Many specialist car insurance companies offer schemes that have been designed for the over fifties age group exclusively, and include elements of cover particular to this age group. Often called senior drivers cover plans or over 50′s car insurance schemes, the covers offered may include age related discounted rates and protected no claims bonuses included in the basic level of cover.

Unlike many other types of insurance, it is perceived by the underwriters through years of statistical analysis that your risk declines significantly as you get older and therefore people in this age group can be considered to be safer drivers. Consequently a specialist over 50′s car insurance policy can often be cheaper than mainstream motor cover. These niche or specialist covers are tailored to suit your risk factors and on investigation you could make quite substantial savings on the premium cost.

So why are older drivers less of a risk?

Those who enter into an age related specialist car insurance policy type are entering a risk pool of similar aged experienced drivers displaying similar risk characteristics. This pool of premiums is less likely to require a large claims reserve if the claims experience of those in the pool is lower. Consequently a risk pool of older drivers is a fairly safe bet from the car insurers point of view, premiums can be lower and with less claims, profits higher.

As with all car insurance the place or location where the car is registered and kept is the primary rating factor. People over fifty are more likely to live in a larger house or in a quiet close, where car crime is minimal, and less likely to live in an inner city where the risk of theft is much higher. Aside from claims experience this factor gives the largest reduction to most premium quotes.

Older drivers are also much more likely to drive a fairly new modern car with safety devices and alarms in built. They also tend to maintain and look after their cars better. The image of the Sunday driver in his polished modern saloon car, or a little old lady in a super mini, is not far from the truth. The cars that older people tend to drive fall into lower category risk groups. Furthermore older drivers are more likely to keep their car garaged or off road on a drive which gives further security premium discounts.

Many drivers do not realise that when they reach the mature age of fifty they can benefit if they change their insurer. In many cases they remain with their current insurer out of some misguided sense of loyalty or inertia. Perhaps they have been with this insurer all their lives and simply cannot be bothered to change to a better policy, believing the process is too complicated or not worth bothering with.

By remaining with a non-specialist or mainstream car insurer they are contributing to a risk pool which includes boy racers and young drivers with large claims experiences for example. Inevitably as with all insurance the costs of your premium are directly related to the claims experiences and possibly even bad driving skills of others. Simply by changing your risk pool to one that better fits your risks, can invariably lead to large saving on car insurance cover.

If you are over fifty it definitely pays to shop around for specialist senior driver cover deals. The number of these deals available for the over fifties has been increasing steadily in recent years due to new distribution methods such as call centres and the Internet, that allow car insurers to target specific deals for the over 50′s market.

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