An Aussie driver has exposed a loophole after he went to purchase car insurance with NRMA – as he discovered those who identify as non-binary can drive away with much cheaper premiums.
Ben, 22, called into Sydney’s 2GB on Monday as he explained he discovered his car insurance quote dropped by $800 when he ticked the non-binary tab when applying for comprehensive coverage.
His claim was that if someone was born male but now identified as non-binary, they could get much cheaper car insurance.
“I found the box on there and thought I’m just going to give it a tick and see what it comes out with, it might be a bit of a joke,” he told Ben Fordham.
“A joke is right. I was absolutely stunned with what I found … I’d like to see the evidence behind it.”
Fordham was left shocked to hear this and asked: “Are non-binary drivers, safer drivers?”
Ben said he was left disappointed over the response he received from NRMA.
“I said to them, ‘this is a bit ridiculous, it seems a bit discriminatory’ … their response was, ‘it’s not discriminatory, it’s our policies’,” he added.
“I don’t want to give them any ideas but next week they may add a box and ask what your hair colour is.”
Ben said he may consider ticking the non-binary box to claim an $800 saving.
SkyNews.com.au put Ben’s claims to the test and sought a quote for annual comprehensive NRMA car insurance with vehicle excess of $1000, using this writer’s car and personal information as a guide.
Selecting gender as “Male” gave a quote of $2,569.59.
Selecting “Female”, while keeping all other information identical to the “Male” quote, garnered a slightly lower quote at $2,145.87.
While the “Non-Binary” quote was well below both – coming in at $1,789.44.
An NRMA Insurance spokesperson told SkyNews.com.au that the non-binary option was recently introduced to enable non-binary customers to be represented and recognised when applying for insurance.
“We consider a number of factors when determining the premium for car insurance, including the gender of the driver, make and model of your vehicle and claims history,” the spokesperson said.
“We will continue to refine our approach as we gain insight on driver behaviour to ensure policies and premiums are reflected appropriately.
“It’s important customers provide accurate information when purchasing insurance.”
According to a report by the Australian Road Deaths Database for 2018, young men pay more for car insurance than women of the same age as they are three times more likely to be involved in road fatalities.
The ARDD revealed a data set of thousands of road fatalities in Australia with a list of males, female, or in some circumstances, “unknown”.
Only 32 out of about 58,000 road fatalities are classified as unknown, some dating back to 1992.
