How can i stop this sexist outrage?

Question

Its criminal that men should have to pay more for their car insurance!

It is also sexist!

How come for home insurance we all pay the same price?
oh yes its because "insurance is a lottery" why can't the same be done with car insurance?

I'm not a boy racer why should i have to pay more?

Answer 1

With you on that one.

Answer 2

It's all a numbers game, namely, the law of large numbers. We don't all pay the same price because, as a group, men have more severe accidents than women do. Since insurance is nothing more than a pool made up of large numbers of policy holders underwritng has a responsibility to rate those groups accordingly. Trust me, a woman that has three speeding tickets is paying a fortune for insurance. A fifty year old male that drives a minivan is paying peanuts. Unless we want to have a government run insurance system (heaven help us) then there is nothing criminal about this at all.

Answer 3

Insurance companies take a general view of the statistics. Men have more accidents than women and therefore cost them more. They don't work out why this is - men might well have fewer accidents than women per mile driven - perhaps women spend less time behind the wheel so there's less opportunity for accidents - the fact is most claims come from men so they're a higher risk. It isn't sexist, it's fact. You might be a man and the best driver in the world, but you're a statistic to an insurance company. What I find ridiculous is that my car insurance is cheaper if I add my husband as a named driver than if I insure just myself. If he's a bigger risk than I am, how come he gets me a discount?

Answer 4

Sorry, but insurance companies evaluate risk by pooling groups of individuals together. The numbers show that males are a riskier group than females. Since you are a "male" the insurance companies throw you into the group with all the other males, and then they set a price that makes the insurance company a profit for the average risk.

I think the real question is does the insurance company make a greater profit from the male risk pool, than for the female risk pool. I doubt it, but it's worth looking into if you really want to pursue your argument about the insurance companies being sexist.

Here is a little more detail. You should address your concern to the state insurance commissioner. He is part of he National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). This group sets the standard business practices that insurance companies in the USA can employ to rate their policies. The commissioners are appointed by state governments.

The insurance companies have proven to the commissioners that there is a correlation between male drivers and higher risk, and the NAIC bought into their pitch.

You could try to beat the program, but I think your effort would be pointless. Just pay it, like you hopefully pay your taxes, and we'll all get along.

Answer 5

Not sure which country you are in, but in my country it is statistically evident that men are involved in more accidents than women. This is right across the age spectrum, so even though you are not a boy racer it is more than likely that men your age will be involved in more MVA's than a woman of the same age. Your driving history will also have an impact on what you pay. It's not sexist, it's focussing on the market variables.

Answer 6

We don't "all pay the same price" for home insurance. On the same value home, we paid EIGHT TIMES the rate in Texas as we do in Illinois-mostly because of hurricane and mold risk.
Insurance is all about statistical risk. As soon as the females start killing themselves and others off as fast at the males do behind the wheel, the rates will even out.


And Em--don't know where you live but my husband's testicular cancer treatment cost us $250K. Mostly covered by insurance but then so would breast cancer be. Men get breast cancer as well.

Answer 7

Yes, it's sexist to charge more for car insurance for males than females. However in the insurance buisness they deal with millions of customers therfore have to look at their customers in a very broad scale. Males have a slightly higher tendancy to race through the highway and for the 1% of the time they get obliterated it costs the insurance company huge. Females have slightly less driving ability so their accident rates are higher, but because of a lack of driving skill tend to keep to surface streets and most accidents will involve a parked car, a pedestrian, or a telephone pole at much slower and less-damaging speeds.

However the slightly increased frequency in accident doesn't add up to wrecks that can happen on the freeway (hospitalization costs adding up the most.)

Now don't start telling me that I'm being sexist, it's the insurance companies that are sexist. In order to properly answer the question I have to explain things on a broad scale (same as insurance companies). And on a broad scale there are things that make men different from women.

Answer 8

I thought that after a certain age, the rates were the same for the company I work for. All companies are different. Try changing insurance companies. It pays to shop around.

Answer 9

Insurance is based on averages.

On average men are more likely to drive recklessly than women. Men will 'show out' in front of people, etc..

Answer 10

I posted this to your other question -

"I think men do have more accidents - but that's because they're all swerving out of the way of the women.

That certainly makes women a better bet for the insurance companies - but it doesn't mean they're safer, does it?"

Answer 11

Nothing to do with sexist. I have two daughters who work in motor insurance and it is a fact that men make more and costlier claims than women. So just drive carefully and maximise youre no claims bonus.