[The0pportunist]

Originally Posted by RobUK

Created a thread a while back (June last year) after watching a TV program about car insurance. The big takeaway from it was that of the 43 data points they collect off you, pretty much everything including your name can count against you! Here are a few examples of things you might not think are relevant but that can affect your premium:

• Having children added £146 to the premium vs. having no children.
• Using a gmail address vs. using a hotmail address added £391 to the premium!
• If you're born outside the UK you're more likely to pay more.
• If you have a foreign sounding name such as Ahmed Khan you could pay £462 more than if your name was David Smith. Also, someone with the name David Ledwell paid £1,169 more than someone called David Montgomery.
• If you're married you could pay up to £200 less than a single person.
• When answering the 'How did you hear about us' question, choosing 'From a friend' got you a £135 lower premium than if you chose 'TV Advert'.

The insurance industry guy on the program said it's all heavily data driven. So insurance companies look at their claims data and if they find people with gmail addresses make more claims than people with hotmail addresses for example, then they load the premium.

Mind blown!