Debt management need may be greater for some car owners

Drivers may end up with a greater debt management need than others of similar incomes because of higher car insurance premiums linked to their employment.

A study by Confused.com has revealed a wide disparity in the cost of annual insurance, with the average mobile disco owner having to fork out £6,809 and airline pilots just £321 a year.

It may be that the pilots gain from a perception that they are very safe in charge of a machine, having the evident skills required to fly and land passenger aircraft safely.

Others at the top end of the scale for premiums include footballers, many of whom are of course very highly paid and therefore have extremely expensive cars.

At the same time, referees also come into this bracket despite not being paid so highly – although they are, of course, people whose judgement is regularly questioned.

Students are also among the costliest to insure, with most of them being young and fairly newly-qualified.

However, there may be less obvious reasons for some people being charged high or low fees.

Those considered safer drivers and cheap to insure include guesthouse owners, toy makers, nurses and China restorers.

All this could mean that while some people are fairly cheaply insured, the cost for others is very high – even if they are safe drivers or do not have large incomes.

Consumers have been struggling recently with large increases in the cost of insurance, something the AA has described as the greatest surge in premiums ever.

However, it declared this process has now come to an end, with the three months to September seeing a 0.3 per cent drop (£2) in average annual cover.

By Joe White