CockneyMafia Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 Car insurance companies should be able to charge what they want, on any criteria they see fit. It's their business. Providing it is within the confounds of law then yes. What if statistics 'proved' that black males are a greater liability than white males, and charged that ethnic group more for insurance? It would never be allowed to stand. And rightly so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vague_Boy Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 Women will soon have equality. They can work as long as men and pay sky high car insurance too. That's what they wanted (or so they claimed). Although I suspect that most would prefer to pick and choose what suits them. Tough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quisquose Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 Businesses should not be allowed to discriminate at all. Statistics based pricing based on risk is not discrimination. Discrimination : unfair treatment of a person or group on the basis of prejudice It doesn't meet any part of that criteria. Would it be fair if a company paid women less, to take account of the risk of them being pregnant from time to time, or charge the disabled customer more, to take account of the cost of the lift they installed? Nope, it wouldn't. I think the EC case is taking our social responsibility to the next logical and fair level, it is not about increasing costs for the industry, it is merely about us, as a society, sharing the costs irrespective of sex. Nope, if the judgement goes in favour of equalising the cost, then it has gone way beyond looking at discrimination and is trying to legislate that people are all equal when they are clearly not. People should not be subject to treatment based on prejudice against something they can't change. But they should be subject to pricing based on the reality of things they can't change. You seem to think it is fair to discriminate based on a "statistical" forecast of cost (insurance), but unfair to discriminate based on actual cost? Let me just spell this out a bit better, for my own benefit. If an carvery buffet restaurant was to charge based on the weight of the plate you took to your table, then that would be fair. If, however, the sign outside said "Lunch. Men £10. Women £7.50", then even if it was based on the statistical likelihood of what men and women pile on their plates, John with his small meal would still think it was unfair if he looked across at Jane with a huge pile on her plate. You might still think the pricing was fair, but I would not. Furthermore, if John felt so aggrieved about it, he could take legal action and I am pretty certain he would win. It is only insurance companies that are allowed to discriminate based on sex. You think it's fair, and I think it's unfair, and the European Court of Justice is expected to make a ruling on whether gender specific financial rates breach equality laws tomorrow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alchresearch Posted February 28, 2011 Author Share Posted February 28, 2011 What gets me is that insurers are keen to individualise when it suits them. For example, a year or so ago there was talk to increase premiums of anyone caught speeding, or being a smoker (on the basis you might drop your fag and have a crash). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichD Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 They already do increase the premiums for people caught speeding, by virtue of the "Have you had any motoring convictions in the last 5 years?" question. As for smoking though, perhaps the question would be better put as, "Do you smoke while driving?" At least that way they'd be filtering (no pun intended) out those who smoke, but don't smoke at the wheel. Plus if the applicant lied the insurance company would be able to void the policy if a collision occurred and the driver was seen to be smoking at the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
llamatron Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 i think we should have fixed price insurance for eveyone like they do in some other countries. that way it would be fair for everyone. nope good drivers would be subsidising bad drivers to a larger extent than they do now! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
llamatron Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 I imagine statsitics will also show there is a positive correlation between socio-economic background, age, driving habits and insurance claims. Simply lumping 'males' under one homogenous group is neither fair nor accurate in this context. You can interpret this how you like, but I don't recall many Red Brick bound students bombing round town centres in clapped our Vauxhall Novas. They don't lump males together it's one factor of many. You are not classed as male you are classed as male, 24-28, with a garage, living in a low crime area blah blah blah. The most important being no claims! Unless they watch you during your test and do follow ups all they can do is assess you statistically. If we take away the statistics we will all be paying for the high risk drivers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quisquose Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 If we take away the statistics we will all be paying for the high risk drivers! The more that insurance companies have relied on statistics, and the more that premiums have become unaffordable for the high risk, the more we have paid for high risk drivers because more of them are uninsured. Motor Insurance costs have increased 33% in the last year, which was the basis of an interesting Money Box programme on R4 on 19/2. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
espadrille Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 Women will soon have equality. They can work as long as men and pay sky high car insurance too. A woman's work is never done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
truman Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 A woman's work is never done. That's why they don't get paid as much as men.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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