Car Insurance

littlejp

I am thinking about eventually learning to drive and out of interest I had a look at quotes on a particular Cavan based Insurance Company.
I put in all my details (24 year old male) and the details of my sisters car, a 96 Sunny, 1 Litre. Nothing fancy. The quote I got was for just over 1900 euro.
Out of interest I put in all the same details again but put myself down as female and the quote came back at just over 1000 euro. Now I'm not naive and I know that a lot of boys/men around my age are crazy on the roads racing and driving recklessly, that's kinda what put me off driving for so long.
The point I'm trying to make is that is this not a form of sexual discrimination on the part of the insurance companies. They have no reason to believe that I will be a reckless or dangerous driver, regardless of what I'm packing in my underpants. It's totally unfair if you ask me.
What can be done? Should I work up a media storm and take it all the way to the High Courts? Should I get a sex-change to avail of cheaper car insurance?
Seriously though, are there any insurance companies out there who take more things into consideration when offering quotes?

patpark121

Fraid the sex change would be cheaper. Until you hit 30 there will always be a bias against us male drivers. I'm 29 with 7 years NCB & the cheapest i can get for a 1.4 is €600. While women i work with in the same boat are paying less than half that.....
Premium is based on age, gender,driving experience, licence type & choice of car. Profits have to come from somewhere so why not pick on the group whos accident claims are the most expensive - 18 to 25 (statistic kindly supplied by every media soundbite in defence of premium charges by the insurers).

As for media campaign i seen to remember some soul tried a few years back, any boarders remember who??? There was a mountain of support at the start & then it faded off.

Guy:Incognito

patpark121 wrote:

Fraid the sex change would be cheaper. Until you hit 30 there will always be a bias against us male drivers. I'm 29 with 7 years NCB & the cheapest i can get for a 1.4 is €600.

Jesus your getting raped. I was paying €700 ish on a 2.5 petrol before I change to a commercial van. I'm 26 with 4 years ncb.

Quote for me on my clio (1.2) was €400.

BC

The statistics show that young male drivers are more likely to have an accident. Thats why premiums are higher.

Oryx

BC wrote:

The statistics show that young male drivers are more likely to have an accident. Thats why premiums are higher.

I heard it as female drivers have more, smaller accidents, but they cost less than the more serious accidents that male drivers have. Ive come across the sexual discrimination argument before, but afaik the insurance companies can back up what they are doing with the statistics so its apparently not discriminatory.

thefinalstage

Woman drive less hours per week on average than men. Thats why there insurance for them is lower.

Colonel Sanders

This kind of 'sexual descrimination' is allowed as long as there is an actuarial basis for doing so (there is, trust me. I work for a major insurer). There was talk of EU legislation banning insurance companies from asking sex on the proposal form but i have no idea if or when that is coming in.

jor el

littlejp wrote:

Seriously though, are there any insurance companies out there who take more things into consideration when offering quotes?

There's pretty much nothing you can do about insurance discrimination as it's an accepted norm now. The only thing you can do is get older and build up your NCB.

First thing to do would be driving lessons and get a full licence. That'll be better than a provisional. After that the premium will come down every year, but you'll have to take the hit initially.

mcaul

Check out Hibernian insurance and their driver academy thingy. If you pass the test you get a decent reduction.

As for €1900 for 1st insurance? - Quite a good price. - I paid over £1500 for 1st insurance 20 years ago! ...and had to be a non-drinker!

Happily I pay under €500 these days for a 3.0l jeep fully comp + business mileage with the same Cavan based insurer!




.

Galadriel

I just renewed my insurance this week with insure.ie, got at quote of 670 fully comp, I've only one years no claims bonus and on a provisional!

Colonel Sanders

staff deals are sweet!

570 for fully comp. No experience, just got my provisional => obviously no NCD. God bless the actuarial profession

PS the biggest loadings applied to people starting off are:

Licence type (get the full one asap)
Licence age (nowt you can really do about that apart from wait and buid up experience)
Age (see above)
Vehicle type and engine size (be realistic, drive a 2.0l machine and you're gonna pay for it)