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How does your job title affect your car insurance?

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Your job, along with lots of other things, affects your car insurance premium. Find out why your occupation and job title count when insurers set your premium and which jobs qualify for cheaper car insurance.
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What are the cheapest job titles for car insurance?

Car insurance is all about risk, therefore if an insurer thinks your job is low risk, your car insurance will be cheaper.

Occupations such as secretaries, medical secretaries, legal secretaries, personal assistants, and clerical assistants are favoured by most insurers.

Those who work for local government jobs, insurance workers, librarians, teachers, management professionals, and judges are also usually liked by insurers.

People in these categories tend not to be fast or unsafe drivers, resulting in lower numbers of claims that are relatively cheap to settle.

What are the most expensive job titles for car insurance?

Insurers do not like some jobs. They either price high to discourage potential policyholders or decline to take on this business. They don’t like Premier League footballers, for example, or fairground or circus workers.

Sometimes, the reasons are clear, even if possibly inaccurate or out of date. Sometimes, it can be down to prejudice, or the kind of thinking that made sense once but no longer does.

Why does your job title affect your car insurance?

What you do for a living gives an insurer a lot of information about you and how you might drive. That's why your job title, trade, profession or occupation could be crucial when you get a motor insurance quote.

However, your job's not the only factor. Other things that influence your car insurance premium include:

  • Your address

  • Your age

  • The make, model and age of your car/cars

  • Your driving record and that of others on the policy

  • Where you keep your car

  • What you use your car for

Young adult male walking you the house to go to the car to drive to work. He is dressed in a suit and tie and holding a breifcase.

What can you do if you are in a higher risk occupation?

There are some dos and don’ts to cut your insurance costs if your occupation is viewed as higher risk:

  • Do see if you can move your job into a better category to reduce your premium. There will usually be more than one accurate description of your role - for example, journalists who never leave their desks can describe themselves as sub-editors or writers rather than journalists.

  • Don’t lie about your job as this can invalidate your insurance. While you can alter your job title, it’s crucial that it is still accurate - so if you are a circus clown, don’t say you are a top civil servant.

  • Do tell insurers if you don’t use your car for work purposes or for commuting to and from work (perhaps you take the train or the bus). Remember though, if you lie and get caught out, you’ll be deemed in breach of your insurance and see your claim rejected, as well as risking a £300 fine and six penalty points on your licence.

  • Do consider voluntarily restricting your annual mileage to get lower premiums. But make sure you don’t go over this.

  • Do talk to the professional association or trade union that covers your job. They may have negotiated advantageous terms with certain insurers to overcome some or all negative perceptions.

  • Don’t simply plump for the first quote you find. Always compare quotes for car insurance. Remember all the other factors that make up a premium quote, not just your job.

Do you have to tell your insurer if you change jobs?

As with everything in insurance you do have to tell your insurer if you change jobs. This may push the premium up, or it could make it cheaper depending on the job you're doing.

If you don't tell your insurer, and then need to make a claim, it could reject you because you weren't truthful.

Which job do you declare if you have two or more?

You need to tell your insurer about all of the jobs you do, no matter how many roles you have. It will then assess your risk while looking at each of your different professions.

Is car insurance more expensive if you’re unemployed?

Often car insurance is more expensive if you are unemployed, even though this may seem unfair. It's again, all to do with risk, and some insurers see those without a job as a higher risk of making a claim.

Do retired people pay more for car insurance?

Your car insurance may become more expensive when you stop working. However, this all depends on the type of job you did. The price may go down if you no longer commute to work, for example, or if there is now a lower risk of you making a claim.

Is there anything you can do to get a more favourable price from your insurance provider?

It's impossible to lie about your job when getting an insurance quote, and this could see any claims you make being rejected down the line.

However, insurers have different lists of professions and it may be the case that you could use a different title for your job to lower the cost. A journalist could be a writer, for example, while a researcher could also be an analyst.

It's all a bit of trial and error here though, especially as all insurers have their own definitions of professions. If you can save money by using a different title it's worth a shot, but be very careful to make sure the title is still accurate.

What else do insurance providers consider?

Insurance providers look at a whole host of things when calculating a premium. Along with things about you, such as your profession, age, and address they will also look at your car. That includes its make, model and age along with the insurance category it falls into.

Cars are ranked between 1 and 50 by insurers based on how expensive they are to insure. See our guide to the cheapest cars to insure for more details.

Get a car insurance quote

See a range of car insurance quotes in just a few minutes when you compare with Uswitch

Compare car insurance

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