Car Insurance cheaper without first name Mohammed

Aretnap

paddyandstumpy wrote: »

Quite simply, Yes.

Genuine question: is it?


I know that a lot of factors that insurers rate on (eg postcode, occupation) are to a large extent markers for social class. So I can believe hat there might be a difference in claim rates between people called Wayne and Kevin, and people called Tarquin. (Apologies to any Waynes, Kevins or Tarquins reading) And as there'e no rule against discriminating on the grounds of class that would be legally unproblematic.


But it IS illegal to discriminate on the grounds of race, religion or sex, even if there's a good actuarial reason for it... so charging John more than Mary, or Mohammed more than Harry runs dangerously close to being direct discrimination doesn't it?


I know that you can rate on things which are indirectly related to race or sex, so it's fine to charge bricklayers more than nurses (say) - but name seems a lot more direct than that, and if it were legal it would give insurers an easy way of getting round the law on sex discrimination with nearly 100% effectiveness (the odd Sam and Chris excepted).

stator

The answer is that it's not specifically illegal to charge different prices to people with different names, but it would almost certainly be found to be secondary discrimination by a court of law and therefore illegal.

dont_use_vistaprint

Aretnap wrote: »

I know that you can rate on things which are indirectly related to race or sex, so it's fine to charge bricklayers more than nurses (say)

This is different, its a risk assessment based on policies that include commuting as well as social use, there is statistically more chance of being involved in an accident commuting to and from building sites.

An individual builder with no accidents and non-commuting isn't penalised by your statement above. Just like a commuting nurse with accidents inst favoured.

Men do still pay more on average, even since the gender directive became law, but that's not due to discrimination , its simply because on average, men have more accidents, which is because on average, men include commuting in policies more than women, and therefore do more miles in riskier situations.