Insurance protection applications hit record in December

AssureWeb received the highest number of new business applications on December 20th 2012, as people wanted to try and beat the introduction of the Gender Directive.

The Gender Directive came into effect just one day after this high number of applications on December 20th. This was a ruling by the European Court of Justice, and means that insurance premiums are gender neutral so insurers can no longer offer different premiums based on gender.

Although the directive came into effect on December 21^st 2012, some insurers changed their terms as far back as November to allow for this ruling. Since 1995 December 20th saw 786 applications. AssureWeb was launched in 1995.

Requests for insurance comparions through Assureweb went up by 68 percent year-on-year, between November 2011 and November 2012 and the number of users grew by 41 per cent.

Richard Alton runs Alton Mortgages, a whole of market broker based in Maidenhead. Established in 2005, customer service is at the heart of what they do, and they recognise that their clients are individuals with very unique requirements. He says:

“As a whole of market mortgage and insurance broker we have a job to protect our clients and we were very proactive in the months leading up to the Gender Directive as we didn’t want clients paying higher prices for the same products.

“As a business we had a records level of business coming in during December, and we were very careful to select providers that either guaranteed their pricing or started the process early enough so that the applications were processed in plenty of time. It was a stressful time, but that is part of our role. It was a nice to see insurance companies like Ageas offering gender neutral guarantees which matched along with other services, this made them a good choice especially as, in addition, they are very competitive.

“I am still mystified why we have gender neutral pricing. Insurance has always been priced by risk and if women live longer than men shouldn’t they pay less, the same argument can be said for car insurance. Next they will bring in a ruling about smoking and also body mass index, let’s hope that this is the last we see of this and insurance pricing can remain fair. If you are less likely to claim you should pay less.

As a whole of market mortgage broker I am pleased that we managed to help a lot of clients beat the price rises. This gave us a lot of satisfaction that we are doing a good job.”

Notes to Editors

Alton Mortgages is an established whole of market mortgage broker based in Maidenhead, Berkshire. Established in 2005, customer service is at the heart of what we do, and we recognize that our clients are individuals with very unique requirements and do what we can to find low mortgage rates and the best residential mortgage deals. Click here to find why you should use a broker. We work with individuals and families to provide them with an exceptional residential mortgage service with low. Click here to find out more about Alton Mortgages.