Do you have an unlucky number plate?

09/11/2013

If you may as well pay your salary to your local garage to deal with all the scrapes and dings you accumulate, then it may not be all your fault. You might just be unlucky. If you're running out of excuses for why there's the outline of a lamp post permanently marked in your bumper, one insurer has come up with a new one.

Your number plate may just be unlucky!!

Lucky

The current system of number plates has a two digit number to identify the period of registration, and Admiral has gone back over the last ten years to find out the luckiest and unluckiest numbers.

Confounding expectations, cars with a 13 plate had the lowest accident rate of any new car owners during the last ten years - and the lowest overall claim rate too. This may come as a relief to anyone who bought a car between May and September this year - which will have had a 13 plate.

Admiral managing director, Sue Longthorn, commented, "Many people avoid the number 13 because they fear it is unlucky. With the period of 13 number plates ending recently we wanted to see if there was any correlation between this traditionally unlucky number and accident rates. It was a nice surprise to find that compared with the previous 10 years of number plates, those driving a 13 plate were the least likely to have an accident in the first six months on the road. It certainly debunks the superstition that 13 is an unlucky number."

The top five luckiest were:

13
11
09
12
10

Unlucky

The number plate with the highest percentage of accidents in the first six months on the road was the 54 plate issued in September 2004. Owners of cars with those plates were 53% more likely to have an accident and 56% more likely to make a claim in the first six months than those with a 13 plate.