Insurance discounts

[ericbushby]

I just discovered this.
One of my sons recently put me on his insurance as a named driver and his premium was reduced by ?20.00.
Now that is fine as I understand that the insurance company believe that having a older, mature and sensible person, partly involved in the same vehicle may temper the wild excesses of the young owner.
So far, that makes sense, but my son is 51 and lives 200 miles away !!
His brothers are now going to try this.
Can anybody see any snags here. If not, then I expect a half decent bottle of whisky from them for my contribution. What do you think my chances are ?
Eric in Burnley
1967 S3SE DHC

[elanfan1]

On the whiskey - none!

Nothing wrong with naming you, even as a retired insurance man I do find it odd that your particular circumstances result in a discount. Perhaps it's just a quirk of their system and don't normally expect Dad to be added to a 51 year olds policy and applies the discount anyway. As long as there's no 'fronting' involved there's no reason why you shouldn't drive your sons car on occasions.

He'll just have to watch out for them applying terms or asking for health questionairres in a few years time.

[Routen Chaplin Lotus]

Nothing wrong with this, insurance computer systems used to calculate premiums use a blind matrix. That means the system looks for the word "parent" and if this is a "yes" then a discount is allowed. The system won't ask where they live as part of that discount search. It's a pretty broad brush and somewhat "dumb" approach which in this case favours the client, post codes can work the opposite way sometimes.

I live in a nice little village with little or no crime but 5/6 miles away there is an estate where the crime rate is high, we get tarred with the same brush. Its not always a fair system, but some you win, some you loose. As long as you don't lie when filling in the answers you are ok.

Kim Routen Chaplin Insurance
Lotus Scheme