Chaps can one of you lot help me.

A friend has told me that insurance companies have a means of working out quotes based upon a lettering scheme
A through to L.
Can anyone tell me of a website that tells you which of the A - L band a post code is in?

Ta.
Bal

there was a post on here a few months back with the list attached - try a search, it's here somewhere:)

Yep. Insurance companies do use postcodes in there assessment of the insurance "risk" & therefore premium. There is no generic "list" of postcodes banded A-??? whatever though - to my knowledge. Each insurer uses its own database of postcodes in its own computerised underwriting system and post codes are only a part of the equation in calculationg a premium - which is all of a bit of a "black art" & goes part way to explaining differences in quotes. The general rule is the more urban the postcode area, the higher the risk......

I say this is a black art because, as an example, a mate of mine drives a new BMW 320 & lives in a town not far from me. I live in a smaller, more "rural" town with my Scoob & both have full no-claim-bonuses. We both pay around £500-600 respectively for insurance with different companies. We both got alternative quotes from each others insurers and both were quoted double our current premiums !.....

It is a black art and POST codes are not all of it...

Underwriting calculations (ie to give a risk and thus a premium) are very complex, but to sdimplify somewhat it's made up of the following :

1, Value of car (actually a fairly small consideration usually)
2, History of the car within the industy - data is available industry wide on theft rates / crash rates / Right off rates etc. This will then oftern then be factored by the company's own experience
3, Generic Driver profile (age / sex / occupation etc)
4, Driver profile - Accident histoty/ Claims bonus / Convictions etc
5, Milage expectations (can work both up and down on premium)
6, History with the company (5% discount for renewals etc)
7, PSOT code (implying, hopefully the liklehood of it being nicked outside your house)
8, Security on the CAR
9, 1/2/3rd party liability factors (big car will squash more people in a crash with others, but is probably a safer car to drive/ have an accident in)


and yes, I did use to work in the industry.....


[Edited by Scooby_simon - 11/26/2003 5:53:09 PM]