Exactly How your job can affect the cost of your car insurance

Exactly How your job can affect the cost of your car insurance

A study by comparison site GoCompare has shed new light on how your job could affect how much you pay for car insurance.

  

The study looked at which occupations were the most likely to have an ‘at-fault’ claim against their car insurance policy, with GPs coming out on top as the most accident-prone profession for the fifth year in a row.

Health professionals in general dominate the list of occupations that are the most likely to have a fault claim. GPs are at the top with 12.4% of them making at least one fault claim in the past year. Hospital consultants are third on the list with 11.5%, hospital doctors are fourth with 10.7% and surgeons are fifth with 10.5%.

See the full top 10:

Rank	Job	% making at least one claim
1	General practitioner	12.4%
2	Claims adjustor	11.9%
3	Hospital consultant	11.5%
4	Hospital doctor	10.7%
5	Surgeon	10.5%
6	Health visitor	10.4%
7	Mortgage broker	10.3%
8	Optometrist	9.9%
9	Speech therapist	9.9%
10	Insurance consultant	9.8%

Source: GoCompare

The prevalence of health workers in the top 10 could be a result of the high levels of stress and long hours associated with working in that sector.

It’s also interesting that both insurance consultants and claims adjusters feature in the top 10.

In terms of professions that are least likely to have an at-fault claim, bar workers and different factory workers have the least – along with people who work with cars a lot such as dispatch drivers, car wash workers, car dealers and garage managers.

Rank	Job	% making at least one claim
1	Barman	2.3%
2	Picker	2.3%
3	Packer	2.6%
4	Carpet cleaner	2.7%
5	Dispatch driver	2.7%
6	Car dealer	3%
7	Car wash attendant	3%
8	Painter	3.2%
9	Garage manager	3.4%
10	Bookseller	3.5%

Source: GoCompare

Bar staff and order pickers are the least likely to make a fault claim on their insurance. However, pickers are often seen by car insurers as high-risk applicants and therefore tend to have expensive policies – so the low incidence of at-fault claims could be down to these drivers being less likely to pursue a claim for fear of further increasing their premiums.

Why your job can affect the price of car insurance

Car insurers determine the premiums you have to pay based on the risk you represent i.e. how likely you are to make a claim, and how expensive a claim is likely to be.

Factors such as your age, your driving experience, where you live, where the car is parked overnight, how expensive/new/powerful the car is and so on. Your occupation is also one of these factors, as it can indicate a lot about your driving habits and the likelihood of making a claim. Those who use their car a lot for work may pay more insurance, for example, but you may also pay more simply for having a job that statistically leads to more claims.

On average, retired people and PAs pay the least for car insurance while labourers and waiters pay the most. It is important to make sure you choose your occupation carefully when you are getting a car insurance quote, as a lot of jobs could fit into several different categories – and some categories may be more expensive than others. However, it is even more important to ensure you are truthful and list your occupation accurately, as failure to do so could result in your policy being invalidated at the point of a claim – making it much more expensive for you than if you just told the truth originally.

Is it worth making a claim?

You pay for car insurance so that it is there to protect in the event of a claim, however, there are some occasions when you may be better off not making a claim.

If you are at fault for an accident that has caused damage to your car as well as a third party car, then the repair bill is likely to run into the thousands of pounds so – even with the excess payment and loss of a no claims discount – you will still be better off letting your car insurance deal with it.

If you have only caused minor damage to your own car and the repair costs are something you can afford to pay yourself, then going through your insurance might be less cost-effective as you will lose your no claims discount and will likely face higher premiums as a result.

It always depends on the individual circumstances, so make sure you evaluate the costs of repairs against the long-term effect a claim would have on the cost of your car insurance before you decide what to do.

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