What is Driver Grade?
The main driver’s age and loss history is a major factor in calculating your car insurance premium
When you get a quote from us we ask about the number of claims you’ve had in the last five years, where you or the owner paid the excess.
Each anniversary, when your policy renews, the initio system checks to see what additional initio claims the Main Driver has had during the year. The system also checks to see if historical claims have fallen outside of the five year period.
We call this ‘Driver Grade’. Other providers have a similar system referred to as “No Claims Bonus”.
How does Driver Grade work?
When the policy is first started we take the claims from the main driver’s previous 5 year period. This number determines the driver grade, and has a bearing on the car insurance premium.
When the policy anniversary comes around we re-calculate the driver grade by checking if some of those historical claims have fallen outside the 5 year period, and checking to see if the main driver has incurred any initio at fault claims during the past year.
The number of ‘at fault’ claims in the previous 5 year period determines the driver grade.
- Had no claims? Your driver grade is zero and you’ll be at our lowest driver grade premium without any loading.
- If you’ve had a claim, the grade increases to one which slightly increases the premium.
Each additional at fault claim increases the driver grade and premium. If you’ve had 3 at fault claims your driver grade is 3, and premium will be significantly higher than a vehicle that has a main driver with no claims.
We don’t count at fault accidents that are more than five years ago. A crash 10 years ago won’t affect the premium you pay today. We also don’t count claims where the main driver was not at fault. But know that the main driver can still be considered ‘at fault’ even if it wasn’t directly their fault (e.g the vehicle was vandalised).
What if I wasn’t at fault, but I paid an excess?
When starting cover with us we ask you to disclose claims where you paid the excess. This is the best way to determine what claims are not recoverable by your insurer (ie where another party cannot be made responsible).
We realise that you could have a claim go towards your driver grade that wasn’t really your fault (like your car being vandalised), but this is still considered at fault as we (or your insurer at the time) is not able to hold another party responsible for the damage.
Think of it as a user-pays system where those that claim more (with no ability to hold someone else responsible for the cost) pay a bit more into the claims pot.