As you plan for your retirement, you have to put a lot of thought into many different areas of your life. Naturally, some areas get more attention than others. You already focus on your finances, your health, and your quality of life. But have you put any thought into your car insurance?

Most car insurance premiums in Australia are created by automated systems using aggregate data to make assumptions about you as a driver. These assumptions might be something like Mid-50’s in Sydney? You must have a 35 minute commute. Live in Canberra? You drive approximately 4 hours a week running errands.

These kinds of assumptions allow companies to offer blanket premiums that are different to your personal situation. It’s faster, but speed isn’t the most important thing. The most important thing is having car insurance that really meets your needs and a premium that is calculated based on your true driving profile.

It shouldn’t be a surprise to realize that you need different levels of insurance coverage at different times in your life. For example, as a full time worker you may commute to the office every day. However as a retired person, who may not even drive every day. Thus, many retired people should not be paying the same insurance rates as a working, full-time driver. Unfortunately, they often do pay the same rates courtesy of an insurer’s indifference to their true risk profile.

You want to be with an insurance company who is not indifferent to the way your driving habits change with retirement. This will allow you to get a better insurance rate. Better rates make it easier to manage your costs throughout your retirement.

Thus, as you plan for retirement or even if you are already retired but haven’t updated your car insurance policies yet, you should look for an insurance company that makes an effort to differentiate between its customers. You want a company that asks for more than just your age and your driving history. You want a company that cares about you as a unique individual, and doesn’t price your coverage based on their assumptions.

There are companies in Australia who do differentiate. They use a more inquisitive quotation process to really get to know you and your life stage. This allows them to create a more accurate risk profile for you as a driver, based on your true driving behaviours and lifestyle. In turn, these companies can offer you a more competitively priced policy, based on the lower level of risk they are actually assuming.

Paying the same rates for car insurance once you are retired as you did when you were a working, full-time driver just doesn’t make sense. You should be paying a premium priced specifically for your situation. As you plan all the other elements of your retired life, be sure to include updating your car insurance coverage to your list of things to do. You owe it to yourself and your wallet to seek out the best price for car insurance cover through more personalized pricing practices.