House/Contents Insurance Quote - Gender Differentiation?

flaneurs_lobster

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82061131#Comment_82061131

Well since you are using dictionary definitions….

An actuary is never "constrained" since it is not their job to price insurance risk, that's what underwriters do.

In what way do you think that the current way of pricing YOUR policy(s) is unfair?

MyRealNameToo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82061036#Comment_82061036

No claims experience… its the basis for a significant amount of insurance pricing as its claims frequency x claims amount… some people make lots of small claims but never big ones, others make very few claims but when they do its a big one. When you add the two dimensions together its claims experience. It also can factor in unallocated claims costs because these arent in the claims amounts and will be proportionally higher for the small frequent claimer than the rare big claimer.

You also cut off the next line that points out that despite it not being discrimination it's illegal in the UK to use gender as a pricing metric for most classes of insurance.

flaneurs_lobster

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82061183#Comment_82061183

That's interesting, we did indeed make a chunky claim 2 years ago (only household claim in 20+ years).

Would that claim experience be held against an individual or against both holders of a joint policy (or is the experience held against the property)?

Brie

I'm wondering if there's something in the assumption that being married lowers premiums - I believe it does for car insurance or am I misremembering that?

So what happens when you have a woman who goes my Ms rather than Mrs? Perhaps doesn't have the same last name as her spouse? What if you have 2 nongender names, i.e. Chris and Lee, with 2 nongender titles, i.e. Dr & Rev?

MyRealNameToo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82061194#Comment_82061194

Claims experience, in the above context, is the experience the insurer has had with all customers as thats what calibrates the pricing and drives why people who live in one area may pay more premium that an otherwise identical risk but in another area.

For your quote you will also be asked about the households loss experience, irrespective of if you claimed or not and typically talking of those that routinely live in the property rather than just the policyholder. So you declare the details of your losses, they use their experience of insuring others who've come to them with a similar history and that tells them what price to charge. So having just done my home insurance renewal, because we had a low value theft away from the home in 2023 we are paying an extra £40 premium

sheenas

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82061146#Comment_82061146

I worked for SwissRE and I can tell you that the actuary creates financial models that are used to calculates premiums and ensure insurers hold enough capital to pay future claims. An insurance underwriter is a financial specialist who evaluates the risk of insuring a person, property, or business. So they are linked but when working on the financial models the actuary was who we worked with most.

I sure the rest of the forum can workout for themselves why the law constraints what statistic can be use you price policy for themselves. I am not sure why you need it explaining.

flaneurs_lobster

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82061204#Comment_82061204

Your points about gender I believe to be irrelevant, the discussion above makes me confident that gender plays no part in the quotation process.

The relationships between the parties to the policy and other residents in the household clearly are relevant - otherwise why ask the questions in the quotation process about marital status and relationships.

flaneurs_lobster

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82061211#Comment_82061211

So in this context "claims experience" is not just the history of the policyholders/property being quoted on, but the far broader experience based on all the other things that make up the risk profile (geographic, demographic etc).

sheenas

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82061231#Comment_82061231

So why do we have laws, if it's not relevant?

flaneurs_lobster

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82061252#Comment_82061252

Sorry, I meant that gender is irrelevant when discussing the reasons why an insurance quote for the same risk differers when different people make the request.