When it comes to car insurance, many factors affect the cost of our premium, and that includes our jobs!
Factors Affecting Car Insurance
The cost of your car insurance is based on how likely an insurer thinks it is that you will make a claim, and for how much. To assess this, insurers look at things like:
- Your annual mileage
- Where you live
- Where you park during the day and overnight
- How much voluntary excess you’re willing to pay
- Your age
- Your driving history, including any claims, any motoring convictions, and any years of No Claims Discount you have
- Any modifications to your car
- The make and model of your vehicle
- The level of cover you want to take out
- Any named drivers you want to add to your policy
- Your occupation
How Your Job Affects Your Premium
Car insurers collect data about past claims and use this to predict how likely it is that people in different occupations will make a claim in the future.
Those who are retired tend to have the lowest premiums, as they tend to have more years of driving experience and are less likely to be on the road at peak times due to no need to commute to work.
Self-employed individuals tend to have higher car insurance quotes as they are seen as a higher insurance risk. This is because they are seen as more likely to travel a lot for work, and therefore are more likely to make claims.
Unemployed drivers are usually considered higher-risk than those in employment, resulting in higher premiums. This is because they are:
- More likely to be a credit risk
- Less likely to regularly service their vehicle
- More likely to be driving more frequently and to unfamiliar places to look for work
- More likely to be distracted by their circumstances due to job search worries
If your job status changes you must inform your insurer straight away. Telling them may make your insurance go up or come down, but it’s important that you do so to ensure your insurance remains valid.
Using Your Job to Reduce Your Premium
First things first, it’s important to note that you should never lie to your insurer about any of your details as it could invalidate your insurance. This includes lying about your job description.
However, there are legitimate changes you can make to your job description to get cheaper insurance quotes. This is because one job can fit several different descriptions, and some occupations can reduce your premium.
It’s therefore worth playing around with different job titles that accurately describe what you do, to see if it reduces the cost of your quotes.
For example, if you work for the police, it may be cheaper to put your industry as Law & Order than as Emergency Services. Or if you are an administrator, you could fit into the job category of ‘administrator’ or ‘administration staff’ or ‘office administrator’, and so on.
Each of these slightly differently worded job descriptions can affect your premium. Again, we must stress that whatever job role and sector you pick must accurately describe what you do.