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German insurers have apparently allowed themselves plenty of room for manoeuvre when stipulating their pricing structures, according to a recent case study. According to a study by financial periodical Markt XL Turks in particular have been paying higher premiums than German nationals, all other variables being comparable.
For the test pairs subjects approached the same Insurance Broker and asked about the same fully comprehensive policy. And although the vehicle details they gave were identical and eleven other specific categories of information were also the same. In nine instances there were wide differences (up to 950 Euro) between the quotes received by the test pairs. Only in two instances were the prices the same!
The test was commissioned in order to find out if there was evidence to support the idea of latent xenophobia within the German insurance sector. To this end the test pairs consisted of one German and one Turkish national. And indeed in one instance the quote give was amended (i.e. rounded up) once the subject’s true nationality came to light (he had been taken for German). The insurance company in question tried to justify this in hindsight by arguing that the “customer” had not initially been offered the optimum product. However the Finanzaufsicht (an equivalent body to the FSA) is looking in to the case since it is not permissible under German rules to amend quotes on the basis of Nationality.
The reason for many of the smaller price differences related to discretionary calculations on the part of individual brokers with relation to appropriate discount. The results of this experiment would suggest that the “discretionary ” can easily slip into the realm of the arbitrary.
The clear conclusion for the expat Autoversicherung customer is to shop around and approach as many providers as possible. An online Preisvergleich portal is certainly an effective way of doing this.
By: Mark Lauterwein
Article Source: www.ArticlesBase.com
Mark Lauterwein is a UK based writer. He is currently writing articles on a variety of subjects.
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