69 replies to this topic

[danrock101]

clicky

alternatively
http://www.bbc.co.uk...siness-12600284

What do you think? I'm actually not fussed either way, if it does happen and by the time they sort it out, I'll probably be 25+ so I'll be paying too little to care.

Edited by danrock101, 01 March 2011 - 04:08 AM.

[AVV IT]

What do you think?

So if this goes through the "equality" of it doesn't mean that men get to pay the same low rates as women, no it simply means that women would get to pay the same higher rates as men!!.... Great!! .....So women end up paying more and if like in many households, as the male you are also the main wage earner, then you also end up paying more too for the overall family insurance bill!! .... So who wins out of this situation then exactly??.... Oh yes, that would be the insurer!!.... How very predictable!!

[danrock101]

sounds about right! mens will come down a little but mainly womens will go up as you say

[ShoutforJoy]

If the big winners are going to be the insurance companies then they wouldn't be so against this! Actually they will neither win nor lose since their insurance books are considered as a whole.

If the judges back the case, female drivers under 26 in the UK could face a 25% rise in car insurance rates, with a fall in male rates of about 10%, according to the Association of British Insurers.

The reason that male rates only fall by 10% is that there are many more male drivers on the road than female.

Good news if you're a young bloke, bad news if you're a young lady. Won't make much difference at all if you're a husband and wife insured together for each other's car.

[danrock101]

But another reason is, they say those twins found that the females insruance was half the lads, so say it's £1k for the girl and £2k for the lad, a 10% decrease on 2k is 200 and a 25% increase for the female is £250

[ShoutforJoy]

That's one extreme example. Young womens rates are not usually half the rates for young men, typically they're around 2/3 of male rates. There are around twice as many male drivers as female.

Consider this as an example. There are 3 young people (1 woman and 2 men) insured by the same company
- the womans pays £700
- the men pay £1,000 each
the total premium is £2,700

without any sex-related adjustment each would pay £900 giving the same total premium of £2,700
- the women pays £200 more (200/700) = 29% increase
- the men pay £100 less (100/1000) = 10% decrease
- the insurance company gets the same premium to insure the same risk

[danrock101]

I know what you're saying, the figures on the articles should be taken lightly though, either way I highly doubt the insruance companies will loose out

Edited by danrock101, 01 March 2011 - 08:04 AM.

[ShoutforJoy]

No, they won't lose out. The insurance market is so competitive though that they won't be big winners either - anyone facing a big rise is likely to shop around to get the best price. The only real winners will be young men.

[danrock101]

which I am

[Juju]

Nothing to do with equality & everything to do with insurance companies making more money.

Shame they won't be decreasing the gap between male & female income.

Oh & don't believe for a second that male premiums will fall.

Edited by Juju, 01 March 2011 - 09:05 AM.

[Juju]

Ha! I'd not realised quite how far they've gone with this:

From today's Independent:

"Using differences between men and women as a risk factor in setting premiums for car and medical insurance and pension schemes breaches EU rules on equality, declared the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg.

The verdict - which applies from December 21 2012 - will force changes in the current standard practice across Europe of basing insurance rates on statistics about differing life expectancies or road accident records of the sexes.

It was immediately condemned as "utter madness" and a "setback for common sense" by Conservative MEP Sajjad Karim.

The Association of British Insurers estimates that the decision will actually reinforce price discrimination, with women drivers under 26 in the UK facing a 25% rise in car insurance rates, with a 10% drop in rates for fall for men.

Until now, discrimination in setting insurance rates has been explicitly permitted under EU equal treatment rules, "if sex is a determining risk factor... substantiated by relevant and accurate actuarial and statistical data".

So despite the fact that the two genders are entirely different with respect to lifespan, likelihood to succomb to certain illness & chance of being involved in an accident, premiums will be equalised....

I hope my current health & life insurance payments will then reflect my risk of developing prostate cancer.

Divs. Complete divs.

[tuktuk]

i dont think prices should be calculated on equality, it should be statistical.

90% of lads i know drive erratically or just dont know how to drive properly

evry woman ive been in a car with has been sensible/careful

needless to say a fair few of my male mates have crashed their cars

[Ethel]

So 10% of lads are discriminated against.

Isn't the whole idea of insurance to spread the unaffordable cost of the risk? Hopefully it will lead to insurers looking closer at the primary causes rather than the incidental. Type of vehicle, driving history, actual driving patterns; maybe we can expect more discount premiums with usage restrictions & black boxes to watch that we stick to them.

It could be that young males still pick up higher premiums in the same way income discrepancies stubbornly effect wimmin.

Don't think they're outlawing a policy that would have an exclusion clause for your prostate Juju.

We can't do anything about our genders (if chromosomes count), but we can effect risk in other ways. Doesn't it serve the greater good better if we concentrate on what we can change

(resists quoting Maggie T )

[Carlos W]

So, what about age discrimination?

Are older drivers not going to get benefits as it's discrimination against younger people?

It's all madness!

[zelliott]

Oh my god, my favourite part of that article :')

And Nick Lane has this confession to make: "I did nearly kill a cat in one of the driving tests I failed. But I'm really not that bad a driver."