What those who purport to compare the market often fail to tell you when you start to apply for cover, is that if you do not fit into the type of risk that they are looking for, determined by the answers that you give when you fill out the application or proposal form, that you will have been wasting your time!
Many people searching online for various motor insurance covers, come away disappointed at not being able to insure their car or vehicle, as quickly and as easily as was suggested on the television advert, because the comparison company failed to mention that if you cannot tick all the boxes on the form, you are a non standard risk.
Many more customers that the mainstream car insurance comparison sites fail to satisfy, then take up first quote they are offered from another source, even if it is very expensive, because they fear they will not get cover elsewhere.
Car insurance companies employ people called actuaries who constantly check statistics and data to come up with rates for various risks.
The actuaries and the underwriters set the risk rates for certain groups of people or car combinations. Consequently many people who do not fit the standard that the actuaries and the underwriters want, find themselves either completely excluded from the quote process or given a quote offer that is so expensive, that the risk in question will not take out the cover, and does not enter and threaten the value of the existing risk pool.
Others continue to pay over the odds for their car insurance, knowing they are non-standard risks, grateful to have found somewhere that can cover them. Many mostly through inertia, laziness or a misguided loyalty bordering on Stockholm syndrome, continue to pay over the odds for car insurance premiums, failing to realise that an hours work searching for alternative cover online, could make them hundreds of pounds or dollars in premium savings.
There are two overall reasons or factors that make someone a non-standard risk, these being, you as a person and the car you drive.
The risk price you pay for your car at a comparison site, is largely determined by the risk group assigned to the particular make and model of the vehicle. Every car in the UK is assigned to a risk group for rating purposes from one to twenty, twenty being the highest risk, typically high performance expensive fast sports cars. The higher the risk group the more you pay. Many online insurance comparison systems exclude high risk groups above fourteen for certain combinations of factors and will fail to quote.
Additionally any changes or modifications to a standard car, will change its risk group and may result in a failure to quote online. Age of a vehicle whether it be a specialist classic car or a brand new motor will seriously affect the risk price and may lead to exclusion from the quotation process.
Although the majority of cars are standard, people are not. Variations in human characteristics account for the main reasons people fail to get quoted from a standard car insurer. These can be age and gender related, where you live and what you do for a living. Many occupations will exclude you from online quoting and certain providers offers specialist schemes aimed at differing age groups. Theft rates for the area you live in may also result in a decline to quote .
The solution to the above problems in trying to obtain a reasonable car insurance quote, is to visit a specialist broker or motor insurance underwriter. They will have individually designed specialist car insurance schemes to cater for all those nuances that the comparison sites decline to quotes for. Furthermore because the risk quoted for is the actual risk and not a grouped risk, you may well find a lot more change in your pocket than if you had visited a standard mainstream insurer.
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