cost of the insurance, nor did changing from business use in connection with my job to social, domestic and pleasure only.

Aretnap

Things that you think of as improvements in security don't necessarily make your car safer anyway. I recall reading that one insurer found that cars parked on driveways often had higher claims rates than cars in similar areas which were parked on the street.

The reasons being two-fold. (1) The number of people who claim because they've damaged their car reversing into/out of their driveway outweighs any improvement in security and (2) the improvement in security is largely illusory anyway; if a nice car is parked on a driveway it's very obvious which house you have to break into to find the keys, in a way that it isn't if the car is parked on street.

Aretnap

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81876713#Comment_81876713

The question you're asked when you take out the policy is where is the car usually kept overnight. If you're not going to put it in the garage for a few days then there is nothing to inform then of and nothing for them to change, as it is still usually kept in a garage. If you phoned to tell them that you were having your garage converted to living space and the car would be kept on street permanently from now on they might have adjusted the premium; but probably still not by a lot.

MyRealNameToo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81876949#Comment_81876949

And inversely too, if they break into the house and find keys its easy to know which car its for whereas if its on street parking or an offsite garage then risky hanging about looking for the car that they work for.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81876713#Comment_81876713

Taking off commuting normally would have reduced the premium a little, but that could well be eaten by the admin charge of removing it mid term. For us if something reduced premiums but the admin fee was bigger than the reduction we'd waive the extra fee so it was simply neutral.

Mildly_Miffed

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6654528/car-insurance-and-electric-gates

Quite simply, if insurers thought (based on actual statistics) that it DID improve security, then they'd ask and give you a reduction in the premium.

The fact they don't says that their actuarial experience is that it makes no difference.

Arunmor

It could be argued electric gates just makes your house a more attractive prospect to burglars and car thieves. Sure they my stop opportunistic theft but if you have an expensive car they will be through it fairly quickly.

Having lived in South Africa for a number of years the advantage of electric gates and garage doors was you were in the house before they had a chance to hijack you at gun point.

James2k

Unless you have armed sentries on your gates. Then why would it make any difference.