What’s a guy from Alberta to do if he’s paying too much for car insurance?
The answer, apparently, is to become a woman.
Redditor Anotherlink421 recently shared a story in which he claims to have saved around 25 per cent on his car insurance plan by changing his gender.
The anonymous man, who is in his early 20s, was required to sign up for full a insurance plan (including collision) when he bought a new car. He was quoted a price of $4,517 per year (he’s had a minor collision and a few speeding tickets). That was the absolute lowest premium the broker could offer. Until…
“Out of curiosity, how much would my premium be if I was a woman?” asked the man. Apparently, the broker came back with a quote of just $3,423 – $1,094 less.
“The broker [explained] to me that it is illegal to discriminate on the basis of gender when it comes to basic auto insurance,” wrote the young driver. “When it comes to collision, however, it’s still legal to discriminate against genders on the basis of contrast in driving statistics.” This irked him, of course.
“Poor driving is a behavioural trait, not a biological one,” he says.
The solution for cheaper car insurance? All he had to do was submit a driver’s license that identifies the man as female. So the process began. He got a letter from his doctor, a notarized affidavit, and changed his gender on both his birth certificate and driver’s license. The whole process cost him around $100. He even offered proof of this transformation:
“After I changed my gender on my driver’s license (and also my Alberta Health care coincidentally) I called up my insurance company and they adjusted my rate,” he wrote in concluding his post. “I now pay $1100 less for auto insurance. I won. The end.”