I popped in to my local Waitrose this afternoon, for a bun and free coffee, and, of course, some shopping. Wandered over to the newspaper rack, and picked up a copy of The Times. ( Normally I’d never go near such a rag. I prefer to stick to those well known organs of truth…, the Independent or Guardian. But today, it was either the Times, the Daily Mail, or nothing ).
Inside there was an article about car insurance. It said that people with certain email addresses were charged more for insurance than other addresses. For example, those with Hotmail addresses were charged more than those with Gmail addresses.
Prefer the Telegraph or the Financial Times myself but too tight to buy them.
Girlfriend has no class so the only paper we ever read is the Daily Mirror. Such an embarrassing rag that I even try to avoid using it to pack out my MX5 parts parcels:-)
Good find re insurance - I’m sure there are other tips that would help lower premiums such as adding your wife/girlfriend of the same address to your proposal form. Not sure if this works the other way around for ladies with husbands/boyfriends.
To the best of my knowledge (I sold, administered, and serviced motor insurance and claims for 25 years) email is not a rating factor when assessing risk. And, as an email does not reveal home address (they get that from the second question they ask you) as far as I know, there is no way it could be! Cookies might do it, but I doubt it. Sounds like a diversion. What makes you think that newspaper is any more reliable than any other? I could list the fake news put out by them, such as anything and everything about Europe!
My references to newspapers all tongue in cheek. Are you familiar with the old comment that every newspaper is tomorrow’s fish and chip wrapper ? Given that, the only newspaper that I actually buy and pay for now is the The Observer on a Sunday. Like it’s stablemate the Guardian, it’s a bit right wing for me. But hey…
The article did say that the reason for the difference in costs was that people with Hotmail accounts made more insurance claims. I can’t recall, from the article, the exact source given for that claim/assertion
Admiral claim that certain email domain names are associated with high levels of early cancellations, genuine accident claims and fraudulent claims and that this is just one of many factors that are used in developing risk profiles. Whilst some may find this an egregious attack on their good character it’s little more than the modern day way of calculating risk done by actuaries for insurance companies. In the past there might well have been other considerations but this is 2018. Frankly, that anyone is surprised about this in this email and smartphone age is probably more shocking. I don’t see it being much different from the use of postcodes. Some postcode areas have greater levels of crime and vandalism hence this is reflected in insurance premiums as they are higher risk for claims. Similarly, actuaries look at the frequency of claims made by people of different ages. This may also seem scandalous to someone who has never made a claim yet his/her age group is deemed higher risk. It’s all about risk and probability, standard actuarial techniques that have been used for decades.
Admiral is the only insurance company quoted in the article saying they use email domains. They may be the only one or it may be that all insurers do it. What do you think? At the end of the day, we all shop around. If you’re trying to get a quote put in a fake email address. Most of the time you can get a quote without an email address anyway. That also stops them bombarding you with junk emails later. Get the quote then give them a call and only give them your real email address after the quote is confirmed. In the words of a well known insurance comparison website, Simples!
While my main e-mail address is from a personal domain I bought a few years ago I always have a couple of spare addresses.
I tend to use a throwaway address that I change every year or so when the spam levels on it grow too high. I use a company called Freeola that let you choose from a large number of domains they own. In the past I’ve used the sennafans.com domain and now have an address at veryold.net.
More probably, if you use a business address with your full name, the insurance company sees a greater chance of upselling.
I know of several friends, family and work colleagues who use “ temporary” emails address from likes of gmail, hotmail, yahoo etc. indeed I do when I first regist on certain sites - It’s fascinating where that address ends up!
Not like those balanced, middle-ground icons of the truth, “The Daily Telegraph”, “Daily Mail” and “Daily Express” which seem to be getting more and more like the now defunct “Volkischer Besbachter” and " Der Sturmer" with every passing day.
We all know there are right wing and left wing biased papers.
The problem isn’t with the bias it’s with those that believe it.
These days I rarely buy a paper but when I do it’s always the Daily Mail. Eastenders and Big Brother never feature on the front page which is a big plus. OK the frequent Princess Diana and Royal grand kiddie photo features are a bit much and there is a reasonable amount of sport at the back to ignore. Apart from that it pretty much covers what I think I need to know to the sort of depth I like. More importantly I can recognise what is fact and what’s conjecture and opinion which I can make my own decisions on whether I agree or not.
Reading the Mail doesn’t make me right wing.
Think about this. However you voted at the last election was probably decided more on what the other party candidates said than the one you voted for.
I guess that political discussion is a no no on here but I’m not saying anything political, it’s apolitical.
Don’t rise to the bait of the extremists. Never argue with an idiot, they will only drag you down to their level.
Still I’ve gone way off thread so no complaints at all if a mod wants to delete.
This is never given out willy nilly, and only ever used for things which are really important, anything concerning friends, family or financial.
A chuck away Gmail one which is used for general internet stuff, like insurance quotes, logging on to forums, and unimportant things that requires an email address.
This one a rarely monitor.
I also have another Gmail account for the rubbishy type internet activity where I guess they will just spam me afterwards, this one I never check after the initial contact.
If you think your email address upping your insurance is bad. I read last week that your first name can up your insurance, and I tried it, and it did. Compare a quote for a ‘John’ to a quote for a ‘Mohamed’ and you’ll find Mohamed is usually paying much more for his insurance.