EU Insurance Ruling

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Originally Posted by Eki

I wonder if they some day will forbid the insurance companies from discriminating based on employer and rumors. After Nokia and Microsoft recently announced their cooperation there have been rumors about huge lay-offs at Nokia. Because of the rumors, Genworth Financial stopped insuring Nokia employees' loans against unemployment and compared Nokia employees to smoldering houses, saying they don't insure smoldering houses against fire either.

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Couldn't that situation be covered by a rider on the policy? i.e. no unemployment coverage for the first 3 or 6 months. I know when I changed jobs and started buying my own health insurance, there was a stipulation that there would be no maternity benefits for the first 9 months. In other words, my wife couldn't get pregnant and run and go buy insurance after the fact. That would prevent someone from knowing about impending layoffs and then buying the insurance only then.

I'm a bit torn on this one, but I think it's a good idea overall. I shouldn't have to pay more just because some men drive like idiots, but insurance does need to be based on potential risk, to some extent. Otherwise you'd have to pay the same for house insurance regardless of the crime levels in your area, or the same for travel insurance for a weekend break in Paris as a weekend away skiing, and so on. And it'll always been at the higher price won't it... :p

Having said that, the gap between male and female insurance premiums at the minute is shocking. I could cope with a slight difference, but I've had my licence for five years, and was quoted about £2,000 for cover on a basic 1.2 (no NCD, I haven't owned my own car before). Simply adding my fiancée to the policy as a named driver (she's only had her licence two years and openly admits she hates driving) dropped the price to £1,200. Sure, there should be a discount for driving a less powerful car or having more no claims discount, but having such a discrepancy based solely on someone's gender is unfair.

EU stupidity strikes again. There is no way around it - young males are high-risk drivers and cause more accidents, despite on average being much more skillful drivers than women.

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Originally Posted by christophulus

Having said that, the gap between male and female insurance premiums at the minute is shocking. I could cope with a slight difference, but I've had my licence for five years, and was quoted about £2,000 for cover on a basic 1.2 (no NCD, I haven't owned my own car before). Simply adding my fiancée to the policy as a named driver (she's only had her licence two years and openly admits she hates driving) dropped the price to £1,200. Sure, there should be a discount for driving a less powerful car or having more no claims discount, but having such a discrepancy based solely on someone's gender is unfair.

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I know how you feel. Until a year ago I insured my partner as a named driver on my car insurance. This time last year the cheapest insurer wanted an extra £250 to add him to my policy so I took him off it. It really wasn't worth paying the extra for the minimal amount of times he drives my car. On the other hand, my partner insures me on his car and it drops his premium by much more than £250.

I don't think being female or male will make that much of a difference other than the fact that all premiums are likely to go up. The renewal I just paid was 38% more than the amount I paid last year. So much for another claim free year of motoring.

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Originally Posted by Garry Walker

EU stupidity strikes again. There is no way around it - young males are high-risk drivers and cause more accidents, despite on average being much more skillful drivers than women.

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The problem seems to be that when a woman isn't skillful, she slows down, whereas us men just drive in spite of the lack of skill :p

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Originally Posted by GridGirl

I know how you feel. Until a year ago I insured my partner as a named driver on my car insurance. This time last year the cheapest insurer wanted an extra £250 to add him to my policy so I took him off it. It really wasn't worth paying the extra for the minimal amount of times he drives my car. On the other hand, my partner insures me on his car and it drops his premium by much more than £250.

I don't think being female or male will make that much of a difference other than the fact that all premiums are likely to go up. The renewal I just paid was 38% more than the amount I paid last year. So much for another claim free year of motoring.

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Must be down to the car. Just checked the 500 and I think it's about £40 more expensive, up from £450 to just under 490. Wonder what Caroline's policy will do......

What happens to Sheila's Wheels?
http://www.sheilaswheels.com/
Even they themselves say that they sell "Insurance designed with women in mind!"

Would you like to see this obviously discriminatory company closed forever?
http://www.thefatcontroller.co.uk/po...dog-oh_yes.jpg

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Originally Posted by Daniel

Must be down to the car. Just checked the 500 and I think it's about £40 more expensive, up from £450 to just under 490. Wonder what Caroline's policy will do......

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To be fair my policy has only gone up by £121 and is still cheap now when all things are considered. It still doesnt mean that I'm going to stop moaning about it though. :p

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Originally Posted by GridGirl

To be fair my policy has only gone up by £121 and is still cheap now when all things are considered. It still doesnt mean that I'm going to stop moaning about it though. :p

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Only gone up by £121 :s hock: Back in the day you could get a years insurance for £121..

I wish Mark, although my car insurance does now cost more than my car tax unlike last year. :p