An end to lower car insurance just because you're a woman

[espadrille]

That's why they don't get paid as much as men..

 

and thats another thing thats unfair.

Cant we take it to The European Court of Human Rights?

[alchresearch]

Insurers lose:

Insurers cannot charge different premiums to men and women because of their gender, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12606610

 

Simon Douglas of AA Insurance told BBC News that the decision could add about £400 to the annual cost of car insurance for a young woman.

 

"Particularly for women under 30 where the difference is most extreme, they currently pay about half what a man would pay," he said.

 

"We could see their prices go up 25-30% and men's premiums could fall by about 10%."

[quisquose]

Insurers lose:

Insurers cannot charge different premiums to men and women because of their gender, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12606610

 

Simon Douglas of AA Insurance told BBC News that the decision could add about £400 to the annual cost of car insurance for a young woman.

 

"Particularly for women under 30 where the difference is most extreme, they currently pay about half what a man would pay," he said.

 

"We could see their prices go up 25-30% and men's premiums could fall by about 10%."

 

I welcome this decision.

 

But it's difficult to see how one can read this as "insurers lose" since all they are doing is spreading risk. If anything, judging by the last sentence above, unless there are three times as many male drivers as there are women, it looks like insurers are going to win.

 

Including more and more factors to judge risk is only a way of being more and more competitive in the market place anyway, with one of the negatives being that certain people become more and more uninsurable.

 

Simon Douglas was on the radio this morning before the news, obviously hoping that the decision would go the other way. But when asked directly about the possibility of losing he sounded quite ambivalent and said something like, "oh it won't be a major blow to the insurance industry, which is all about spreading risk, there are already plenty of factors which we choose not to take into account, this will simply be another one."

 

Factors which they choose not to use? What can they possibly be? Disability? Race?

[Isabelle]

I met a girl from Finland, she told me that over there, you insure the vehicle and then anyone with a licence can then drive it. Would that system work better, then there would be no age or gender based discrimination?

[sedith]

Women may have less accidents, but they cause more

[SnailyBoy]

Women may have less accidents, but they cause more

 

Now here's a post begging for evidence.

[DiDoDoDatDoe]

So womens car insurance is to go up but mens stay at the level they are, who would have thought that this would have benefited the insurance companies ?

 

This is not about making us equal, its a ploy to pull more revenue into the struggling banking industry, had it been about equality then it would have been addressed years ago.

 

What needs to happen is for it to balance out if it was in the interest of fairness and mens premiums come down as womens go up to keep the status quo.

 

All stinks.

[RichD]

Now here's a post begging for evidence.

 

Lol, indeed it is. I suppose we need statistics as to how many women have been rear-ended by men, coupled with a heavy dose of speculation as to why they were rear-ended (i.e. did they do something silly like cut them up, or was the man simply driving too close?). This should provide just enough fuel to keep both sides of the argument going, with no resolution in sight. Shall we sit back and watch?

[Hots on]

I suppose we need statistics as to how many women have been rear-ended by men,

 

Some girls will, some girls wont.

[alchresearch]

So womens car insurance is to go up but mens stay at the level they are, who would have thought that this would have benefited the insurance companies ?

 

Did you not read my post or the BBC article?

 

As for statistics, years and years ago when this forum was a nipper there was a discussion (which oddly didn't end up locked as a result of trolling / name calling / playing the race card) about driving.

 

I did a bit of FOI research for the thread from the DVLA and ABI and it turned out:

 

There are more male drivers than female.

 

Of the drivers that are female, a large percentage are a named driver on a male's policy - meaning if a claim is made it goes against the man, his policy and skews the statistics.

 

Males have more "major" crashes.

 

Women have more "minor" crashes, usually reversing out of parking spaces.