blonde poker forum

As some of you are aware i am having some probs insuring my motor atm, see this thread http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=39965.0

Today i had a chat my some bloke i know who works for an insurance comp and he bascially explained to me that my current policy is invalid. This is because when i first insured my car with them i was a teacher but when renewing my policy i had quit to play poker and didnt tell them. This affects my policy and if i were to have a serious accident and caused either substantail damge to either my car, a third party or someone got injured they would look into every detail of my policy and find out that i had chaged my job occupation and had not made them aware thus making my policy invalid.  He told me to ring my current policy and have a chat with them. All that stuff about putting retired, independent means, househusband lol is bullshizz. Thoughts pls? :-)

That's interesting cos I noticed yesterday that my car insurance people seem to think I'm still a student

Maybe I should get that ironed out!  ;carlocitrone;

trust me, based on what this bloke told me u should. ring them and tell them u are self employed as a poker fish

If my address is still wrong on my insurance should I be worried?

if my car is still wrong should i be worried?

What's insurance?

Dunno mate

I think your address is prob ok but as Amatay says if you have a bad crash the will go over your policy with a fine tooth comb. I heard of one guy saying he would only be driving around 5000 miles a year and this brought his premium down. However he was involved in a bad RTC in the summer and had already done nearly twice the 5000 miles and I dont think the insurance company paid out

Actually the bloke i spoke to told me the same thing. Insurance comps try to find out anything they can to void the policy

ur on the tv sometimes right fish? tell em you work in entertainment, all incomes count......

When I graduate, if I'm still playing poker, I'm just going to sign up to be a student again.

The annual student fees are approximately equal to the council tax up here. Students are exempt from council tax, so basically, I'd be free-rolling on cut price pizza.

how do they know if you havee done more than 5000 miles or not the havent asked for the mileage reading

They probably ask to see your MOT certificates?

probably don't even have to do that anymore after it all went computerised

If they can find a reason not to pay you, they obviously won't. I'd make sure all your details are up to date!

If you fancy a gamble :)

They also probably tell you they'll do a lot more than they will.

The cost of your claim has to be more than the cost of investigating it for it to be worthwhile remember.

Tell them you "came into some money" and decided to have some time off teaching and let them figure out what you are.

Doesn't take much to make the cost worthwhile...

i had a minor 'run into the back of the car in front' about 5 years ago. Virtually no damage to my car (cracked number plate) and on first look very little damage to the car in front.
By the time the effing ambulance chasing lawyers had got involved and the driver and passenger had been off work with whiplash (at <10mph?) the total bill for the insurer was >£10k.

Different address can change the premium by a lot. Toxteth vs Formby; Moss Side vs Wilmslow; insert your own examples...

has anyone actually told their insurers that they play poker for a living?

if so how much did the premium go up?

maybe everyone is worrying for no reason

Personal injury claims are always going to be hugely expensive if you remember to only damage property and not people that would help

At the speed i was travelling there was no way I damaged people, and I offered to go to whichever court the insurer chose, without any cost to them to fight the case. But apparently there are doctors out there who 'specialise' in such issues...

Yes - different address = different postcode = different insurance rates. Car parked on road or on drive or in garage all makes a difference. If you have a garage tell them even if you mainly keep it on the road as it should reduce premiums.

If you haven't told them of change of address they will try and wiggle out of any claim. Any changes you have made to car - even down to non standard cd/radio and upgraded alarm system etc should be noted - different cd player may encourage more theft = higher prem. Better alarm system may deter theft = cheaper premium. Anything material should be advised - preferably in writing so you have a record of it.

When I worked for a newspaper I did several articles on ins companies using this as an excuse not to pay - and they are legal to do so.

If you fit better brakes, you pay a higher premium - as it means to them that the car isn't standard and you're going to drive it faster.  So it's sort of counter-intuitive.  It wouldn#t surprise me if they said the same thing about an alarm system!  Also, if it's insured as 'garaged' and you leave it outside the front of your house overnight and it gets broken into, be ready for them to piss you about.  Of course, if you're away from home they wouldn't expect it to be garaged.

Or if you have an import with no UK-model, they are stumped as to what is standard and what isn't and they make it all up as they go along.

Someone bumped into the back of my car once when I was sitting in a traffic jam and can't have been going more than 15mph.  It nearly wrote my car off.    Brand new car too, not sure why, someone did tell me they're designed to crumple a bit to protect people but I was quite surprised at the amount it cost to repair.  Wish I'd claimed for whiplash too.  It didnt' effect me till a few hours later  but then I was in pain for about two weeks from it.  I'd said I was fine though and to be fair, I don't think money compensation would made it better, just would have been handy :D

Lol that's an interesting idea!

Cheers for the heads up Amatay...

My housemate wrote her car off at the start of december, trashed it and herself.

On her insurance she was still down as a bank clerk, when they made an offer for settlement she rejected it on the basis 'i work as an accountant for Statstone Volvo and have access to trade prices all over the country'

The insurance company immediately picked up on this and made a bit of a fuss, but they still paid out.

Im pretty sure your insurance is still 'valid' for legal purposes, but when you come to make a claim you could get into trouble depending on the size of the claim and the company your with. Its all done on percentages.

Surely a ring round of a few insurance companies should be able to find an answer as to what you declare yourself as. Personally I think it would be retired imo as its not like you degens really work or have a basic/guaranteed income. Especially that fishay amatay! Dont forgert to declare you play 10,000+ tourneys a month!  ;D ;D

If the taxman accepts retired, then officially, according to the state - you're retired.

I don't see how an insurance company could argue with official records if you really pushed them on it.

direct line took me on for car & house after churchill cancelled, didn't go up much but i'm an old git now  ;tk;

ty

Who owns Direct Line and Churchill?   
Royal bank of Scotland Insurance Group... how does that work?

Post on Hand Analysis thread and tell 'em you teach poker.

OK, I've just bitten the bullet and done this - needed some new car insurance from next week, so phoned up a couple of companies and told them that I'm not working at the moment and my income comes from online poker. The first company was happy accepting 'retired' as the occupation, the second put 'independent means', and I confirmed with both that they were adding the online poker stuff to their notes. Neither quote was massively more expensive than if I used my previous occupation of journalist (not more than 20% extra).

Obviously other insurers might take a different view, but it looks like just phoning them up, being honest and letting them make the decision is definitely the best way to go.

Hope that helps Amatay - as long as they don't read your blog and see what else you get up to when you're not playing poker, I think you might be OK...

Change your address to the correct one, much more hassle than it's worth if you have an accident...

On the job thing, I guess it depends how visible you are. If you just play online you'll probably be fine but when I had an accident I got a letter through informing me that my job on my policy was being changed (when I rung up to query they were quoting me all sorts of things they'd obviously found from Mr Google). Additional premium was about £900 (not even sure if that was for full year) but I got that waived when I told them to look at the recording from when I signed up as I did explain exactly the situation originally and was told "journalist" was fine. When I renew next year though, gonna have to be down as "sports personality" or some bs. Might have to look to change...

Thanks for that Moskvich

I've actually just thought or something else. Does this apply to all types of insurance i.e building and contents insurance for example??

The company i work for being a poker player would not make any difference unless your were a high profile player on tv etc.  there would be a bigger change getting declined for you home insurance.  They might see you has a high risk. e.g at out most nights.  Also the underwriters might think there would be a bigger chance of 'gamblers' putting though fraudulent claims if they hit a bad patch.

Just received this msg from the bloke i know who works in insurance...

House Insurance works slightly differently but in a way even worse. House insurance has a far less claim payout percentage than motor, and the reason is again your taking a lot of times very high claims going into 5 figures. so they make sure even more that all info is correct and occupation is one of them. Now with your job, it will work for and against you. It works for you as due to the fact your at home during the day/night when working, they will rate the property as more secure, as your there more often which will deter theives and vandels.....however......

As your a poker player, they will ask you if you ever go to casino's/betting shops etc in connection with your work (do you take live fishes money as well as online??). if you do they will sky rocket your premium, as they may think what happens if you go to a casino, rinse some guy of all his cash, he follows you home, and either bricks your window or breaks in gives you a kick in and takes his money plus extras back?? I know it a strange way of looking at it but it does happen, some companys (like us) refuse anyone who is a bookmaker or sports better.

I know a lot of people say you can get round it and just dont say out or say a little white lie, and yes, there is a chance you will get away with it, but what happens if some one robs ya place, steals everything, ur companys investigates (any claim over about £5k with send a claims investigater) they find out you havent told them your occupation, and they just refuse to pay out, which they are fully able to do and you can't do jack about it as it says in black and white about informing of all info. End of the day mate, all insurances companys are out to make money and they dont make money by paying out claims, so will do all they can to riggle out of it!!!

What you may get if you call ur company is a quote but just with a few exclusions, for example they may say, they wont insure you if it turns out a theft occured by someone who lost money to you etc etc.

Don't put anything about sports, they get a high rating.

Having said that, as was previously briefly alluded to - for car insurance, age is far far more of an influence than occupation so it shouldn't be too surprising if it doesn't make that much of a difference.

what's the reasoning behind the uk insurance industry having different, seemingly random, ratings for different professions? I've never had to declare what I do while getting insured in any other country

Wasn't applicable there maybe. Everyone in Albania has the same job, they all work at the Mill.

No it really is random.

In my experience underwriters are superstitious simpletons when it comes to setting premiums, they might as well work it out from tealeaves the level of rigour they put in their analysis.

FWIW when I looked at insurance claims statistics for Hastings Direct, the only factors that made a significant difference were age and gender.

[ ] I even know where albania is

Dover

LOL this ain't correct.

1) Most insurannce companies will investogate claims over 1k.  The majority don't have the capabillity to investigate claims internally over any sort of value.  The will most probs get a Loss Adjuster involved.

2) You occupation is a material fact, when you sign up for your policy you confirm all details provided to be accurate and correct, so by telling a little white lie its the same as telling a big gian fib because if you lie once more than likely you will do it again.

3) Insurance companies don't do all they can to avoid paying claims, they make their money from investing your money in different markets.  Also they have re-insurance so for the claims that you make they have insurance for that.  They don't look not to pay claims if you give them a reason to not pay out then you deserve what you get really. 

Admiral insurance ftw!! Just sorted everything out. I rang around a few companies and Admiral just put down poker player as my occupation and i got it 350 cheaper, weeeeeeeeeeeee

I highly reccommend all poker fish clarify their current policies because if u did have a serious accident ur policy may not be valid.

stop trying to rob car insurance and go play some poker you fckin fraudster

Heard you can get some decent offers at comparethemeerkat

Tis true, some of the meerkats on Comparethemeerkat are pro poker meerkats.

But fulltime online players have lost the ability to verbally communicate - isn't there a way of doing it that avoids human contact?