Car insurance cheaper if non binary instead of male or female - Australia

[FeralWoman]

Here’s some batshittery from Australia. If you identify as non binary when insuring your car you can get cheaper car insurance. Some insurers will offer a cheaper rate for non binary than make or female, and other insurers offer a rate equal to female.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15340105/NRMA-Allianz-non-binary-2GB-Fordham.html

Such bullshit. It’s supposed to be based on actual observed risk and real data, not imaginary gender.

I’m hoping that a lot of young men decided to identify as non binary today and rang their car insurers to change their gender. I joked to DH that he needs to identify as non binary and get a cheaper rate. Apparently it would be lying and wrong to do that if it’s not real. Hilarious! Non binary isn’t real.

https://www.finder.com.au/news/will-saying-youre-non-binary-get-you-cheaper-car-insurance-heres-the-truth

So insurance companies are allowed to discriminate against men in Australia. Sadly, that's not the case in the UK/EU. Young men are far more likely to have an accident, but young women are required to pay the same as young men.

Thanks Feral.

So, if as we suspect, the male people who will either choose the cheaper option if possible if they are not NB or those who are NB and have this cover continue to need insurance just as all the general male population in the age group, this will simply go by the way side. Or they will eventually offer it at the male rate just as an administrative extra and to segment the communications.

it will be interesting to see what the future brings.

I had to work on the UK gender ruling when I worked for an insurance company.

Interestingly it was an ECJ ruling. Where were the Brexiteers then ?

If you were a 16 - 25 male in Australia, give me one good reason why you wouldn't identify as non-binary in order to get cheaper car insurance?!

No one can legally challenge how you identify.

So what? It’s a company making a judgement that a commercial decision will benefit them. If it doesn’t, they’ll lose out to competitors. I assume their market research indicates that people identifying as non-binary are a low risk group (mostly female, less likely to drink, very middle class, urban and driving fewer miles, at a guess).

We used to have cheaper car insurance for women here but we don’t now. I don’t think that being non binary would make any difference.

The problem with it is that you could very easily just lie and no one could prove one way or the other.

We used to have cheaper car insurance for women here but we don’t now.

A foreshadowing of a time when feelz trump facts.

At least one company has said
"We will continue to refine our approach as we gain insight on driver behaviour to ensure policies and premiums are reflected appropriately."

Implicit in that is if it finds that claims are costing too much premiums will go up for all non-binary drivers.

It also says
"It's important customers provide accurate information when purchasing insurance."
How can it, or any other insurance co, check whether the correct gender box has been ticked?

Gender markers have been removed from Australian driving licences to allow for legal recognition of non-binary individuals. The state or territory body that issues licences keeps a record of gender, but recognises non-binary as a gender. Even if the insurers are allowed to check with issuers, savvy male drivers will just change their gender to non-binary before seeking insurance.

The bottom line is the facts very quickly show that women are less of a risk to insure than men. For all sorts of reasons.

I don't understand why companies changed from charging more to men, to charging the same for men and women. Sex discrimination, I suppose, but they charge different amounts depending on age, so isn't that age discrimination? And different amounts depending on where you live, your profession etc., which are not protected characteristics of course but it could still be seen as discriminatory.

The 2012 European Court of Justice gender ruling obliged all members (UK included) no to use sex as a basis for premiums as it was discriminatory.

Rather ignoring the fact that insurance - by it's very nature - is discriminatory.

Anyway, we're out of the EU now, so that can be repealed*. Oh, hang on ....

*Rather dovetails with another thread where a poster spotted that laws rarely get repealed once made.