Yes, the colour of your car COULD raise your insurance premium

Does the colour of your vehicle really matter when it comes to insurance?

It does in many cases, when it comes to determining your premium.

Insurance expert Ismail Canfield (Ctrl Financial Intermediaries) clarifies that considering car colour as a premium determinant depends on the insurer you choose.

"As a broker, we deal with different insurance companies in South Africa, where some use old methodology and some use newer methodology to determine their premiums - it's not always a universal method that's being used.

"In some cases then the colour will play a role, in some cases it won't."

Ismail Canfield, Senior Advisor - Ctrl Financial Intermediaries

In his experience, Canfield goes on, considering car colour is an older methodology used by older companies.

Does this mean that the more established and probably bigger insurers are still using this factor to determine premiums?

"They would, and the reason they do is because of the cost of the paint and the cost to repair the vehicle at the end of the day... The darker colours would also obviously be less visible than lighter colours on the road (leading to greater probability of an accident)."

"The newer methodology would look more at factors like the driver's age... vehicle make and model, claims history and even lately they will use a body to power ratio of the vehicle in order to determine the premium."

Ismail Canfield, Senior Advisor - Ctrl Financial Intermediaries

So, best then that you check with your insurance company whether they do consider the colour of your car when determining the premium you will pay to insure it.