Gender difference in insurance premia

Commotion Ocean

It's not too many years ago that the EU ruled that insurance companies basing motor insurance premia on gender was illegal (in 2010 if I'm not mistaken), and as of 2012, it became law.

I'm genuinely baffled how they managed to get away with it in Ireland and the UK for so many years (where the person is insured rather than the car).

There may have been statistics (possibly spurious) that men were more "dangerous" drives and women were "safer" drivers.

It's my opinion that these data come from the fact that women tend to be usually on their husband's or boyfriend's policy and thus, an accident, regardless of who causes it, goes against the man, because the policy is in his name. Men drive more miles that women too, so overall, it's my opinion that the accident rate per km driven is much the same.

If these statistics had shown that men were safer drivers do you think that they would have gotten away with charging more for women? Or would women's groups have slammed the idea. There'd be cries of sexism. I can guarantee you, our government would have banned it long before EU ruling.

Back before the ruling, out of curiosity, I got quotes for a man 25, with 3 years full license and he was quoted more than a woman 21 with 1 years full license.

I genuinely hope we NEVER leave the EU. If we do, men's car insurance will soar again.

Leonard Hofstadter

I'm female and men should be charged more

Without wishing to invoke too many gender stereotypes, men have fewer accidents then women (because in general men are more competent at driving, for example better at parking) but the difference is, because men are more likely to be into cars than women, more likely to own a faster car than women, and more likely to drive faster then women (especially young men), and when men have crashes they cost the insurance companies a lot more then women do.

Women tend to have parking bumps or low speed crashes, men tend to write off cars and have crashes at much higher speeds. Also, men tend to drive more than women do.

Therefore, men should pay more than women as they are more of a risk to insurers - and I'm a man.

Commotion Ocean

I'm female and men should NOT be charged more

captainspeed wrote: »

Without wishing to invoke too many gender stereotypes, men have fewer accidents then women (because in general men are more competent at driving, for example better at parking) but the difference is, because men are more likely to be into cars than women, more likely to own a faster car than women, and more likely to drive faster then women (especially young men), and when men have crashes they cost the insurance companies a lot more then women do.

Women tend to have parking bumps or low speed crashes, men tend to write off cars and have crashes at much higher speeds. Also, men tend to drive more than women do.

Therefore, men should pay more than women as they are more of a risk to insurers - and I'm a man.

If gadget insurance companies charged women more for a similar reason (if they had stats to back it up) you'd probably call it sexist though.

Atlantic Dawn

People can now change their birth cert to join the other side so gender spec quotes are invalid.

Commotion Ocean

I'm female and men should NOT be charged more

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

People can now change their birth cert to join the other side so gender spec quotes are invalid.

There's no transparency or cost breeak-down offered when getting a quote, so they'd probably charge you a "John" levy if you applied as female but said your name was John.

Leonard Hofstadter

I'm female and men should be charged more

dfeo wrote: »

If gadget insurance companies charged women more for a similar reason (if they had stats to back it up) you'd probably call it sexist though.

Well I don't consider it to be sexist to charge women more for health insurance (women are more of a health insurance risk than men because they live longer, and the longer you live the more likely you are to need some sort of expensive health treatment), what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. I believe in equality, and that cuts both ways.

What would be wrong and sexist is to charge women more simply because they're women, or equally to charge men more simply because they're men. There is a lot of objective evidence to that women are less likely to progress in their careers as men; look at how few women make it to the top in larger companies despite (in many cases) being every bit as competent as men at their jobs. For example, in the UK you take Nursing, 90% of students are women yet only 60% of Professors in Nursing are women.

There is sound factual statistical evidence for charging men and women different car (and health) insurance premiums - which is not based on discrimination or sexism or anything like that. Bottom line is, discrimination exists against women in some areas (career progression, violence), against men in other (for example on childhood custody in divorce proceedings) - but car insurance is NOT an area where men have grounds to complain about being 'discriminated' against - we cause more risk than women do so we should have to pay more.

pa990

It's only a matter of time before you'll have 3 or more options when selecting your gender on an insurance application.

That's when the fun begins



So, in recognition of such, the pole should be ammended to include
M
F
T
Other

endacl

dfeo wrote: »

It's my opinion that these data come from the fact that women tend to be usually on their husband's or boyfriend's policy

You really think that?

MEGA BRO WOLF 5000

I'm female and men should NOT be charged more

I can honestly say I don't know a single woman who drives for a living...

I'm probably throwing wild stereotypes around here but here are things I see everyday from my own personal observations.

Men drive more miles per week than women.

More men drive for a living, truck drivers, van drivers, taxis etc. I still do a double take when I see a woman driving a van!

It's mostly men doing the long commutes to work.

There's probably a tonne of evidence to prove that men are better drivers than women, parking, being courteous, awareness of other road users...BUT men are let down massively by the fact that younger male drives are absolute TOOLS on the road...

I can count on on one hand the amount of times I've seen women bully, tailgate, be overly aggressive on the road to me...More times than not it's some youngfella under 25 in a Passat, Audi, BMW etc. I think we're all paying the price in premiums for a very small minority of idiots.


Again...My own observations.

pa990

Never mind young lads on bmws and audi s

I can't believe that ppl are having black boxes installed..

The only way I'd have one of them was if I was running a GPS jammer

Leonard Hofstadter

I'm female and men should be charged more

pa990 wrote: »

Never mind young lads on bmws and audi s

I can't believe that ppl are having black boxes installed..

The only way I'd have one of them was if I was running a GPS jammer

I can't either. I didn't buy a car with a 189 bhp 2.5 litre engine to drive everywhere at 20 miles an hour. No way José would I let someone install a black box in my car!

Wibbs

I'm female and men should NOT be charged more

pa990 wrote: »

I can't believe that ppl are having black boxes installed..

The only way I'd have one of them was if I was running a GPS jammer

I'll lay a bet now that such "black boxes" will be a mandatory requirement for all cars within at most ten years(retrofitted on classics, but in general "old" cars are being targeted for removal from our roads, insurance etc). IIRC it's already EU legislation that all new cars sold within the union have such a system in place, albeit passively at the moment. It'll be brought in as "health and safety" and the compliant will sign up in droves. Never mind the coming fully autonomous cars that will require older cars with humans at the wheel to be visible on the network(and then removed entirely). The days of driving "freedom" are waning and fast.

pa990

captainspeed wrote: »

I can't either. I didn't buy a car with a 189 bhp 2.5 litre engine to drive everywhere at 20 miles an hour. No way José would I let someone install a black box in my car!

2.5L.... 189bhp


What happened to the other bhps ?