2018-01-25 12:10
A number of leading car insurance companies have been accused of hiking their premium prices for people called Mohammed, following an investigation.
Admiral, Marks & Spencer, Elephant, Diamond and Bell Insurance are among the companies that provided higher quotes for people called Mohammed, compared to those called John.
The highest hike was found when applying for car insurance with Admiral using comparison website GoCompare. Investigators from The Sun were given a quote of £1,333 for a Ford Focus owned by “John Smith”, while using the name “Mohammed Ali” for the same car generated a quote of £2,252 – a difference of £919. The Sun says it found similar results when applying to the insurers directly.
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The same kind of results were also generated when investigators applied for insurance with Elephant, Bell and Diamond – all companies owned by Admiral. Bell’s price was £543 higher for Mohammed Smith compared to John Smith, while Elephant gave a quote £217 higher, and Diamond charged £205 more.
Marks and Spencer Insurance was also found to quote more for people named Mohammed, charging £233 extra.
Admiral’s chief executive, David Stevens, strongly denied the claims, telling The Sun the differences could be down to the firm’s anti-fraud software, which is designed to identify “where inaccurate details are entered or implausibly changed”. Marks & Spencer argued it “did not discriminate”, but said it would be investigating the claims.
Twitter user Paul Lomax, meanwhile, told us he had a similar experience when applying for insurance with Admiral. Using the name Samir Khan, he was quoted £1,194 for a policy but, after changing the name on his application to Paul Johnson and keeping all other details the same, he was quoted just £963.
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